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Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818, in Tuckahoe, Maryland. Although he would remain in bondage until September , 188, his perception of his status as a slave changed though his experiences. Frederick Douglass explains numerous transitions between "man" and "slave" in the sequence of his early life in his slave narrative.Douglass uses the diverse contrast in the conditions of slavery to understand the wide range of opinions, the public as well as his own, of what it means to be a slave. Throughout the Narrative, Douglass tries to show us the various ways that the system of slavery defines a slave, and how it keeps them in that role. He himself experiences the dehumanizing effects of slavery when Covey beats him until he has turned into a brute. The importance of this notion, however, is that it assumes that slaves begin as humans and have their humanity torn or beaten from them, a claim not shared by the slave-holders who felt that owning a slave was the same as owning horses or cattle. The belief of the slaveholders did not show understanding of how unnatural slavery was to treat human beings as if they were less than human.
In the first paragraph of the narrative, Douglass makes reference to his unknown birthday, which he views as a very significant handicap for slaves. He uses this lack of knowledge as the first major identification of what it means to be a slave, paired more closely with horses, ignorant of their own age, than a man.The search for a birthday is important throughout the course of Douglass' life as a symbolic movement in regaining his own manhood and transcending the unnatural dehumanizing effects of slavery.Douglass views the deprivation of an age for slaves from their masters as just one of the ways in which slave owners kept slaves from being "men".Douglass states
I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty-to wit, the white mans power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom (5).
In this quote, we can see one of the central themes of the narrative that slavery is maintained at least partly through the forced ignorance of the slaves. Douglass also realizes the acquisition of manhood through knowledge must be the way to freedom, although he does not yet know the nature of the path.
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Early in the story Douglass refers to the lack of real relationship with his mother as another way for slaveholders to withhold feelings of manhood from the slaves
Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing presence, her tender and watchful care, I received tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger (11).
This quote shows the extent to which slavery destroys the basic mother-child relationship, a relationship that society holds sacred. The inability of Douglass to love and grieve for the death of his own mother is a huge indictment of the system of slavery. Along with mental manipulation, harsh cruelty and severe beating are other forms of repressing slave identity.Douglass' realization of the callous world of slavery is embodied through his transition from a pleasant childhood with his grandmother to the sight of his Aunt Hester being whipped by an overseer. This is the first detailed example we get of the slave experience, as Douglass states
I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I shall never it whilst I remember any thing. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was the most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it (1).
We are put in Douglass position as horrified witness to the whipping of Aunt Hester, and it thus stands not only as his entrance to the hell of slavery but as ours also. His speechlessness here, something he doesnt experience elsewhere in the Narrative, stands for our inability to comprehend this scene as well. Throughout his narrative Douglass refers to this beating as an important element of the separation of "slaves" and "men".
In contrast to the process in which slave owners mentally manipulate African Americans into perceiving themselves as slaves to be less than men, Douglass notes a process in which he was able to regain a part of his manhood.This acquisition was made possible through the ability to read and write.The existence of the narrative itself is a means for Douglass to rise above his past life as a slave.William Lord Garrison notes the importance of the narrative in this preface, recognizing the importance of reading and Douglass' movement by quoting Hamlet "gave the world assurance of a man" Garrison comments on the importance of Douglass' ability to articulate his slave story to a larger societal audience using literature to combat the dehumanization he had experienced as a slave. Garrison then goes on to describe the great features of the Narrative it appeals to the sentiments, it is an accurate portrayal of slavery as it is, it contains a sublime literary moment of apostrophe to sailing ships where Douglass shows he is equal to all men, and it offers names and dates so that skeptical readers can verify its information.
Another important transition from "slave" to "man" that Douglass articulates in his narrative is the ability to choose his own name.Although he did leave the decision to Mr. Johnson, the symbolic ties to slave masters were lifted with an acquired new name.
As a slave, your name is not chosen, it is assigned and as slaves are traded or sold. The name can then change frequently and break any continuity of identity a slave possesses. The stigma that surrounds slaves as property is furthered with an identity completely dependent upon the master.Douglass' new identity represents freedom from slavery through the disconnection to a master.A new identity shows that he is then made to be in control of his own life. Douglass demonstrates his self-determination, the capacity that allows human beings to define themselves and to be free in their lives and their actions.
The transition in the narrative that Douglass views most influential is his defiance of Mr. Covey through his physical reaction to the oppression of slavery.The symbolic connection between brute strength and manhood is apparent, but the implications of Douglass' drive to fight are at a deeper textual level.
The battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free. . . . It was a glorious resurrection from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom. My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might be a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact (4-44).
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In this quote, Douglass compares himself to Christ, resurrected from the tomb, an analogy that expresses both his divine humanity and the nature of his victory, which is more moral than it is physical. He further shows that this fight made him back into a man, from the brute he thought he had been before seeing the ships and vowing to be free.Finally, this is the first triumphant moment when he stands alone. Having fought alone against Covey and having defeated him, his standing alone is not a defeat as it is in other sections of the Narrative, but a sign that he is finally an independent man who has defeated evil.
The pains which Douglass endured throughout his time in slavery exemplified the difficulties he had identifying himself as "slave" and "man".Although lack of education and a true identity, as well as physical brutality can serve as ways to keep slaves from grasping their own manhood both mentally and physically, Douglass escapes from these hardships and demonstrates how to turn these barriers as vehicles to rise above slavery and return to manhood.
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