Washington College's Final Senior Capstone Essay- Frederick Douglass

 

Toni Morrison wrote a paper, “Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American Literature” to be delivered as a lecture at The University of Michigan October 7, 1988. How strange to read an article that was delivered out loud, I could hear Morrison speaking to me as I read her ideas. This got me thinking, where do the lines blur between how audiences experience information through writing, speaking, recording, and overall communicative expression? With a focus on the African American struggle, I began to explore how multidimensional communication is key to battling controversial issues, categorical misnomers, and perpetuated stereotypes.

With seeds planted by Morrison I will analyze Frederick Douglass’ The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and argue that The Narrative expresses common misconceptions of the newly forming American nation and the necessity to reconcile the political and social agenda in order to fully achieve and maintain a successful independence from England. The ignorance, confusion, and irrational fears within the United States of America was sustainable due to lack of communication, news, and mass media as we know it today. Through Douglass’ education and exploration of global literacies like speech, music, and community, he will develop his voice and broadcast an uncoded message of the human right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The publication of The Narrative, in 1845, acts as a recording and allows Douglass to have a developing voice in the national controversy of slavery. Douglass will use his anthropomorphic legitimacy as an oral artist, an effective writer, and his professional aesthetic look, as a diversified approach to reach the largest audience possible and establish the building blocks for activism, freedom of speech, and representation in the United States of America. The self-awareness and social presence displayed in the Narrative is the tool for its success.

Throughout Douglass’ life and the construction of The Narrative, Douglass will consistently expand his literacy and humanity, through his community, the tradition of liberal arts, and the foreknowledge of future tactics in communication. Chronologically, Douglass will first establish his identity, he will then find his calling to end slavery, and lastly, he will fight to end slavery with the entirety of his being. It is clear that the structure of 1800s society was blurry, at best, for most American citizens and Douglass was prepared to bring truth to the people. The truth, that was necessary in the molding of a new nation.

Formative Fears

1818, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was first held in bondage, “—held to be originally and permanently inferior—fit only for the coarser and heavier labors of human society—” (Foner 176). On the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he grew up, he had very little communication with his mother and his owner was guessed to have been his father. Douglass was exposed to cruelty and poor treatment. As a young child he remembered his alleged father beating his aunt: “He [his master] would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered in blood” (Douglass 3). Douglass was aware how sound could affect a person’s mentality and these auditory associations were ingrained in his brain. I agree with Vince Brewton that Douglass’ associations to these beatings began to establish his enslavement, “His aunt’s whipping constitutes an extreme version of identity-related violence. Each blow of the whip instructs both victim and audience (Douglass) about the logical premise of slavery” (Brewton 707). The blatant violence is evidence of the well-established rules of slavery. Derogatory language, mental, physical, and sexual abuse, as well as other dehumanizing tactics would be used to destroy the spirits of the enslaved and enforce a supposedly inferior heathenistic position in life. The white supremacist voice of pro-slavery rhetoric starts to speak to Douglass as a child through the whooshing of swinging whips, the tearing of human flesh, and shrieks of mercy.

Though Douglass heard slavery’s system loud and clear, the practice of slave holding and treatment through the country insisted on its concealment. Slaves were taught, “a still tongue makes a wise head” (Douglass 13) in order to protect themselves. Extreme efforts tried to keep slaves from loving relationships, resources, and education in order to debilitate their situations. Speaking up for one’s rights, asking for proper treatment, or suggesting the necessity of better conditions, was a death sentence for the enslaved and therefore it was best to fit in and follow the rules. Plantations were able to thrive as secluded societies with hierarchical structures that endorsed the preservation of slavery.

Talbot County and plantation living supplied the setting of captivity and hopelessness. Douglass writes in The Narrative: “I speak advisedly when I say this,--that killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community” (Douglass 17). Growing up as a slave in Talbot County, Douglass and his fellow African Americans were consistently taught that their lives mattered like that of chattel and that they were made and manufactured for labor purposes only. In the often-abused lives of the enslaved, there was little room for anything other than fulfilling one’s given role. “It was a common saying, even among little white boys, that it was worth a half-cent to kill a “nigger,” and a half cent to bury one” (Douglass 18). Their belief in the tainted worth of an enslaved person was engrained in slave mentality through the monotonous destitution that life presented. Misconceptions and misinformation had no way of correcting itself in the isolation of American plantations.

It is not until Douglass moves to Baltimore that he will identify his human rights and responsibilities as an individual. Douglass is about eight years old and in Baltimore, Douglass learns about his God given privileges and begins to understand the true differences between northern and southern etiquette as well as the politics of 1800s America. Though not leaving the state of Maryland the marked differences in etiquette and treatment of the enslaved is remarkable to Douglass. Attributing all of his success to Baltimore, Douglass writes in The Narrative: “It is possible, and even quite probable, that but for the mere circumstance of being removed from that plantation to Baltimore, I should have to-day instead of being here seated by my own table, in the enjoyment of freedom and the happiness of home, writing this Narrative, been confined in the galling chains of slavery. Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity” (Douglass 21).   It was a place that would teach him how to embrace and define the person he was growing into. Teaching him things like: the right to an education, the right to practice religion, the right to clothing, the right to have a legal spouse, the right to have a legal burial, and maybe most importantly that slavery was a system and both the slave holder and the enslaved were cogs of that machine.

Leaving his country life, Douglass will be given his first pair of pants. It was not uncommon for slave children to be naked or have very little clothing. Douglass spent his young life on the Lloyd Plantation, often hungry, without a bed, and wearing only a large shirt to cover his body. Dehumanization ploys like these were designed to keep enslaved people subservient and obedient, relying on their masters for small pleasures of the little things that were provided in order to keep them alive. Douglass was told to clean himself and remove all of his dead skin, in order to put on his trousers because the people in Baltimore were more “cleanly” (Douglass 20). 1800s America brought with it concepts of developing ideas of hygiene and health so, “The thought of owning a pair of trousers was great indeed!” (Douglass 20) and gave Douglass an advantage to the rest of the slaves on Colonel Lloyd’s Plantation. City slaves received an etiquette of city living based on looks and presentation that slaves on the plantation would never know of. The differences so drastic Douglass remarks in the Narrative, “There is a vestige of decency, a sense of shame, that does much to curb and check those outbreaks of atrocious cruelty so commonly enacted upon the plantation” (Douglass 24). For young Douglass leaving Tuckahoe, MD is a moment of great fortune.

1826 Douglass arrives in Baltimore, “the largest and northernmost city in the South” (Sheller 24), a place where liberal theology, equality, and acceptance of immigrants was more widely discussed. Home to some of the tallest buildings in America, this will be a drastic change in environment for Douglass. Between 1822 and 1827 innovative ideas like establishing a trade route with African countries in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor were proposed (Mouser 113). The Republic of Maryland was once a part of Liberia and many West Africans still live in Baltimore. It is also the home to millionaire, Quaker, Elisha Tyson, who is establishing safe houses and advocating for the underground railroad that goes through Baltimore into Pennsylvania (Mouser 114).  In the 1820s in Baltimore, we also see the beginning of public-school campaigns that anticipate integration. Buildings like the Apprentice’s Library (1821), the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts (1826), and the Maryland Academy of Science and Literature (1825) were established to provide access to information in order to spread knowledge and improve society (Sheller 31). “The third decade of the nineteenth century in Baltimore witnessed a heightened interest in the spread and advancement of knowledge both as a force of moral improvements and commercial progress in the community” (Sheller 31). Baltimore’s value on acceptance and education is in tune with Douglass’ thirst for knowledge and individuality.

These differences between plantation and city life will bring Douglass’ awareness to an elevated position. Douglass compares urban to rural living saying: “I had resided but a short time in Baltimore before I observed a marked difference in the treatment of slaves, from which I had witnessed in the country. A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on a plantation” (Douglass 24). Douglass will learn life lessons from his mistress Mrs. Sophia Auld, other immigrant children that he meets along the bustling seaport life at the docks of Fells Point, and also from the books he will have access to.

Douglass’ relationship with Mrs. Sophia Auld is normally highlighted because she taught Douglass the fundamentals of reading and the alphabet, but it is perhaps even more important to recognize the dynamics of her character as affected by the system of slavery. Upon Douglass’ arrival to the Auld household in Baltimore, Sophia Auld treats young Douglass as an equal to her own son and accepts him as a playmate and young gentleman of the house. Douglass will have his very own bed here, eat regular meals at the same table as his family, and even be addressed endearingly as “Freddy” in the Auld household.  It is not until Sophia is reprimanded by her husband, does she stop teaching Douglass in tune with her own son and begin to alter her treatment towards him altogether. Sophia is told that slaves are not to be educated. “The primary tool—other than threat of physical punishment—by which most of the slaves were kept form freedom was illiteracy” (Mullane 27). Illiterate slaves would not be able to sign their names, read legal documents, forge visitation passes, or participate in voting. Douglass recognizes that for this system to work Mrs. Auld must be taught to mistreat him and take away his rights, the same way he is seasoned as a slave.

Douglass describes Mrs. Auld’s marked change as follows, “That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice; all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh horrid discord; and the angelic face gave place to that of a demon” (Douglass 23). Sophia Auld’s family had never owned slaves before and she came from a family of artisans. By trade Sophia was a weaver (Fought 33). Douglass continues through his passage to express though he was saddened at the loss of his lessons and kind mistress, he had gained “invaluable” information from his master. The fact that reading was being kept from Douglass only fueled his drive to learn more.

Douglass understands knowledge as power, “When living with the Aulds in Baltimore, Douglass recognized that literacy was a currency that could buy much more than literal freedom” (Royer 369). Independently Douglass forges on with his education by trading bread for words and reading books. Education gave Douglass a space to dream, explore, fantasize, and establish his own independent thoughts. The setting near the shipyard also introduced Douglass to jobs and other liberties that black men could take advantage of. Explorers, captains, and other seamen often operated on a system that was more classist than racist. This setting would eventually land Douglass a skilled labor position as a caulker. 

In Baltimore Douglass had access to books that would encourage his growth in understanding the developing nation. The books Douglass read from regularly or owned included: The Bible, a Webster’s Spelling Book, and most importantly The Columbian Orator. The Columbian Orator is a collection of speeches, dialogues, and plays published in 1797 by editor Caleb Bingham. Douglass says, “Every opportunity I got, I used to read this book” (Douglass 27). In the same book Douglass would also read many speeches of Richard Brinsley Sheridan on Catholic emancipation but would most often cite a section that presented a debate between a slave and his master. His understanding of the American people grew as he was exposed to other belief systems, the rhetoric of academic speeches and debates as well as other immigrant groups who were not designated as “white” in a bustling city environment. It is here in Baltimore, Douglass is more free than he has ever felt before and the intellectual stimulation developed here will root Douglass’ identity in the strength of words and will be his catalyst to becoming a freeman.

Evidence of Douglass’ passion for speech begins with his relationship to The Columbian Orator. Douglass consistently references this book. After the slave character in The Columbian Orator has run away from his master for the third time, they make their case. Douglass comments: “The slave was made to say some very smart as well as impressive things in reply to his master—things which had the desired though unexpected effect; for the conversation resulted in the voluntary emancipation of the slave on the part of the master” (Douglass 28). Douglass relates to this slave, wanting to say intelligent things, in a modest concise way, that stimulate unforeseen, but warranted, astronomical effects for change. The Columbian Orator is where he learns the fundamentals of speech construction and delivery. According to William L. Andrews:

In The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) and in My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Douglass gives priority in his early intellectual development to The Columbian Orator, an eloquence manual and anthology of speeches, which he bought when he was about twelve or thirteen years old. In addition to teaching him anti-slavery arguments, this volume may well have pointed Douglass in the direction of oratory as his mode, and polemics as his sphere, of public expression. (Andrews 592)

I agree here with Andrews that Douglass is able to develop his public speaking skills by studying The Columbian Orator. By learning to approach slavery as a conversation Douglass understands that he has the authority to participate in this national dialogue. Andrews continues: “Such evidence of Douglass’s oratorical origins may encourage other critics to follow Rovert G. O’ Meally in viewing the Narrative as a ‘text [that] was meant to be preached’” (Andrews 597). O’Meally is identifying the passion embedded in Douglass’ narrative. The words of The Narrative speak to the reader and its effects are visceral as a performance art form that Douglass will make his career with.

Douglass will make many performative speeches throughout his life and when he is able to share his physical gratitude in Baltimore he does. A speech made by Douglass on October 1,1865 was first recorded in The Liberator, vol XXXV, No 4, October 13, 1865. This speech is also printed in an article by Philip S. Foner in April of 1962. At the opening of The Douglass Institute in Baltimore City, a building dedicated to be for, “the intellectual advancement of the colored portion of the community” (Foner 174), Douglass says: “When I left Maryland, twenty-seven years ago, I did so with the firm resolve never to forget my brothers and sisters in bondage, and to do whatever might be in my power to accomplish their emancipation; and I have to say tonight, that in whatever else I may have failed, in this at least I have not failed. No man can truthfully say I ever deserted my duty” (Foner 175). His duty was to get to the point where he could stand in front of crowds and spread his message without fear. In this delivery Douglass has come so far from the life of a slave. He is reclaiming the city that truly birthed him and gave him the courage to give speeches and fight for the rights of African Americans. This speech is written, heard, and lived.

Douglass made a home in Baltimore twice. First between 1826-1833 and then again before his escape, 1836-1838. Douglass describes his first-time leaving Baltimore, “I left Baltimore with a young heart overborne with sadness, and a soul full of apprehension” (Douglass 31) as he returns to Talbot County. Ultimately, back in Baltimore, in 1838, he will disguise himself as a sailor and take a train to New York City. Leaving Maryland, Douglass will travel north to arrive in New York, and after meeting up with Anna Murray on September 15, 1838, he will marry her. Fleeing the dangerous conditions of city life, the two will continue north to New Bedford, MA and stay in their first home as a married couple with the help of advocates, Nathan and Polly Johnson. Douglass again will experience an improvement in life circumstance and perspective. Douglass will have his own home, his own job, his own money, and be surrounded by intellectuals that support equality and help Douglass to understand the word abolitionist. Arriving in New Bedford Douglass writes, “Every thing looked clean, new, and beautiful. I saw few or no dilapidated houses, with poverty-stricken inmates, no half-naked children and barefooted women, such as I had been accustomed to see in Hillsborough, Easton, St. Michael’s, and Baltimore. The people looked more able, stronger, healthier, and happier, than those of Maryland” (Douglass 75). Douglass had imagined that the absence of the slaves in the north would equate to no wealth and a savage, unrefined lifestyle. In his mind that could be the only reason that southerners valued their slaves so highly. But that was not the case and extravagance and high class living flourished in New Bedford.

Douglass at a young age was able to clearly identify the hypocrisy of America. America portrayed as a virgin of purity and virtue but at its core there was ferocious violence, rape and thievery running rampant. The themes of hypocrisy will be learned in his youth, expressed in The Narrative but are most clearly articulated in the speech, “What to the Slave is the 4^th of July.” How could African Americans fight for our nations independence and not be free? How could the Declaration of Independence cite liberty for all, yet men were in bondage? The contradiction was not logical, and Douglass will say, “We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future” (“Fourth of July” 154). Only spreading the truth can end these misconceptions, debunk misinformation and distinguish misconduct.

In 1841 Douglass is twenty-three years old as he commits to a life of fugitivity. After being beaten, imprisoned, and pushed to the limits of his being Douglass has had enough of his life as an inferior. Young Douglass is on a mission to correct the inexcusable wrongness of slavery residing in North East America, will allow him to hide from his enslavers and begin to pursue his independence. Douglass has fully formed his identity, established a foundation in education, and has a complete understanding of the system of slavery in order to deconstruct it from the inside out. Now that his own infrastructure is in place as a man, the power of words will become increasingly unstoppable for Douglass.

Friends & Force

The Narrative itself ends in many ways where the writing of it began. Douglass has settled in New England at the end of The Narrative where he will discover his appreciation for William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, “The Liberator,” as well as the anti-slavery movement. Douglass describes “The Liberator” saying, “The paper became my meat and drink” (Douglass 77). As the anti-slavery movement is gathering momentum and becoming the sustenance of Douglass’ life, it will reach a crescendo as Douglass speaks at his first convention:

But, while attending an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket, on the 11^th of August 1841, I felt strongly moved to speak, and was at the same time much urged to do so by Mr. William C. Coffin, a gentleman who had heard me speak to the colored people’s meeting at New Bedford. It was a severe cross and I took it up reluctantly. The truth was, I felt myself a slave and the idea of speaking to white people weighed me down. I spoke a few moments, when I felt a degree of freedom, and said what I desired with considerable ease. (Douglass 77)

Grabbing the attention of William Lloyd Garrison after this performance, Douglass will be hired on a three-month trial period with the state organization of the Anti-Slavery Society (Dalton 17). The abolitionist posse present here enabled Douglass to cultivate relationships with whites, acquire a safety network, and also learn to speak to bigger and more diverse audiences.

Garrison began his paper, “The Liberator” in 1831 and formed his anti-slavery society in 1833 (Rapley). As part of an established movement Douglass will join Garrisonians that included: Abby Kelley, Stephen Foster, Charles Lenox Remond, James N. Buffum, John A. Collins, and Wendell Phillips. Garrison led a non-violent movement and based on his spiritual foundation he believed that just as sin could be taken away from a person at any moment so could the sin of slavery be alleviated from the American society at any moment. Garrison is an empathetic, humanistic, mentor who is inseparable from Douglass in these years. Garrison is often quoted saying, “I have no language to express the feelings of my heart” (Rapley) and Douglass will understand this, using it as one of his most powerful literacies. Garrison will show a brotherly love for Douglass that will transcend race, giving him the confidence he needs to claim his space and project his message with compassion, peace, and understanding.

This is also the period where Douglass will make lifelong friends with the Hutchinson family. The Hutchinson Family Band will famously tour alongside the abolitionist gatherings providing the added element of musical performance. Similar to how Aretha Franklin often toured with Martin Luther King Jr. the sense of music added pleasure and ambience to the anti-slavery movement’s intellectually stimulated gatherings. The Hutchinson Family from Milford, NH, would be a famous traveling family band that would tour America playing some of the first American music. Possibly most well-known (once recording became available) for creating a song that memorialized activist and martyr John Brown. Douglass himself was known for loving to play the violin and music was yet another language and form of literacy that he had in his repertoire. Music, especially secular music, was and is a revolutionary way to reach and gather large audiences, not only nationally but also globally.

1841 Douglass begins to travel, make lifelong connections, incorporate music with his performances, and it is also the year the first known photograph of Douglass is taken. Douglass is said to have been photographed 160 times making him the most photographed man of the 19^th century (Walker 98-99). That means Douglass is even more photographs than President Abraham Lincoln. It is clear that Douglass recognized the power that his image carried, and he used his appearance as a tool to defy black stereotypes. Later in history, September 18, 1863, Charles, Douglass’ son will write his father requesting photos: “I wrote you for a couple of your Photographs with your name written upon them or upon the card I would like to give one to Lieut Wulff whom I esteem as a true friend and the other I want for myself as I have one from each member of the family except for your own and Lewis” (Cooper 11). From this letter we see Douglass’ photos being used to express love, understanding, and comradery. Representing his physical appearance, advocating for his identity, and demonstrating his intelligence illustrates his innovative approach to communication and representation in a national context. 

Becoming increasingly instrumental in the anti-slavery movement Douglass will move to Lynn, MA. Lynn, MA, like Baltimore, will be an important geographical location for Douglass’ call to end the system of slavery. Douglass will be able to thrive in Lynn at a crucial moment of development, launching him into a greater understanding of diversity. Living in New England provided safety for him, and Lynn allowed Douglass to be close to Boston without being directly in the dangers of big city living.  Many articles about or written by Douglass can be found in a progressive local Lynn, MA newspaper called “The AWL.”

Examining The AWL can give many clues to how the town operated as well as the values and morals that it held while Douglass and his family lived in Lynn. The first issue of The AWL Wednesday July 17, 1844 Vol 1 No. 1 opens with a “Constitution” which reads, “Preamble—Believing labor to be the true basis on which happiness, as well as riches, depends, and being ourselves dependent on labor, for both one and the other, we hold it to be our duty to sustain its value, that it may of itself be respectable, and the laborer be respected.” Lynn, MA was poor and mostly white at the time of Douglass’ inhabitants, but it valued diversity and respected the individual. The town was known for making shoes and supported a cordwainer society. Shoes, like Douglass’ first pair of pants, shows the development of fashion as a human right. The paper will show proof that Lynn is liberal being pro free labor, pro women, pro abolition, pro temperance, pro free high schools, and also supportive of literary arts including poetry, songs, and shorts stories in each issue. The AWL June 21, 1845, “We will speak out. We will be heard,/ Though all earth’s systems crack,/ We will not bate a single word,/ Nor take a letter back,/ We speak the truth and what care we/ For hissing and for scorn,/ While some faint gleaming’s we can see/ Of freedom/s coming morn?” Freedom was a theme of the city where Douglass wrote his narrative. Truth, justice, and perseverance were all moral building blocks shared by the city of Lynn, MA and Douglass. This is a safe place for Douglass’ growing family to be.

Douglass’ position with Garrison will bring him to Lynn but he will only physically be in his home here only about 1/3 of the time (Dalton 17). Douglass will travel more than 3,000 miles, give over 90 lectures, and visit close to 60 towns all in late summer and fall of 1841 (Dalton 17). In the summer of 1843 Douglass will venture to touch all of America with his words performing at 100 anti-slavery conventions (Dalton 44). Women in the world of Frederick Douglass, describes Douglass’ true discovery of the meaning of the word abolitionist in New Bedford and that after that, “He toured not only in New England but also twice through New York State, twice in Pennsylvania, and once through Ohio and Indiana, and he attended the yearly meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York City” (Fought 71). With Douglass’ gathered relationships, experiences and growing confidence, 1844 will mark his fourth year as an anti-slavery agent and Douglass will decide to write and complete his narrative in 1845 (Dalton 46). It seems clear to me that Douglass uses the composition of the portfolio of his touring to create a book that speaks out loud and uses everything he has learned from his travels. After The Narrative is written, Douglass leaves for Europe where he will embark on his first international tour through Ireland, Scotland, and England (Fought 71). Douglass returns to America in 1847 only after purchasing his freedom. Upon his return he is prepared to grow his brand and start his very own newspaper, “The North Star.” Speeches, photos, print materials, and exemplary family life are just some of the ways Douglass is speaking to the public. His literacy, capabilities of polyvocality, and skills in mass communication are exponentially unstoppable.

May 9, 1845, the Narrative is announced in William Lloyd Garrison’s “The Liberator”

The same year, 1845, the oldest negro folk song is recorded in print. This is the beginning of what Toni Morrison identifies as “cannon fodder.” The type of art that is important but has not made it to mainstream consumption and celebration. These muffled voices emerging simultaneously transmitting a message through sound, written word, song, and speech. In The Narrative Douglass includes fodder for the people using, poetry, religious texts, and slave songs. Using as many voices as possible, from as many angles as possible, to say the same thing helped Douglass to communicate thoroughly. Daniel J. Royer comments on Douglass’ reflection on slave singing in The Narrative saying: “he sustains reader involvement and builds community” (Royer 370). Royer continues by adding, “One purpose Douglass seems to have here is to stress the interchangeability of orality and text, not to stress the antithesis of the two” (Royer 370-371). Douglass can also be found identifying slave songs as a form of prayer further blurring the lines, and according to Royer, uniting oral and textual traditions. Slavery is making its way to the lips of America. A dirty word, not ready to be spoken, it is written down to soften the blow of horror. Slave songs written in a book instead of sung and Douglass’ The Narrative published on pages, instead of spoken aloud.

Wendell Phillips will write in a letter Boston April 22, 1845, stating, “Again, we have known you long, and can put the most entire confidence in your truth, candor, and sincerity. Every one who has heard you speak has felt, and, I am confident, every one who reads your book will feel, persuaded that you give them a fair specimen of the whole truth” (Douglass x). Douglass has presented a thorough American perspective from his experiences traveling the country, his developed friendships, and his growing sense of identity and knowledge. The Narrative will name specific details of people and places that will hide nothing from the public eye. This candid account of the American landscape develops a revolutionary approach that necessitates ingenuity, creativity, and imagination.

Futures for Freedom

Douglass is ahead of his time, inventing forms of representation, argumentation, and organization to advocate for social justice. Publishing, The Narrative, Douglass will knowingly use his physical, mental, and social presences to communicate with his country. In the book, The Art of Protest, Charles Tilly is sited arguing that the essence of a social movement, ‘entails ‘repeated public displays,’ of alternative political and cultural values by a collection of people acting together outside officially sanctioned channels” (Reed xiv). A social movement is unconventional and has no place like the uncanonized fodder that was once African American literature. Repetition is a learning tool and is what will canonize and make a topic mainstream. Douglass is able to speak for the future and advocate for black leaders, black rights, and even women’s rights. Clear statements of feeling, emotion, and personal connection are used with the goal of delivering unquestionable truth and justification.

This same multidimensional artist can be seen in Tupac Shakur, a leader who can easily be paralleled with Douglass through a contemporary lens. Both Douglass and Shakur were revolutionaries who created their own brand, their own form of leadership, and stylized organization methods. Though Douglass’ narrative will be lumped in with other slave narratives of the 1800s it is clear there is something different about Douglass. This is similar to how Shakur will be a part of the rise of hip-hop but will participate in more platforms than just that one. For both men there was no position to apply for African American leader of America but they both took on the job. Using any and all ways to use their words Shakur and Douglass would battle oppression with an articulate imagination and unique style. Blacks had no way to formally represent themselves and therefore Shakur and Douglass claimed their own authority to do so.    

 Shakur and Douglass are both dimensional artists, both have lives that were greatly affected by the city of Baltimore and an American landscape; both represent the unapologetic identity that fights for a cause; and both use layered language and have phonetic command. Tupac’s book of poetry, The Rose that Grew From Concrete, published in 1999, opens with his mother’s introduction, “The sound and the rhythm of words did not intimidate him. He sought to interpret his world, using all the visual and linguistic tools available to him. The battle between the discipline of intellect and the ravings of the soul is a fascinating one” (Shakur xiv) Shakur, like Douglass, will understand the power of words and the power of using one’s double consciousness as a means to having more words to choose from and communicate with. The capacity to be both book smart and street smart. Shakur will make speeches, songs, movies, write poetry, create music videos, represent storytelling, show the importance of knowledge, and he will make sure it all comes from the heart. Shakur created incredible amounts of content all before he died at twenty-five. Shakur will famously talk about not being the person that would change the world but being the person who would spark the mind of the person who would. By involving the audience to be the next greatest, Shakur invites everyone to have a part. Douglass will also ask his community to take part by placing blame on bystanders as equally as slaveholders. These ideas help to project a future creation of a shared space, where everyone has a place in righteousness. Both men were putting the knowledge out there for everyone to have freely and the importance of having knowledge is to use it. Shakur like Douglass will also humble himself, “The reason I am who I am today is because I can look directly at my faith and find my soul” (GF Motivation). Shakur assures his listeners that everyone has the ability to tap into this type of acceptance and understanding. Being on the level of all fellow beings and speaking universally gave both men a highly relatable quality. The passion for spreading the truth was clear in both Shakur and Douglass’ characters but also in their stories.

By explaining the efforts of the Black Panther Party, writing poems about Nelson Mandela, preaching on the struggles of the civil rights movement, painting the picture of the streets of Baltimore and issues of rampant drug addiction, and genuinely just being himself, Shakur was a teacher. Shakur was not willing to let the work of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, be lost on the generations of the 90s and onward. The sit ins, novels, and protests against the war on poverty, that destroyed his mother, and reduced relatives as fugitives like Assata Shakur, seemed in vain and still unheard, due to the unrelenting police brutality and continuing African American struggle in the United States. Douglass will also fight to make sure the stories of his family and friends are heard in order to represent the people who are still fighting the same battles. Figures like Douglass’ grandmother who represent victims of lifelong servitude or friends like former escape mate Sandy Jenkins who will represent people of cultures who have been forced to assimilate due to white supremacy and economic disadvantage. Shakur and Douglass will fight to end cycles of abuse and trauma. The retelling of stories and the recollection of past social conditions keeps important morals and values at the forefront of culture. Vulnerability in sharing painful memories is a steppingstone in building trust and understanding in the truest sense.

1991 Shakur breaks from the Digital Underground similar to how Douglass broke away from Garrison and the abolitionists. Shakur will begin his solo career and will drop the single, “Brenda’s Got a Baby.” This song is not meant to be gangster rap or a party song but instead reports directly, journalistically, and unapologetically to what is going on in the streets. Shakur like Douglass is reporting on what he has seen and bases the lyrics to this song on a true story about a girl who throws her baby in the dumpster. The lyrics are explicit describing the life of a young girl. In the song Brenda is raped by her cousin that she thinks she is in love with, she gets pregnant, she is isolated completely and being a child herself, her life is a continuous downward spiral. Brenda turns to drugging and prostitution in order to cope, and in the end has no chance of survival. Like Douglass, Shakur uses the interdimensional devices in story, song, poem, limerick, melody, sound, and word to create a piece of art that involves the listener and their reaction to a story that preaches pain from the heart. Brenda’s story is also contextually parallel to the stories Douglass shares about his Aunt’s brutal beatings (Douglass 3), the murder of his wife’s cousin (Douglass 17), the stories of Henrietta and Mary’s mangled and emaciated bodies (Douglass 25) or the brains that were busted out of Mr. Thomas Lanman of St. Michael’s slaves (Douglass 17). First-hand accounts of controversial topics can often be startling but when treated with compassion and understanding the stories can become more palatable and relatable. Artistic retellings allow people to understand situations and establish relationships with content. Stories like these allow both the mediator and the listener a role.

Not only do the stories these men told continue to resonate but also stories about Douglass and Shakur are still making news today. Current advancements are being made in Shakur’s murder case and Douglass is taking over Easton, MD. In Easton alone, besides the Frederick Douglass monument in front of the courthouse erected in 2011, in 2021 Michael Rosato’s Douglass mural was installed on the Rails-to-trails off of Dover St. and just recently, November 2023, another Douglass mural was placed downtown on Washington St. by Out of the Fire a local pizza spot. The new mural by Adam Himoff uses artistry like that in The Narrative in order to speculate in our future and develop a more full representation of liberty.

The Himoff piece is entitled “Liberty” and helps the viewer reimagine Douglass and continue to bring his message directly to the community. Douglass once asked, “Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty?” (“Fourth of July” 154) highlighting the ridiculousness of having to argue for human decency and the clearance to be, “the rightful owner of his own body” (“Fourth of July” 154). The text of the Himoff piece done in a graffiti style seems to suggest that some types of liberties are still seen as illegal. Using temporality, fashion, and posture Himoff will display a layering of communication similar to the one illustrated by Douglass in his narrative.

The center of “Liberty” is Douglass’ wristwatch. The watch represents a play on temporality that is used both in The Narrative and in the picture. As Douglass imagines the future in The Narrative, Himoff imagines what it would be like to have Douglass closer to our world today.  The Narrative allows the reader to transcend time as does Himoff’s “Liberty.” Popularized by writers like Octavia Butler, in books like, Kindred, Afrofuturism and Retro-Afrofuturism are newer genres that let readers speculate on what could be, and instead of focusing on a debilitating and traumatizing past be able to create and imagine sustainable futures. Flirting and experimenting with time can help us to build a relationship with the past so as to not forget it but also not fear it. Though Douglass is still seen with the stereotypical older recognizable face, he is given his youth back in Himoff’s portrayal. Douglass’ earliest known photograph is taken around the age of twenty-three and there are rare opportunities to reimagine Douglass any younger than that (Walker 98). Fresh suit, jewelry and wearing Chuck Taylor Converse shoes, Douglass is cool.

Converse Allstars are an American symbol. These shoes were the first ever athletic shoes, the first basketball shoe, and at one point the shoe of the Olympics (NachoAverageFinds). Like Douglass and The Narrative, Converse shoes are 100% American.  The importance of Douglass’ footwear in this image also can help explore the importance of shoes in the Douglass family. Anna Murray was not only a talented seamstress while living in Lynn, MA she would also learn to make shoes. The right to fashion and clothes is a reoccurring theme throughout Douglass’ life from the time he first gets pants, to the sailor outfit he wore on his train ride to escape to New York, and in each one of his photographs. Himoff’s image allows Douglass to continue to be a fashion icon. 

Douglass’ posture is stylish as well like a magazine cover. Douglass comes to our level to talk to us, just as he does in The Narrative. Knelt down this stance is representative of hip hop artists like Tupac, team comradery, and vulnerability. Messages of hip-hop artists like Tupac will continue to be lost because of his gangster portrayal in mainstream media. The clear outlash of censorship in the early 80s and 90s directed primarily at hip hop lyrics would keep the voices of these black leaders muffled successfully. Douglass can help reignite stories of Doug E. Fresh, Wutang Clan, Nas, and so many other leaders that have put in work for our communities. The pose Douglass has represents team mentality and photos of groups like Wutang Clan and other members of the Zulu Nation. The Zulu Nation is a movement started by Afrika Bambaataa offering a peaceful outlet and an alternative to gangs for urban youth. Often poorer kids will not have the resources to play facilitated team sports, but this just means their team pictures look different. Forging for one’s own rights is an everyday struggle. Douglass can step in and be a mentor to the lost and disenfranchised. The position Douglass has in Himoff’s piece is also the position an adult takes to talk to a child. Himoff’s piece, like The Narrative, has the ability to speak to all ages. The vulnerability of crouching allows us to see the rest of the message that is happening. The “Liberty” that is behind him, and the glimmer of hope that seems to be shining on his side. The Narrative absolutely uses the same vulnerability as a tool to display its truthful messages. 

Embodying oral traditions like: African storytelling, American political debates, religious preaching, and song, are just some of the reference points for Douglass’ intelligence.  Daniel J. Royer establishes Douglass’ literacy in community. “Community is, rather, the very means of Douglass’s literacy. This revised understanding of literacy stresses community and context as essential ingredients to becoming literate, not as forces that stand over and against an individual’s personal authenticity, identity, and autonomy” (Royer 372). Douglass’ base of knowledge allowed him to synthesize the relevance of all literacies presented to him in his life. Because of this he was able to perform a higher level of communication. In reference to both of Douglass’ autobiographies Royer says, “Douglass sustains his self-pride and maintains group cohesion, how he discovers in his literacy a way to understand himself and still preach his message, and how, with language, he takes control of his own life and still involves himself in the lives of his black and white readers” (Royer 373). Douglass is able to walk the lines of public and private, black and white, rich and poor because he is representing for all the places, he’s been on his journey.

The Narrative is so many things. It is an autobiography, a slave narrative, a document on American history, an example of Afrofuturism, a book, a speech, an anthem, an inspiration and a representation of a man who would stop at nothing to tell the truth. In The Narrative, “Douglass sought to dispel stereotypical beliefs about blacks, that black men were passive and lacking in masculinity, black women lascivious and willing concubines to white men, that black parents were incapable of loving their children with the same strength and depth of emotion as their white counterparts, that black people, less than human, benefited from their enslavement and did not desire to be free” (Butts 64). By establishing his identity, recognizing his purpose, and then executing his narrative, Douglass is able to communicate with poise, grace, and understanding in a book that can be read internally, out loud, or listened to in order to understand its completeness in different ways. The intersubjectivity, the reliable narration that invites a dialogue, and the dimensional nature of The Narrative classify this work as a mixed media art form.

Toni Morrison closes her speech, “Unspeakable Things Unspoken” with gratitude. Like Douglass she involves her audience and identifies her strengths in order to promote common wealth within a lifelong mission, “To those who talk about how as well as what; who identify the workings as well as the work; for whom the study of Afro-American literature is neither a crash course in neighborliness and tolerance, nor an infant to be carried, instructed, or chastised or even whipped like a child, but the serious study of art forms that have much work to do, and which are already legitimatized by their own cultural sources and predecessors - in or out of the canon - I owe much” (Morrison 162). Knowledge is transformative. Douglass is definitionally the workings as well as the work and is a predecessor who has opened so many new avenues and legitimized so many art forms and platforms of expression. The Narrative stands the test of time marching into the 21st century still announcing relevant messages of faith, liberty, justice, and innovation.  

Works Cited

American Experience: The Abolitionists. Rapley, Rob. PBS, 2013.

Andrews, William L. “Frederick Douglass, Preacher.” American Literature, vol. 54, no. 4, 1982,

pp. 592–97. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2926008. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

Association of Cordwainers. “The AWL” Kimball & Butterfield, Printers. Lynn, MA. Lynn

Historical Society Microfilm. July 17, 1844 - October 11, 1845.

Brewton, Vince. “Bold defiance took its place ‘—Respect’ and Self-Making in ‘Narrative of the

Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’”.

Butts, Tracy R. “‘You Shall See’: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as a Guide for

Forging Black Masculinity in Hip Hop.” The Langston Hughes Review, vol. 21, 2007, pp.

54–67. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26434676. Accessed 27 Apr. 2023.

Carson, Sharon. “Shaking the Foundation: Liberation Theology in ‘Narrative of the Life of

Frederick Douglass.’” Religion & Literature, vol. 24, no. 2, 1992, pp. 19–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/40059512. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022.

Cooper, Mark Anthony Sr. A Collection of Letters to Frederick Douglass from His Children

1859-1894. Philadelphia, Fulmore Press, 1990.

Dalton, Tom. The Lynn Years 1841-1848. LuLu, October 21, 2017.

Douglass, Frederick. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. NP. 25 September 2022.

Douglass, Frederick. “What to the Slave is the 4^th of July” My Bondage and My Freedom. NP.

154-156.

Foner, Philip S. “Address of Frederick Douglass at the Inauguration of Douglass Institute,

Baltimore, October 1, 1865.” The Journal of Negro History, vol. 54, no. 2, 1969, pp. 174–83. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2716691. Accessed 21 Nov. 2022.

Fought, Leigh. Women in the World of Frederick Douglass. New York, Oxford University Press,

2017.

GF Motivation. “Tupac Shakur Life Advice Will Leave You SPEECHLESS (Motivational

Speech).” Youtube, 15 May 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuQS9mDuTAY

Morrison, Toni. “Unspeakable Things Unspoken: The Afro-American Presence in American

Literature” The Tanner Lectures on Human Values. The University of Michigan. 7 October1988. https://tannerlectures.utah.edu/_resources/documents/a-to-z/m/morrison90.pdf. Accessed 22 December 2022.

Mouser, Bruce L. “Baltimore’s African Experiment, 1822-1827.” The Journal of Negro History,

vol. 80, no. 3, 1995, pp. 113–30. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2717551. Accessed 20

Nov. 2022.

Mullane, James Thomas. “The Road to ‘I’Dentity in ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick

Douglass, an American Slave.’” CEA Critic, vol. 57, no. 2, 1995, pp. 26–40. JSTOR,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/44378257. Accessed 28 Apr. 2023.

NachoAverageFinds. “How The Converse All Star Changed the World.” Youtube. 21 November

2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeLjq3yA_Z0. Accessed 16 November 2023.

Reed, T.V. The Art of Protest. Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press, 2005.

Royer, Daniel J. “The Process of Literacy as Communal Involvement in the Narratives of

Frederick Douglass.” African American Review, vol. 28, no. 3, 1994, pp. 363–74. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3041973. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

Shakur, Tupac. The Rose That Grew From Concrete. New York, Pocket Books, 1999.

Sheller, Tina H. “The Origins of Public Education in Baltimore, 1825-1829.” History of

Education Quarterly, vol. 22, no. 1, 1982, pp. 23–44. JSTOR,

https://doi.org/10.2307/367831. Accessed 20 Nov. 2022.

Smith, Joseph Hutchinson. “Folk-Songs of the American Negro.” The Sewanee Review, vol. 32,

no. 2, 1924, pp. 206–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27533754. Accessed 19 Nov. 2022

Walker, David F. and Damon Smyth. The Life of Frederick Douglass. New York, Ten Speed

Press, 2017.

Images

Proimos, Andrea. Lynn Museum Dancers. 2023.

Proimos, Andrea. “Liberty” in Easton. Nov 2023.

Tupac Crouching. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/257408934943845504/. Assessed 19

November 2023.

Wilson, Mark. “Obama Consoling Crying Child” Getty Images. 2013.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/04/president-obama-consoles-a-crying-child.html. Accessed 19 November 2023.

Wutang Clan Group Photo. WutangClan.com. Accessed 19 November 2023.