Fredrick Douglass

The Fredrick Douglass autobiography that we discussed this week is one of my favorite pieces so far. I found that there was a powerful narrative voice, and the descriptions used in the text were well chosen, and at many times striking. Jenna commented on the choice of words he used to describe his fall into an oppressed state of being 'broken' and the implications that has- being broken as a wild horse is broken. Douglass' descriptive powers were also at full effect when he was describing the devoted great-grandmother who was sent to a hut to die alone; stripped of all of the children she had borne and cared for. The material properties thrown on slave bodies were more highlighted by Douglass' passing comment that with all the children she had and their descendants, she had made the owner part of his fortune. She had given all the work she could do in her life and every child and grandchild and great-grandchild to slavery, but she was still something to be disposed of, some animal to pasture.

When reading Douglass' narrative, I couldn't help but recall how he learned to read and write- every letter was 'stolen' from the mind of a street urchin in a bet. Each letter was a small battle to win, and yet they were all now fluently used in his autobiography and street writing. He had to win every letter, but the white street children were given the letter and basic knowledge, though they lacked the comparable gifts Douglass had. It is sobering to think of how many boundless talents were lost to history by the oppression of millions of minds.

I was also considering the question on ‘Silent Racism’ and what the impact of the author’s race is. Though it may confer a buffer against a white reader feeling attacked, I was considering it to possibly be a drawback to her study. She may suffer from pronounced racial guilt at being the same race as the white oppressors. She is ‘studying’ a small homogenous non-random sample group, that greatly resembles herself, and I think that psychological projection is a distinct concern. Since she is the only analyzer and she guides and leads the conversation, she has the danger of power and manipulating the study group into mirrors of parts of herself and how she sees people. Since this is not a peer reviewed scientific study, her methods are passable, but if this was to be safeguarded against bias, additional steps might need to be taken.