Slave Identity example essay topic

... avery forced on him. Literacy helped him realize that he was not an animal whose purpose was to work. He deserved freedom, and intellect could be the vehicle that provided him it. This first aspect of his progression from slave to man then, came through education-up until this point in his life, he had not questioned his perception of his identity as nothing more than an animal, an investment, or a slave for life. However, with literacy, "the thought of being a slave for life began to bear heavily upon [his] heart" (Douglass 278).

As Douglass began to change his self-perception from a slave to a man, he also began to resist his slave role forced onto him by the institution of slavery and fight against it. This resistance finds its climax in Douglass' fight with Edward Covey, for Douglass wrote "this battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in [his] career as a slave" (Douglass 298). This battle formed in him "a sense of [his] own manhood" (Douglass 298). From this point on in the narrative, though Douglass was still a slave in "form", he would never again be a slave in "fact" (Douglass 299). It was this battle with Covey that allowed Douglass to truly reject the slave identity forced on him. From that point, his top priority was gaining his freedom.

When Douglass finally did gain his freedom, his transformation from slave to man was almost complete: he began to find and accept his true identity as a free man. That he began to internalize his new identity is not obvious simply because he was no longer a slave in "form", but partially because from this point on, Douglass begins to use dates, full names, addresses and titles when describing situations. Whereas in the beginning of the narrative he referred to slaves by their first name and to slaveholders by their last name, upon gaining his freedom he began to refer to people he encountered with full titles and names such as "Mr. David Ruggles,"Reverend J.W.C. Pennington", and "Mr. William C. Taber". He was also able to name addresses and dates such as September 15, 1838, the date he was married, and "the boarding house on the corner of Church and Lespenard Streets". The significance of Douglass's use of these facts of which he was once deprived is his rejection of the institution of slavery and his internalization of his role as a free man.

Douglass's internalization of his newfound role is also presented with his marriage and name change. His decision to be married was significant in his search for a free man's identity because marriage was an institution not allowed to slaves by their masters. Slave marriages meant nothing to masters who could break it up forever simply by selling the husband or wife to a plantation far away. Unlike the illegal slave marriages that were not legally recognized, his was legally bound with a certificate. Thus, when Douglass was married and granted a marriage certificate, he both embraced his new role as a man and further eschewed his previous role as a servant. This notion of disowning the institution of slavery also comes with his name change.

By repudiating the name given him by his mother, Douglass shunned the slaveholding law which claimed that slave children must follow the role of their mother: if the mother is a slave, so shall be the child. By rejecting the name that she gave him, Douglass rejected that slave holder judgment of eternal slavery. According to Douglass, the final step in his progression from a slave to a free man was when he attended a "colored people's meeting at New Bedford... [He] spoke but a few moments, when [he] felt a degree of freedom, and said what [he] desired with considerable ease. From that time until now, [he] has been engaged in pleading the cause of [his] brethren...

". (Douglass 326). With this final passage, Douglass reiterates the progression he made throughout the narrative-he was a dependent slave who wanted freedom to become an independent man. By speaking out, fighting as an abolitionist, and finally becoming an author, Douglass's transformation from a slave to a man is complete. Despite the fact that Douglass's narrative ends here, his absolute metamorphosis is not complete.

The narrative opens with a preface by two well-known white abolitionists of the era. The function of these opening essays is to act as a validation by a respected white person. Their assurances and guarantees of truth in Douglass's narrative serve to both make the narrative more marketable to the white audience, but also to discount the importance of Douglass's role of a true human. Why should a man who has attained freedom and thus become a free and equal individual need to have his writing prefaced by whites? Accordingly, in future publications, Douglass decided to preface the narrative with letters from a prominent African American writer and add a letter to his former master repudiating him for his evils. This, though not a part of the narrative read in class, is the defining and final moment of Douglass's transformation from slave to man.

By embracing his own importance as a human man, realizing that he did not need the guarantees of whites to be respected, and finally addressing his master for the wrongs done to him, Douglass illustrates the culmination of his journey from slave to man. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave details the transformation of a slave to a man. The institution of slavery defined a slave as less than human, and in order to perpetuate that impression, slaveholders forbade slaves the luxury of self definition. Therefore, when Douglass finally rejects the notions about his identity forced on him by slavery, and embraces an identity of his own creation, he has completed his journey from slave to man. He no longer defines himself in terms of the institution of slavery, but by his own thoughts regarding what his identity is. Through the metamorphosis of his identity as "an animal" to an author who fights for the abolitionist movement, Douglass presents his narrative not simply as a search for freedom, but also a search for himself.

Bibliography

Douglass, Frederick. "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass". The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. New York: Penguin Group, 1987.
Stone, Albert. "Identity and Art in Frederick Douglass's 'Narrative'". Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism: Volume 7. Ed. Paula K epos. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990.