My Bondage and My Freedom , by Frederick Douglass, could be regarded as an antislavery publication that mediates on the meaning of different concept related to the freedom of an individual, including race. Frederick Douglass, who is considered as an abolitionist and journalist, uses the book to voice his transformation from being a slave to a reformer (Barnes, 2013). According to Hori (2011), Douglass’ transformation leaves behind a legacy that could be referenced in political, social, as well as intellectual thought. In this regard, the fundamental narrative of the book is based on the emergent voice of the American civil rights movement, particularly concerning the enslavement of other human beings. Based on this perspective, slavery is cruel, and people should not be subjected to it.
Frederick Douglass was born in slavery in the year 1818 in Maryland (Preston & Blight, 2018). He has never ascertained his father’s identity even though he believed that he was one of the unacknowledged sons of his first master. Given the state of affairs in Maryland at the time, Douglass was passed from one master to another, thereby gaining notoriety as an individual that was willing to fight against slavery. In his encounters with different masters, Douglass was taught to read by Mrs. Thomas Auld, even though her husband was against it (Preston & Blight, 2018). The fundamental reason provided concerning the husband's opposition was the idea that he would not be fitting to his duties as a slave (Preston & Blight, 2018). As would be expected, learning to read was a step towards gaining knowledge as well as the realization of freedom as his ultimate objective. Through reading, Douglass gained an ideological opposition to slavery. He shared the knowledge he gained from the materials with other enslaved individuals.
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Douglass took a considerable number of years to plan on escaping to the Northern States where black people were free. He did not succeed in escaping after his initial attempts but succeeded in his final attempt after receiving assistance from Anna Murray, who later became his wife (Ruffin, 2008). Even though he was known for his verbosity, Douglass was uncharacteristically silent about how he fled since he intended to protect individuals that might try escaping through the route he used (Ruffin, 2008). In this regard, the slave masters would have used such information to know where to look for possible runaway slaves. Even though Douglass was selflessly dedicated to assisting his fellow African Americans to find freedom, slaveholders and kidnappers would know where to look if he had published details about his escape.
My Bondage and My Freedom is an extension of the story of Douglass’ life. Compared to his experiences provided for in his first autobiography, Douglass provides his experiences as a lecturer that was traveling in different regions in the United States, Scotland, England, Wales, as well as Ireland (Douglass, 1857). My Bondage and My Freedom retells the relocations and the challenges that Douglass faced from the year 1833 to 1838 when he succeeds to escape from slavery (Hori, 2011). Before slavery separated him from his family, Douglass indicates that his grandmother was his life. He provides information about different events in his younger life as a worker, including his life under his new master, Hugh Laud (Preston & Blight, 2018). He indicates that he was treated like a pig while working on the plantations, including the provision that the opposition to receiving reading lessons was based on the notion that slaves were not to know anything. At the time that the book was written, slavery was rampant and considered as a norm.
The autobiography by Douglass reflects the systemic depravity brought about by slavery, including the socio-historic factors that sustained it (Blight, 2018). Douglass presumably wrote the book to provide information regarding the vicious cycle of slavery, including the idea that the society tolerated slavery (Sundstrom, 2012). In this regard, the book reveals that a society that condoned slavery engendered a particular mentality. Through the book, Douglass was presumably revealing his concerns about the emancipation of all people and not only the individuals preoccupied with the predicaments of black slaves. Through the book, Douglass explains that he has no problem identifying people known to have committed most of the outrageous acts against slaves. Even though the perpetrators might have avoided justice at the time, history would not allow the crimes committed by such people to be whitewashed.
The narrative provided by Douglass stresses on his struggles, which could reflect on the struggles of slaves around him. For this reason, it is possible to consider the narrative as a general phenomenon, unless a person thinks that the narrative is too specific and peculiar to represent the beliefs held by other African Americans. According to Gooding-Williams (2009), the fight by Douglass could attract explicit national political connotations. In this regard, Douglass uses the slave narrative to reveal works of social and political criticism, as well as moral suasion. The fundamental purpose of the narrative could be related to the notion that Douglass was interested in contributing to the abolition of slavery in the United States, including the need to recognize African Americans as human beings that are capable of making significant contributions to the nation. According to Sundstrom (2012), Douglass sought to demonstrate that slavery was not only unnatural, but unjust, cruel, and immoral as well.
The piece relates to the history of slavery, which has been covered in the materials provided for in class. The piece takes note of the ethnographic discourse of the slave narrative. In this case, Douglass combines the contemporaneous socio-political controversy in the autobiography to account for the turbulent debate over the ethology of the blacks (Chaney, 2001). The instructor selected this peace presumably to provide a different metaphor related to the available slave narratives. In this regard, most of the primary critical studies of escapee slave narratives use their journey as a definitive metaphor (Brawley, 1996). None of the critical studies addresses the narrative as a travel account. For this reason, the instructor might have chosen the piece to address the narrative from the identified perspective.
In conclusion, it would be essential to restate that slavery is cruel and people should not be subjected to it. Through the book, My Bondage and My Freedom , Douglass emphasizes the idea that the enslavement of other people is not only action against natural law but also Christian morality. Slavery apologists use different arguments that regard African Americans as subhuman. They use the arguments to justify slavery, even though they contradict the concept of morality. Through the book, Douglass can be considered as an advocate for the social and political integration of individuals in a diverse society. In spite of the integration, people from different races should maintain their ideals and identities.
References
Barnes, L. D. (2013). Frederick Douglass: Reformer and Statesman. Routledge.
Blight, D. W. (2018). Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Simon and Schuster.
Brawley, L. (1996). Frederick Douglass's "My Bondage and My Freedom" and the Fugitive Tourist Industry. NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction , 30 (1), 98. doi: 10.2307/1345849
Chaney, M. (2001). Picturing the Mother, Claiming Egypt: My Bondage and My Freedom as Auto (bio) ethnography. African American Review , 35 (3), 391. doi: 10.2307/2903310
Douglass, F. (1857). My Bondage and My Freedom. The University of Michigan.
Gooding-Williams, R. (2009). In the Shadow of Du Bois: Afro-Modern Political Thought in America , Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hori, T. (2011). Contingent constellations: Frederick Douglass and the fact freedom (Master's). Louisiana State University.
Preston, D. J., & Blight, D. W. (2018). Young Frederick Douglass: The Maryland Years . Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Ruffin, F. E. (2008). Frederick Douglass: Rising from Slavery. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
Sundstrom, R. (2012). Frederick Douglass . Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/frederick-douglass/
