1. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
With close reference to the historical debate, assess the value of the Narrative
of the Life of Frederick Douglass as a source for understanding the
experiences of American slaves.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as a source for understanding
the day-to-day experience of American slaves and the physical and Psychological
treatment of slaves is arguably of value. Scholars in the last century have explored
different theories surrounding the experience of slaves and the treatment of slaves.
The narrative does allow the scholar to understand the experience of slaves from the
point of view of a former slave and highlights many aspects as to the way the slaves
were treated. However it is limited because it has been argued that it was a piece of
work, which was used to support the abolitionist cause. Therefore in this essay it
would be wise to explore the value of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
as a source for understanding the experiences of American slaves while looking at
the historiography of slave narratives.
Frederick Douglass’ narrative is arguably of value because it helps scholars
to understand what went on in the minds of the African Americans and therefore
helps the scholar to understand the physiological aspects of his experience. This
theory was very much explored by scholars in the 1970s and one such scholar that
supports the idea of slave narratives being of value to understanding the
psychological treatment of slaves is Blassingame. He suggests that because there
was so much ego within these works they are of value to understanding the slave
experience. He also suggests that ‘Since these works focus on the mental life of the
authors (fear, love, pain, dreams, insecurity, frustrations), they provide the scholar

2. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
with numerous insights into the nature of interpersonal relations within slavery’.1
This
idea is evidently shown within Frederick Douglass narrative when he talks of his
mothers death and never seeing her before she was laid to rest while under the care
of a slave master, ‘Never having enjoyed, to any considerable extent, her soothing
presence, her tender and watchful care, I received the tidings of her death with much
the same emotions I should have probably felt at the death of a stranger’2
. The way
he describes this is with a sense of feeling that he never knew his mother because of
the detachment he had from her as a slave and he uses great emotion to show this.
Whereas if this was compared to a source from a slave master you would
arguably not get that same emotion as is shown by Douglass because they tend to
be more defensive in why they treated slaves in such a way. The argument that
slave masters accounts were of value to a historian is shown by Stampp who uses
them to show the slave experience in the way slaves were treated by the master
which was at the forefront of historical debate in the 1950s. The idea is clear when
he suggests ‘Without the power to punish, which the state conferred upon the master,
bondage could not have existed.’3
This shows that Stampp is relying upon the
slaveholders accounts to show how bondage existed and the way they were treated
physically but not showing the psychological experience that a slave narrative like
Douglass’s would. Therefore rendering the narrative as a source of value to a
scholar in understanding the emotions of a slave.
1
J.W.Blessingame,
The
Slave
Community:
plantation
life
in
the
Antebellum
South,
New
York,
2
F.Douglass,
Narrative
of
the
Life
of
Frederick
Douglass:
An
American
Slave,
1845,
Amazon.co.uk
ltd.
,
Marston
Gate.
P.17
3
K.M.Stampp,
The
Peculiar
institution:
slavery
in
the
Antebellum
south,
New
York,
A.A.Knopf,
1956
pp171-­‐91
cited
in
A.Weinstein,
F.O.Gattel,
D.Sarasohn,
American
Negro
Slavery,
New
York,
OUP,
1979.p.62

3. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as a source for understanding
the treatment and experience of slaves is of clear value because they show the
scholar and reader the aspects that the slave masters may have fundamentally not
discussed for one reason or another. Peabody supports the idea of slave narratives
being of value because they show the side of the slave, ‘they contain the victims
account of the working of this greater institution’4
. Which is very much the case
because the slaves evidently show their view of the experience of slaves and
perhaps when put alongside that of a white slave owner we balance the two views.
However Peabody does go on to state that Frederick Douglass evokes the sympathy
of those reading the book, which can arguably persuade people towards feeling
sorry for him and therefore fulfilling an objective of selling books in order to make
money and as is noted also he did sell out of all copies of his book at the time.5
Therefore arguably it can limit its usefulness and value to the scholar if that was his
purpose but it nonetheless could be evoking feeling so as to show the treatment of
slaves. So the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass can arguably of small
value showing the experiences of American slaves.
However there are clear limitations to slave narratives and one that must be
due noted when exploring the psychological treatment of slaves is that when many
narratives are written there can be the issue of memory and age. This is evidently
the case in Frederick Douglass writing because he makes this very clear when he
states ‘ I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic
4
E.Peabody,
Christian
Examiner,
Narratives
of
Fugitive
slaves
47,
1849,
pp.61-­‐93
cited
in
W.L.Andrew,
Critical
essays
on
Frederick
Douglass,
Boston,
G.K.Hall
&
co,
1991.
P.24
5
ibid.
pp.25-­‐26

4. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
record containing it’6
This can limit the source in that parts are missing and there is
fundamentally a knowledge gap within the narrative. It is not just evident in this
narrative though so although there may be small gaps in the memory it can be of use
to a scholar in that it shows how the experience of being a slave has had an impact
upon that person. In the studies of people’s memory it has been shown that people
remember more from the remote past than the present day.7
Therefore this shows
that memory is not always limit as to what people see although memory can be
distorted by experiences since those events or can be mixed other events that have
occurred.8
This is supported when Dean states, ‘Recalling memories in different
ways can help us re-interpret the past and set us off on a different path in the
future.’9
So Douglass narrative could be seen as a valuable source in understanding
the experience of an American slave as he was still very young when his book was
written and therefore his memory should not distort his recall of events too much.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ reliability as a source for
understanding the American slave experience has to be questioned when compared
with other sources from the period. If you were to compare Frederick Douglass’ slave
narrative to white slave owner’s sources it would appear that they both only discuss
their views rather than that of both the Black and White experience within America.
This suggests that it may be best to not just rely on the one source and look at both
from an equal standing. If you were to explore just the white experience then you
6
F.Douglass,
Narrative
of
the
Life
of
Frederick
Douglass:
An
American
Slave,
1845,
Amazon.co.uk
ltd.
,
Marston
Gate.
P.15
7
J.W.Blessingame,
The
Slave
Community:
plantation
life
in
the
Antebellum
South,
New
York,
Oxford
University
Press,1979,p.369
8
J.Dean,
Memore
and
recall:
10
Amazing
facts
you
should
know,
oct
2012.
[Online]
Avalaible
from:
http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/10/how-­‐memory-­‐works-­‐10-­‐things-­‐most-­‐people-­‐get-­‐
wrong.php
[accessed:
24th
March
2015]
9
Ibid.

5. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
would not understand the emotions and the feelings of the Black slaves. This is
evident in Stampp who only uses sources from white Americans and not the African-
Americans and therefore only gets the view of the whites feelings towards physical
punishment as is clear when he states
The majority seemed to think that the certainty, and not the severity, of
physical “correction” was what made it effective. While no offense could go
unpunished, the number of lashes should be in proportion to the nature of the
offense and the character of the offender. The master should control his
temper.10
This shows that the slaves were punished and what type of punishment was
undertaken but it does not show the feelings of the slave and the emotions from what
the slave felt about this. It therefore only gives one side and this appears to be very
similar to that in Fredrick Douglass narrative but only showing emotion and not the
whites view upon the punishment. This is evident when he talks of his aunts
whipping, ‘Had he been a man of pure morals himself, he might have been thought
interested in protecting the innocence of my aunt; but those who knew him will not
suspect him of any virtue’.11
Here it shows the feelings towards to the person
whipping his aunt and he attacks him for doing so. It has been argued according to
Blassingame that such narratives are seen by some as having no value because the
sufferer writes them and therefore they are unable to give an objective account of the
10
K.M.Stampp,
The
Peculiar
institution:
slavery
in
the
Antebellum
south,
New
York,
A.A.Knopf,
1956
pp171-­‐91
cited
in
A.Weinstein,
F.O.Gattel,
D.Sarasohn,
American
Negro
Slavery,
New
York.
OUP,
1979.
P.64
11
F.Douglass,
Narrative
of
the
Life
of
Frederick
Douglass:
An
American
Slave,
1845,
Amazon.co.uk
ltd.
,
Marston
Gate.
P.19

6. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
physical treatment of slaves.12
Therefore the value of the Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass is limited to a certain extent because of its perhaps biased
objective towards the physical treatment of slaves. However it is perhaps of value in
understanding the emotion and psychological aspect undergone by the slaves
making this a reliable source if placed with contrasting sources such as an account
from a white slave owner.
Frederick Douglass’ Narrative can be seen as nothing more than a
mouthpiece for the abolitionist cause and therefore may not be a source of great
value to understanding the experience of American slaves. The reason this has to be
questioned is because Frederick Douglass worked for the anti-slavery cause as a
speaker. According to Franklin and Higginbotham Douglass once ‘electrified an
audience with his remarkable eloquence’ 13
. They also say that Douglass was a
great thinker and speaker and apparently Garrison (a human rights advocate) called
him ‘a representative black man’.14
Therefore as a scholar we must question the
reliability and what the true purpose of this source is and wether it was a mouthpiece
for the abolitionist cause. So to what extent were narratives like Frederick Douglass
edited to support their aims? According to Blassingame slave narratives were not
that over dramatized in terms of their authenticity even those written by
abolitionists.15
He explains this further when he suggests that ‘Instead of
exaggerating the horrors of slavery, it is clear in some instances that the editors
12
J.W.Blessingame,
The
Slave
Community:
plantation
life
in
the
Antebellum
South,
New
York,
Oxford
University
Press,1979,p.370
13
J.H.Franklin,
From
Slavery
to
Freedom,
9th
ed.
New
York,
McGraw-­‐Hill,
2011.
P.188
14
Ibid.
15
J.W.Blessingame,
The
Slave
Community:
plantation
life
in
the
Antebellum
South,
New
York,
Oxford
University
Press,1979,p.375

7. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
toned down the accounts.’16
Although he does go on to suggest that some narratives
were fictionalised and others had editors views placed within them. Therefore as
Stauffer suggests ‘It is difficult to overestimate the influence of abolitionist
organisations on Frederick Douglass’.17
According to Quarles Frederick Douglass
narrative did not overstate his point of view and
Let it be said, too, that if slavery had a sunny side, it will not be found in
the pages of the Narrative. It may also be argued that the bondage that
Douglass knew in Maryland was relatively benign. For a slave, Douglass’ “lot
was not especially a hard one,” as Garrison, pointed out in his Preface.18
It becomes apparent that the value of Frederick Douglass narrative as a source for
understanding the American slave experience is great because it allows scholars to
explore the emotions and the feelings going through slaves despite it showing some
signs of being a mouthpiece for the abolitionist cause and only showing a brutal side
to slavery.
Over time it has been argued that Frederick Douglass’ narrative has been of
value to Students and scholars as a foundation text in understanding the experience
of American slaves. Many suggest that the reason for this text being used as a
valued source is because Douglass was seen as a great speaker, abolitionist and
writer through his expression of emotion, vivid imagery and memory.19
This however
is questionable as is suggested by McDowell when she states ‘It is this choice of
16
J.W.Blessingame,
The
Slave
Community:
plantation
life
in
the
Antebellum
South,
New
York,
Oxford
University
Press,1979,p.375
17
M.S.Lee,
ed.
The
Cambridge
Companion
to
Frederick
Douglass,
Cambridge,
Cambridge
university
Press,
2009.
P.13
18
B.Quarles,
Introduction
by
Benjamin
Quarles,
1960,
[Online]
Available
from:
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/frederick-­‐douglass/
[Accessed:
23rd
March
2015]
19
M.S.Lee,
ed.
The
Cambridge
Companion
to
Frederick
Douglass,
Cambridge,
Cambridge
university
Press,
2009.
P.173

8. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
Douglass as ‘the first’ as ‘representative man’, as the part that stands for the whole,
that reproduces the omission of women from view, except as afterthoughts different
from ‘the same.’20
Therefore it has to be questioned really to what extent the value of
this piece is and it clearly fundamentally clear has focus upon the men rather than
those of the women who are not at the forefront alongside men within his narrative.
This was perhaps because during the period that Frederick Douglass was writing
women had little standing in a predominantly male run society. It has also been
stated that in order to understand the experience of American slaves Douglass
narrative is of importance but it must be looked at alongside a range of slave
narratives and sources.21
Frederick Douglass’ narrative is of value in understanding the slave
experience when compared to other sources. It must be stated that according to
Blessingame ‘historians do not have to rely solely on internal evidence to determine
the validity of the narratives’22
When comparing the Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass to the narrative of Solomon Northrup it would appear that the details of
their experience is very similar in that they both experienced physical and
psychological treatment. This is evident when Douglass talks of his experience as a
child and states ‘I was seldom whipped by my old master, and suffered little from
anything else than hunger and cold’.23
Douglass then goes on to describe the
treatment at his first slave owners’ plantation in detail and when comparing the
20
M.S.Lee,
ed.
The
Cambridge
Companion
to
Frederick
Douglass,
Cambridge,
Cambridge
university
Press,
2009.
P.174
21
F.Douglass,
Narrative
of
the
Life
of
Frederick
Douglass:
An
American
Slave,
1845,
Amazon.co.uk
ltd.
,
Marston
Gate.
P.175
22
J.W.Blessingame,
The
Slave
Community:
plantation
life
in
the
Antebellum
South,
New
York,
Oxford
University
Press,1979,p.373
23
F.Douglass,
Narrative
of
the
Life
of
Frederick
Douglass:
An
American
Slave,
1845,
Amazon.co.uk
ltd.
,
Marston
Gate.
P.31

9. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
experience Northrup underwent it is very much the same. Northrup describes the
time when slave captors took him and this shows their treatment of him ‘As soon as
these formidable whips appeared, I was seized by both of them, and roughly
divested of my clothing.’24
The detail of the two are comparable, although Douglass
appears softer in his language it would appear Northrup is a lot more harsh in the
way he describes the situation he was in. Therefore although the experiences both
describe the treatment in different ways they do show that the treatment of slaves
was very much the same within America but each slave has a different day-to-day
experience. So arguably Douglass’ narrative is of value when being assessed in
relation to the 1970s study of slaves experience in America and can be a source of
value to understanding the slave experience.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass as a source for understanding
the experience of American slaves is of value because he not only gives careful
attention to the day-to-day experience of slaves through an understanding of ‘African
labour patterns’.25
Archer states that ‘prior to this investigation, except for a few
exceptions, the consensus among scholars was that slave narratives had little to tell
us of African culture within the slave quarter.’26
Therefore this shows the
development of how scholars have looked at slave narratives like Frederick
Douglass. Archer then goes on to discuss about the development of how scholars
24
S.Northrup,
Twelve
Years
a
Slave:
Narrative
of
Solomon
Northup,
a
Citizen
of
New-­‐York,
Kidnapped
in
Washington
City
in
1841,
and
Rescued
in
1853:
Electronic
Edition.
1997
[Online].
Available
from:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html
[accessed:
25th
March
2015]p.44
25
J.O.Archer,
Antebellum
slave
narratives:Cultural
and
political
expressions
in
Africa,
Routeledge,
2009.
P.80
[online]
Available
from:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c3eQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=Peter+Kolc
hin+on+Frederick+Douglass&source=bl&ots=XphmEjx1Tb&sig=lPhqVFHEAgxM67gukTdvNZi
cpE8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZzwVVcWVJ8H1UsWTgKAE&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Pe
ter%20Kolchin%20on%20Frederick%20Douglass&f=false
[accessed:
27th
March
2015]
26
Ibid.

10. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
see slave narratives and the current consensus is that ‘Scholars have continued to
view slave narratives as texts of discontinuity.’27
He then states that they have
particularly paid attention to white political, social and economic forms that shaped
the narratives while not looking at the African influences, which Douglass does look,
explore vividly when he talks about his aunt. 28
This howver does not appear to
always be the case because Berlin explores the ideas of time and space and the
Afro-American culture. This is evident when she states ‘Time and space are the
usual boundaries of historical enquiry,’29
Therefore there has been a development in
the way scholars have explored the slave narratives and now it must be stated that
although the Frederick Douglass narrative has some limitations it certainly is of value
because it shows the way an American slave was treated and the physical and
psychological impact it had upon him.
Overall, looking at the historical debates surrounding the value of slave
narratives it must be said that the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is of
value in understanding the American slave experience if placed alongside other
narratives and primary source material. It does have some limitations in that it only
shows the view of one slave but it appears to be very much typical of others when
27
J.O.Archer,
Antebellum
slave
narratives:Cultural
and
political
expressions
in
Africa,
Routeledge,
2009.
P.80
[online]
Available
from:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c3eQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=Peter+Kolc
hin+on+Frederick+Douglass&source=bl&ots=XphmEjx1Tb&sig=lPhqVFHEAgxM67gukTdvNZi
cpE8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZzwVVcWVJ8H1UsWTgKAE&ved=0CDUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Pe
ter%20Kolchin%20on%20Frederick%20Douglass&f=false
[accessed:
27th
March
2015]
28
Ibid.
29
I.Berlin.
Time,
Space,
and
the
Evolution
of
Afro
American
Society
on
British
Mainland
North
America,
The American Historical Review, 1980, Vol. 85,
(Issue 1), p. 44

11. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
comparing it with other narratives. Furthermore, Douglass narrative does have some
issue of memory because of the lack of times and dates but it does not appear to
affect his cause and aims within the text. The concept that this is a mouthpiece for
the abolitionist cause is certainly not valid to an extent due to its help in
understanding the experiences of slavery within the time it was written and if used
alongside other sources it very much supports them. It does help scholars to
understand the psychological impact the slave experience had upon Douglass along
with the physical treatment. Therefore the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
is certainly valuable in helping scholars to understand the day-to-day experience of
American slaves and the physical and psychological impact it had upon them
Word Count: 2782

12. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179
Bibliography:
J.O.Archer, Antebellum slave narratives:Cultural and political expressions in Africa,
Routeledge, 2009. P.80 [online] Available from:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=c3eQAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=Pe
ter+Kolchin+on+Frederick+Douglass&source=bl&ots=XphmEjx1Tb&sig=lPhqVFHEA
gxM67gukTdvNZicpE8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ZzwVVcWVJ8H1UsWTgKAE&ved=0CDUQ
6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Peter%20Kolchin%20on%20Frederick%20Douglass&f=fals
e [accessed: 27th
March 2015]
I.Berlin. Time, Space, and the Evolution of Afro
American Society on British Mainland North America, The American Historical
Review, 1980, Vol. 85, (Issue 1), pp. 44-78
J.W.Blessingame, The Slave Community: plantation life in the Antebellum South,
New York, Oxford University Press,1979.
J.Dean, Memore and recall: 10 Amazing facts you should know, oct 2012. [Online]
Avalaible from: http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/10/how-memory-works-10-things-
most-people-get-wrong.php [accessed: 24th March 2015]
F.Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, 1845,
Amazon.co.uk ltd. , Marston Gate.
J.H.Franklin, From Slavery to Freedom, 9th
ed. New York, McGraw-Hill, 2011.
M.S.Lee, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass, Cambridge,
Cambridge university Press, 2009.
S.Northrup, Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup, a Citizen of New-
York, Kidnapped in Washington City in 1841, and Rescued in 1853: Electronic
Edition. 1997 [Online]. Available from:
http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/northup/northup.html [accessed: 25th March 2015]
E.Peabody, Christian Examiner, Narratives of Fugitive slaves 47, 1849, pp.61-93
cited in W.L.Andrew, Critical essays on Frederick Douglass, Boston, G.K.Hall & co,
1991.
B.Quarles, Introduction by Benjamin Quarles, 1960, [Online] Available from:
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/frederick-douglass/ [Accessed: 23rd
March 2015]
A.Weinstein, F.O.Gattel, D.Sarasohn, American Negro Slavery, New York. OUP,
1979.

13. 2AS032,Assignment
1,Liam
Davis,
130010179