American Literature Frederick Douglass

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How are conventional moral beliefs concerning obedience, Christianity and violence challenged or critiqued in Douglas Narrative?

Frederick Douglass bildungsroman records his transition from an enslaved and benighted child into a liberated, enlightened man. His conceptions of moral conventions upheld by the slaving south are in a constant state of flux, defined and redefined by his experiences and exploitations. An integral element that runs throughout the narrative is Douglass Christian theories. His exposure to Christian individuals lead to an extensive deconstruction of what it means to be a Christian in the South. Obedience, as a key virtue to the religion, is therefore confronted and challenged as the author differentiates between obedience to God and obedience to the Christians of the south. Douglass presents the violence of slavery as a perversion and violation of the principles of the faith and therefore creates a distinction (in the appendix) between the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ and the corrupt, slave-holding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. At times his portrayal of the latter reaches a state of irony. This can be detected in the portrayal of Covey, the snake, whose appellation holds connotations of the presence of the devil in the book of Genesis. This is but one technique that the author adopts in his portrayal of the tyranny of slavery when bolstered and justified by Christianity.

Thomas Auld consistently presents an embodiment of the malevolence of slavery throughout the narrative, however, Douglass records that his masters conversion to Christianity, in the second half of the narrative, marks a progression towards the character becoming more cruel and hateful in all his ways. Christianity, in this case,

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was a means through which the master found religious sanction for his cruelty. A key example of this is given when the author recounts how his master tied up a lame young woman and whip her with a heavy cow skin and in justification for this act the slave-holder would quote a passage of Scripture He that knoweth his masters will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. Douglass uses the

victimization of this female slave as an example, as he does many times throughout the narrative, as it creates so stark an image to the reader. Women in eighteenth century American society stood for all that is docile, loving and domestic, this gross violation of a woman is therefore all the more shocking to the intended reader of the narrative. This theme of violence inflicted on vulnerable figures is the basis on which Douglass builds the argument that these white, slave-holding men cannot be Christians. He proclaims we see the thief preaching against theft and the adulterer against adultery, in order to emphasis that Christianity and slavery are entirely incompatible. Douglass establishes this to underscore that slavery is in fact against the will of God and that the Slavers themselves are, in fact, the sinners. This is again represented by the restrictions sanctioned on Douglass against gaining literacy. By taking the slaves ability to learn how to read the will of God, the slave-owners are, in fact, the miscreants.

Through this deconstruction of preconceptions of Christianity and slavery, Douglass is able to reconstruct an idea that God is in fact behind the slaves of the South and not the institution. This idea is subtly planted in many ways throughout the narrative, such as Douglasss resurrection on Coveys farm. The battle with Mr. Covey is described by Douglass as the turning point in my career as a slave, and one which carries him from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom. He describes his

American Literature Frederick Douglass

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spiritual awakening to be a Christ-like resurrection. In this way Douglass presents the idea that God is not in fact in accordance with the Church of the south but behind the slaves (and their ideas of freedom.) This concept of slavery as sin is one that stood at the head of the Abolition movement from the publication of this narrative and went on to inspire the future president Abraham Lincoln along with many others.

This scene containing the battle with Mr. Covey contends with more that one weighty subject matter. It presents and challenges another tool of control used by the slavemasters over the slaves, that of violence. Throughout the narrative, we see the author using highly vivid and graphic language in order to depict the violence used against all slaves, men, women and children, but nowhere else in the narrative do we find such an extensive psychological dissection of the power dynamics between slaves and slaveholders. This positioning of one human being over the other is largely based on ones fear of the retribution of disobedience. Fear is what held the bloody hierarchy in position. During the fight in the barn, Douglass does not use violence but simply matches the strength and power of his oppressor, instilling fear into him instead. Douglass uses this scene in the narrative to present a stark comparison between slave and master. Covey is cowardly, his previous unrestrained and rampant violence is contrasted with that of Douglasss, undemonstrative and self-controlled. Covey is shown to be the lesser man and his nerves, as well as his grip of control, trembles like a leaf. Violence stands like the henchman of ignorance throughout the narrative, the cowardly antithesis to knowledge and education. Douglas presents literacy to be the path to freedom, his self-taught education is key to the awakening of his mind and ultimately to the attainment of his success in escape. Covey is an embodiment of the unthinking cruelty and reasonless brutality of slavery. This scene draws closely

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the comparison of the characters, one spiritually and mentally enlightened, the other an uncouth, violent philistine. By dissecting the main weapon of slavery, that of fear, in this scene, Douglass recounts that he repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery.

It is clear that this progressive narrative draws closely on the traditional themes and moral beliefs of Southern Slaving society in order to address, critique and deconstruct them. Douglass explains in his appendix that he is not un-Christian, but addresses the ways in which Christianity has been manipulated and used to manipulate by the members of the Southern slave-ocracy, that the master covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity, and pretensions to piety. Violence, a sin in the eyes of God, is employed copiously and brutally, by Christian men, in order to enforce the institution of slavery. Through his literacy, Douglass is able to extend the horrors of slavery beyond the boundaries of the Mason and Dixon line. Even his literary abilities threw into question the previous philosophy that the Black man was incapable of mental education and that his rightful place was to mindlessly serve his master. Douglass confronts many of these issues in his text, which became the document that undoubtedly inspired many to join the Abolition movement that the author later became a spokesman for.