Http digital wwnorton com givemeliberty5sv1

Question:
◦ Were the experiences of male and female slaves similar or different in

the nineteenth-century South?

Reading:
1) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
2) Deborah Gray White, Arn’t I a Woman
3) Any pertinent documents from textbook and document collection

Requirements:

1) Papers must be at least 1,000 words long

2) Footnotes are required

3) Bibliography is required

4) Please number pages

5) Please include a title page
MLA format
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2f8S_SuWbo

Sources:

1)https://lcomiller.weebly.com/uploads/1/1/0/0/110057931/chapter_4.pdf

2)https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf

AMERICAN SLAVE.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

BOSTON PUBLISHED AT THE ANTI-SLAVERY OFFICE,

NO. 25 CORNHILL

1845

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845,

BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS, in the Clerk’ s Office of the District Court of Massachusetts.

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION Book: Narr ative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Author: Frederick Douglass, 1817?–95 First publi shed: 1845

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This PDF ebook was created by José Menéndez.

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http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/
PREFACE.

IN the month of August, 1841, I attended an anti-slavery

convention in Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to become acquainted with FREDERICK DOUGLASS, the writer of the foll owing Narrative. He was a stranger to nearly every member of that body; but, having recently made his escape from the southern prison-house of bondage, and feeli ng his curiosity excited to ascertain the principles and measures of the aboliti onists,—of whom he had heard a somewhat vague description whil e he was a slave,—he was induced to give his attendance, on the occasion all uded to, though at that time a resident in New Bedford.

Fortunate, most fortunate occurrence!—fortunate for the milli ons of his manacled brethren, yet panting for deli verance from their awful thraldom!—fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of universal li berty!—fortunate for the land of his birth, which he has already done so much to save and bless!—fortunate for a large circle of friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and affection he has strongly secured by the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuous traits of character, by his ever-abiding remembrance of those who are in bonds, as being bound with them!—fortunate for the multit udes, in various parts of our republi c, whose minds he has enli ghtened on the subject of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by his pathos, or roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring eloquence against the enslavers of men!—fortunate for himself, as it at once brought him into the field of public usefulness,

PREFACE vi

“ gave the world assurance of a MAN,” quickened the slumbering energies of his soul, and consecrated him to the great work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the oppressed go free!

I shall never forget his first speech at the convention—the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind—the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise—the applause which foll owed from the beginning to the end of his feli citous remarks. I think I never hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by it, on the godli ke nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear than ever. There stood one, in physical proportion and stature commanding and exact—in intell ect richly endowed—in natural eloquence a prodigy—in soul manifestly “ created but a littl e lower than the angels” —yet a slave, ay, a fugiti ve slave,— trembli ng for his safety, hardly daring to beli eve that on the American soil , a single white person could be found who would befriend him at all hazards, for the love of God and humanity! Capable of high attainments as an intell ectual and moral being—needing nothing but a comparatively small amount of culti vation to make him an ornament to society and a blessing to his race—by the law of the land, by the voice of the people, by the terms of the slave code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of burden, a chattel personal, nevertheless!

A beloved friend from New Bedford prevail ed on Mr. DOUGLASS to address the convention. He came forward to the platform with a hesitancy and embarrassment, necessarily the attendants of a sensiti ve mind in such a novel positi on. After apologizing for his ignorance, and reminding the audience that slavery was a poor school for the human intell ect and heart, he proceeded to narrate some of the facts in his own history as a slave, and in the course of his speech gave utterance to many

PREFACE vii

noble thoughts and thrilli ng reflections. As soon as he had taken his seat, fill ed with hope and admiration, I rose, and declared that PATRICK HENRY, of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in the cause of li berty, than the one we had just li stened to from the li ps of that hunted fugiti ve. So I beli eved at that time—such is my beli ef now. I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded this self-emancipated young man at the North,—even in Massachusetts, on the soil of the Pil grim Fathers, among the descendants of revolutionary sires; and I appealed to them, whether they would ever all ow him to be carried back into slavery,—law or no law, constitution or no constitution. The response was unanimous and in thunder-tones—“ NO!” “ Will you succor and protect him as a brother-man—a resident of the old Bay State?” “ YES!” shouted the whole mass, with an energy so startli ng, that the ruthless tyrants south of Mason and Dixon’ s li ne might almost have heard the mighty burst of feeli ng, and recognized it as the pledge of an invincible determination, on the part of those who gave it, never to betray him that wanders, but to hide the outcast, and firmly to abide the consequences.

It was at once deeply impressed upon my mind, that, if Mr. DOUGLASS could be persuaded to consecrate his time and talents to the promotion of the anti-slavery enterprise, a powerful impetus would be given to it, and a stunning blow at the same time infli cted on northern prejudice against a colored complexion. I therefore endeavored to instil hope and courage into his mind, in order that he might dare to engage in a vocation so anomalous and responsible for a person in his situation; and I was seconded in this eff ort by warm-hearted friends, especially by the late General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. JOHN A. COLL INS, whose judgment in this instance entirely coincided with my own. At first, he could give no encouragement; with unfeigned

PREFACE viii

diff idence, he expressed his conviction that he was not adequate to the performance of so great a task; the path marked out was wholly an untrodden one; he was sincerely apprehensive that he should do more harm than good. After much deli beration, however, he consented to make a trial; and ever since that period, he has acted as a lecturing agent, under the auspices either of the American or the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In labors he has been most abundant; and his success in combating prejudice, in gaining proselytes, in agitating the publi c mind, has far surpassed the most sanguine expectations that were raised at the commencement of his brill iant career. He has borne himself with gentleness and meekness, yet with true manli ness of character. As a publi c speaker, he excels in pathos, wit, comparison, imitation, strength of reasoning, and fluency of language. There is in him that union of head and heart, which is indispensable to an enli ghtenment of the heads and a winning of the hearts of others. May his strength continue to be equal to his day! May he continue to “ grow in grace, and in the knowledge of God,” that he may be increasingly serviceable in the cause of bleeding humanity, whether at home or abroad!

It is certainly a very remarkable fact, that one of the most eff icient advocates of the slave population, now before the publi c, is a fugiti ve slave, in the person of FREDERICK DOUGLASS; and that the free colored population of the United States are as ably represented by one of their own number, in the person of CHARLES LENOX REMOND, whose eloquent appeals have extorted the highest applause of multit udes on both sides of the Atlantic. Let the calumniators of the colored race despise themselves for their baseness and illi berali ty of spirit, and henceforth cease to talk of the natural i nferiority of those who require nothing but time and opportunity to attain to the highest point of human excell ence.

PREFACE ix

It may, perhaps, be fairly questioned, whether any other portion of the population of the earth could have endured the privations, suff erings and horrors of slavery, without having become more degraded in the scale of humanity than the slaves of African descent. Nothing has been left undone to cripple their intell ects, darken their minds, debase their moral nature, oblit erate all t races of their relationship to mankind; and yet how wonderfully they have sustained the mighty load of a most frightful bondage, under which they have been groaning for centuries! To ill ustrate the effect of slavery on the white man,— to show that he has no powers of endurance, in such a conditi on, superior to those of his black brother,—DANIEL O’ CONNELL , the distinguished advocate of universal emancipation, and the mightiest champion of prostrate but not conquered Ireland, relates the foll owing anecdote in a speech deli vered by him in the Concili ation Hall , Dubli n, before the Loyal National Repeal Association, March 31, 1845. “ No matter,” said Mr. O’ CONNELL, “ under what specious term it may disguise itself, slavery is still hideous. It has a natural, an inevitable tendency to brutali ze every noble faculty of man. An American sail or, who was cast away on the shore of Africa, where he was kept in slavery for three years, was, at the expiration of that period, found to be imbruted and stulti fied— he had lost all reasoning power; and having forgotten his native language, could only utter some savage gibberish between Arabic and Engli sh, which nobody could understand, and which even he himself found diff iculty in pronouncing. So much for the humanizing influence of THE DOMESTIC INSTITUTION!” Admitting this to have been an extraordinary case of mental deterioration, it proves at least that the white slave can sink as low in the scale of humanity as the black one.

Mr. DOUGLASS has very properly chosen to write his own Narrative, in his own style, and according to the best of his

PREFACE x

abili ty, rather than to employ some one else. It is, therefore, entirely his own production; and, considering how long and dark was the career he had to run as a slave,—how few have been his opportuniti es to improve his mind since he broke his iron fetters,—it i s, in my judgment, highly creditable to his head and heart. He who can peruse it without a tearful eye, a heaving breast, an affli cted spirit,—without being filled with an unutterable abhorrence of slavery and all it s abettors, and animated with a determination to seek the immediate overthrow of that execrable system,—without trembli ng for the fate of this country in the hands of a righteous God, who is ever on the side of the oppressed, and whose arm is not shortened that it cannot save,—must have a fli nty heart, and be quali fied to act the part of a traff icker “ in slaves and the souls of men.” I am confident that it is essentially true in all it s statements; that nothing has been set down in mali ce, nothing exaggerated, nothing drawn from the imagination; that it comes short of the reali ty, rather than overstates a single fact in regard to SLAVERY AS IT IS. The experience of FREDERICK DOUGLASS, as a slave, was not a peculi ar one; his lot was not especially a hard one; his case may be regarded as a very fair specimen of the treatment of slaves in Maryland, in which State it i s conceded that they are better fed and less cruelly treated than in Georgia, Alabama, or Louisiana. Many have suffered incomparably more, whil e very few on the plantations have suff ered less, than himself. Yet how deplorable was his situation! what terrible chastisements were infli cted upon his person! what still m ore shocking outrages were perpetrated upon his mind! with all his noble powers and sublime aspirations, how li ke a brute was he treated, even by those professing to have the same mind in them that was in Christ Jesus! to what dreadful li abiliti es was he continually subjected! how destitute of friendly counsel and aid, even in his greatest extremities! how heavy was the midnight of woe which

PREFACE xi

shrouded in blackness the last ray of hope, and fill ed the future with terror and gloom! what longings after freedom took possession of his breast, and how his misery augmented, in proportion as he grew reflective and intelli gent,—thus demonstrating that a happy slave is an extinct man! how he thought, reasoned, felt, under the lash of the driver, with the chains upon his limbs! what peril s he encountered in his endeavors to escape from his horrible doom! and how signal have been his deli verance and preservation in the midst of a nation of pitil ess enemies!

This Narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power; but I think the most thrilli ng one of them all is the description DOUGLASS gives of his feeli ngs, as he stood solil oquizing respecting his fate, and the chances of his one day being a freeman, on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay—viewing the receding vessels as they flew with their white wings before the breeze, and apostrophizing them as animated by the li ving spirit of freedom. Who can read that passage, and be insensible to its pathos and sublimity? Compressed into it i s a whole Alexandrian li brary of thought, feeli ng, and sentiment—all t hat can, all t hat need be urged, in the form of expostulation, entreaty, rebuke, against that crime of crimes,—making man the property of his fell ow-man! O, how accursed is that system, which entombs the godli ke mind of man, defaces the divine image, reduces those who by creation were crowned with glory and honor to a level with four-footed beasts, and exalts the dealer in human flesh above all t hat is call ed God! Why should its existence be prolonged one hour? Is it not evil , only evil , and that continually? What does its presence imply but the absence of all fear of God, all regard for man, on the part of the people of the United States? Heaven speed its eternal overthrow!

PREFACE xii

So profoundly ignorant of the nature of slavery are many persons, that they are stubbornly incredulous whenever they read or li sten to any recital of the cruelti es which are daily infli cted on its victims. They do not deny that the slaves are held as property; but that terrible fact seems to convey to their minds no idea of injustice, exposure to outrage, or savage barbarity. Tell t hem of cruel scourgings, of mutil ations and brandings, of scenes of poll ution and blood, of the banishment of all li ght and knowledge, and they affect to be greatly indignant at such enormous exaggerations, such wholesale misstatements, such abominable li bels on the character of the southern planters! As if all t hese direful outrages were not the natural results of slavery! As if it were less cruel to reduce a human being to the conditi on of a thing, than to give him a severe flagell ation, or to deprive him of necessary food and clothing! As if whips, chains, thumb-screws, paddles, bloodhounds, overseers, drivers, patrols, were not all indispensable to keep the slaves down, and to give protection to their ruthless oppressors! As if, when the marriage institution is aboli shed, concubinage, adultery, and incest, must not necessarily abound; when all t he rights of humanity are annihil ated, any barrier remains to protect the victim from the fury of the spoil er; when absolute power is assumed over li fe and li berty, it will not be wielded with destructive sway! Skeptics of this character abound in society. In some few instances, their increduli ty arises from a want of reflection; but, generally, it i ndicates a hatred of the light, a desire to shield slavery from the assaults of its foes, a contempt of the colored race, whether bond or free. Such will t ry to discredit the shocking tales of slaveholding cruelty which are recorded in this truthful Narrative; but they will l abor in vain. Mr. DOUGLASS has frankly disclosed the place of his birth, the names of those who claimed ownership in his body and soul, and the names

PREFACE xiii

also of those who committed the crimes which he has all eged against them. His statements, therefore, may easily be disproved, if they are untrue.

In the course of his Narrative, he relates two instances of murderous cruelty,—in one of which a planter deliberately shot a slave belonging to a neighboring plantation, who had unintentionally gotten within his lordly domain in quest of fish; and in the other, an overseer blew out the brains of a slave who had fled to a stream of water to escape a bloody scourging. Mr. DOUGLASS states that in neither of these instances was any thing done by way of legal arrest or judicial i nvestigation. The Baltimore American, of March 17, 1845, relates a simil ar case of atrocity, perpetrated with simil ar impunity—as foll ows:— “ Shooting a slave.—We learn, upon the authority of a letter from Charles county, Maryland, received by a gentleman of this city, that a young man, named Matthews, a nephew of General Matthews, and whose father, it i s beli eved, holds an off ice at Washington, kill ed one of the slaves upon his father’ s farm by shooting him. The letter states that young Matthews had been left in charge of the farm; that he gave an order to the servant, which was disobeyed, when he proceeded to the house, obtained a gun, and, returning, shot the servant. He immediately, the letter continues, fled to his father’ s residence, where he still remains unmolested.” —Let it never be forgotten, that no slaveholder or overseer can be convicted of any outrage perpetrated on the person of a slave, however diaboli cal it may be, on the testimony of colored witnesses, whether bond or free. By the slave code, they are adjudged to be as incompetent to testify against a white man, as though they were indeed a part of the brute creation. Hence, there is no legal protection in fact, whatever there may be in form, for the slave population; and any amount of cruelty may be infli cted on them with impunity.

PREFACE xiv

Is it possible for the human mind to conceive of a more horrible state of society?

The effect of a religious profession on the conduct of southern masters is vividly described in the foll owing Narrative, and shown to be any thing but salutary. In the nature of the case, it must be in the highest degree pernicious. The testimony of Mr. DOUGLASS, on this point, is sustained by a cloud of witnesses, whose veracity is unimpeachable. “ A slaveholder’ s profession of Christianity is a palpable imposture. He is a felon of the highest grade. He is a man-stealer. It is of no importance what you put in the other scale.”

Reader! are you with the man-stealers in sympathy and purpose, or on the side of their down-trodden victims? If with the former, then are you the foe of God and man. If with the latter, what are you prepared to do and dare in their behalf? Be faithful, be vigil ant, be untiring in your eff orts to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Come what may—cost what it may—inscribe on the banner which you unfurl to the breeze, as your religious and politi cal motto—“ NO COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY! NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS!”

WM. LL OYD GARRISON.

BOSTON, May 1, 1845.

LETTER

FROM WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ.

BOSTON, April 22, 1845.

My Dear Friend: You remember the old fable of “ The Man and

the Lion,” where the li on complained that he should not be so misrepresented “ when the li ons wrote history.”

I am glad the time has come when the “ li ons write history.” We have been left long enough to gather the character of slavery from the involuntary evidence of the masters. One might, indeed, rest suff iciently satisfied with what, it i s evident, must be, in general, the results of such a relation, without seeking farther to find whether they have foll owed in every instance. Indeed, those who stare at the half-peck of corn a week, and love to count the lashes on the slave’ s back, are seldom the “ stuff ” out of which reformers and aboliti onists are to be made. I remember that, in 1838, many were waiti ng for the results of the West India experiment, before they could come into our ranks. Those “ results” have come long ago; but, alas! few of that number have come with them, as converts. A man must be disposed to judge of emancipation by other tests than whether it has increased the produce of sugar,—and to hate slavery for other reasons than because it starves men and whips women,—before he is ready to lay the first stone of his anti- slavery li fe.

LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILL IPS, ESQ. xvi

I was glad to learn, in your story, how early the most neglected of God’ s chil dren waken to a sense of their rights, and of the injustice done them. Experience is a keen teacher; and long before you had mastered your A B C, or knew where the “ white sail s” of the Chesapeake were bound, you began, I see, to gauge the wretchedness of the slave, not by his hunger and want, not by his lashes and toil , but by the cruel and blighting death which gathers over his soul.

In connection with this, there is one circumstance which makes your recoll ections peculi arly valuable, and renders your early insight the more remarkable. You come from that part of the country where we are told slavery appears with its fairest features. Let us hear, then, what it is at its best estate—gaze on its bright side, if it has one; and then imagination may task her powers to add dark li nes to the picture, as she travels southward to that (for the colored man) Vall ey of the Shadow of Death, where the Mississippi sweeps along.

Again, we have known you long, and can put the most entire confidence in your truth, candor, and sincerity. Every one who has heard you speak has felt, and, I am confident, every one who reads your book will feel, persuaded that you give them a fair specimen of the whole truth. No one-sided portrait,—no wholesale complaints,—but strict justice done, whenever individual kindli ness has neutrali zed, for a moment, the deadly system with which it was strangely alli ed. You have been with us, too, some years, and can fairly compare the twili ght of rights, which your race enjoy at the North, with that “ noon of night” under which they labor south of Mason and Dixon’ s line. Tell us whether, after all , the half-f ree colored man of Massachusetts is worse off than the pampered slave of the rice swamps!

In reading your li fe, no one can say that we have unfairly picked out some rare specimens of cruelty. We know that the

LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILL IPS, ESQ. xvii

bitter drops, which even you have drained from the cup, are no incidental aggravations, no individual ill s, but such as must mingle always and necessarily in the lot of every slave. They are the essential i ngredients, not the occasional results, of the system.

After all , I shall read your book with trembli ng for you. Some years ago, when you were beginning to tell me your real name and birthplace, you may remember I stopped you, and preferred to remain ignorant of all . With the exception of a vague description, so I continued, til l the other day, when you read me your memoirs. I hardly knew, at the time, whether to thank you or not for the sight of them, when I reflected that it was still dangerous, in Massachusetts, for honest men to tell their names! They say the fathers, in 1776, signed the Declaration of Independence with the halter about their necks. You, too, publi sh your declaration of freedom with danger compassing you around. In all t he broad lands which the Constitution of the United States overshadows, there is no single spot,—however narrow or desolate,—where a fugiti ve slave can plant himself and say, “ I am safe.” The whole armory of Northern Law has no shield for you. I am free to say that, in your place, I should throw the MS. into the fire.

You, perhaps, may tell your story in safety, endeared as you are to so many warm hearts by rare gifts, and a still rarer devotion of them to the service of others. But it will be owing only to your labors, and the fearless efforts of those who, trampli ng the laws and Constitution of the country under their feet, are determined that they will “ hide the outcast,” and that their hearths shall be, spite of the law, an asylum for the oppressed, if, some time or other, the humblest may stand in our streets, and bear witness in safety against the cruelti es of which he has been the victim.

LETTER FROM WENDELL PHILL IPS, ESQ. xviii

Yet it is sad to think, that these very throbbing hearts which welcome your story, and form your best safeguard in telling it, are all beating contrary to the “ statute in such case made and provided.” Go on, my dear friend, till you, and those who, li ke you, have been saved, so as by fire, from the dark prison-house, shall stereotype these free, ill egal pulses into statutes; and New England, cutting loose from a blood-stained Union, shall glory in being the house of refuge for the oppressed;—till we no longer merely “ hide the outcast,” or make a merit of standing idly by whil e he is hunted in our midst; but, consecrating anew the soil of the Pilgrims as an asylum for the oppressed, proclaim our welcome to the slave so loudly, that the tones shall reach every hut in the Caroli nas, and make the broken-hearted bondman leap up at the thought of old Massachusetts.

God speed the day!

Till t hen, and ever,

Yours truly,

WENDELL PHILL IPS.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

NARRATIVE

OF THE

LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.

CHAPTER I. I WAS born in Tuckahoe, near Hill sborough, and about

twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland. I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as littl e of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it i s the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant. I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall -time. A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during chil dhood. The white chil dren could tell t heir ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privil ege. I was not all owed to make any inquiries of my master concerning it. He deemed all such inquiries on the part of a slave improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit. The nearest estimate I can give makes me now between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years of age. I come to this, from hearing my master say, some time during 1835, I was about seventeen years old.

My mother was named Harriet Bail ey. She was the daughter of Isaac and Betsey Bail ey, both colored, and quite

NARRATIVE OF THE 2

dark. My mother was of a darker complexion than either my grandmother or grandfather.

My father was a white man. He was admitted to be such by all I ever heard speak of my parentage. The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing; the means of knowing was withheld from me. My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant—before I knew her as my mother. It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part chil dren from their mothers at a very early age. Frequently, before the chil d has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it, and hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, and the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor. For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the development of the chil d’ s affection toward its mother, and to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the chil d. This is the inevitable result.

I never saw my mother, to know her as such, more than four or five times in my li fe; and each of these times was very short in duration, and at night. She was hired by a Mr. Stewart, who li ved about twelve miles from my home. She made her journeys to see me in the night, travelli ng the whole distance on foot, after the performance of her day’ s work. She was a field hand, and a whipping is the penalty of not being in the field at sunrise, unless a slave has special permission from his or her master to the contrary—a permission which they seldom get, and one that gives to him that gives it the proud name of being a kind master. I do not recoll ect of ever seeing my mother by the li ght of day. She was with me in the night. She would li e down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone. Very littl e communication ever took place between us. Death soon ended what little we could have whil e she li ved, and

LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 3

with it her hardships and suff ering. She died when I was about seven years old, on one of my master’ s farms, near Lee’ s Mill . I was not all owed to be present during her ill ness, at her death, or burial. She was gone long before I knew any thing about it. 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.

Call ed thus suddenly away, she left me without the sli ghtest intimation of who my father was. The whisper that my master was my father, may or may not be true; and, true or false, it i s of but littl e consequence to my purpose whil st the fact remains, in all it s glaring odiousness, that slaveholders have ordained, and by law establi shed, that the chil dren of slave women shall i n all cases foll ow the conditi on of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own lusts, and make a gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not a few, sustains to his slaves the double relation of master and father.

I know of such cases; and it i s worthy of remark that such slaves invariably suff er greater hardships, and have more to contend with, than others. They are, in the first place, a constant off ence to their mistress. She is ever disposed to find fault with them; they can seldom do any thing to please her; she is never better pleased than when she sees them under the lash, especially when she suspects her husband of showing to his mulatto chil dren favors which he withholds from his black slaves. The master is frequently compell ed to sell t his class of his slaves, out of deference to the feeli ngs of his white wife; and, cruel as the deed may strike any one to be, for a man to sell his own chil dren to human flesh-mongers, it i s often the dictate of humanity for him to do so; for, unless he does this, he must

NARRATIVE OF THE 4

not only whip them himself, but must stand by and see one white son tie up his brother, of but few shades darker complexion than himself, and ply the gory lash to his naked back; and if he li sp one word of disapproval, it is set down to his parental partiali ty, and only makes a bad matter worse, both for himself and the slave whom he would protect and defend.

Every year brings with it multit udes of this class of slaves. It was doubtless in consequence of a knowledge of this fact, that one great statesman of the south predicted the downfall of slavery by the inevitable laws of population. Whether this prophecy is ever fulfill ed or not, it i s nevertheless plain that a very different-looking class of people are springing up at the south, and are now held in slavery, from those originally brought to this country from Africa; and if their increase do no other good, it will do away the force of the argument, that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right. If the li neal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved, it i s certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural; for thousands are ushered into the world, annually, who, li ke myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters.

I have had two masters. My first master’ s name was Anthony. I do not remember his first name. He was generally call ed Captain Anthony—a titl e which, I presume, he acquired by saili ng a craft on the Chesapeake Bay. He was not considered a rich slaveholder. He owned two or three farms, and about thirty slaves. His farms and slaves were under the care of an overseer. The overseer’ s name was Plummer. Mr. Plummer was a miserable drunkard, a profane swearer, and a savage monster. He always went armed with a cowskin and a heavy cudgel. I have known him to cut and slash the women’ s heads so horribly, that even master would be enraged at his cruelty, and would threaten to whip him if he did not mind

LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 5

himself. Master, however, was not a humane slaveholder. It required extraordinary barbarity on the part of an overseer to aff ect him. He was a cruel man, hardened by a long li fe of slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an own aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was lit erally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a chil d, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whil st I remember any thing. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It was the blood- stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feeli ngs with which I beheld it.

This occurrence took place very soon after I went to li ve with my old master, and under the foll owing circumstances. Aunt Hester went out one night,—where or for what I do not know,—and happened to be absent when my master desired her presence. He had ordered her not to go out evenings, and warned her that she must never let him catch her in company with a young man, who was paying attention to her belonging to Colonel Lloyd. The young man’ s name was Ned Roberts, generally call ed Lloyd’ s Ned. Why master was so careful of her, may be safely left to conjecture. She was a woman of noble form, and of graceful proportions, having very few equals, and

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fewer superiors, in personal appearance, among the colored or white women of our neighborhood.

Aunt Hester had not only disobeyed his orders in going out, but had been found in company with Lloyd’ s Ned; which circumstance, I found, from what he said whil e whipping her, was the chief off ence. 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 such virtue. Before he commenced whipping Aunt Hester, he took her into the kitchen, and stripped her from neck to waist, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back, entirely naked. He then told her to cross her hands, calli ng her at the same time a d——d b——h. After crossing her hands, he tied them with a strong rope, and led her to a stool under a large hook in the joist, put in for the purpose. He made her get upon the stool, and tied her hands to the hook. She now stood fair for his infernal purpose. Her arms were stretched up at their full l ength, so that she stood upon the ends of her toes. He then said to her, “ Now, you d——d b——h, I’ ll l earn you how to disobey my orders!” and after rolli ng up his sleeves, he commenced to lay on the heavy cowskin, and soon the warm, red blood (amid heart- rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor. I was so terrified and horror-stricken at the sight, that I hid myself in a closet, and dared not venture out til l long after the bloody transaction was over. I expected it would be my turn next. It was all new to me. I had never seen any thing li ke it before. I had always li ved with my grandmother on the outskirts of the plantation, where she was put to raise the chil dren of the younger women. I had therefore been, until now, out of the way of the bloody scenes that often occurred on the plantation.

LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS 7

CHAPTER II. MY master’ s family consisted of two sons, Andrew and

Richard; one daughter, Lucretia, and her husband, Captain Thomas Auld. They li ved in one house, upon the home plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd. My master was Colonel Lloyd’ s clerk and superintendent. He was what might be call ed the overseer of the overseers. I spent two years of chil dhood on this plantation in my old master’ s family. It was here that I witnessed the bloody transaction recorded in the first chapter; and as I received my first impressions of slavery on this plantation, I will give some description of it, and of slavery as it there existed. The plantation is about twelve miles north of Easton, in Talbot county, and is situated on the border of Mil es River. The principal products raised upon it were tobacco, corn, and wheat. These were raised in great abundance; so that, with the products of this and the other farms belonging to him, he was able to keep in almost constant employment a large sloop, in carrying them to market at Baltimore. This sloop was named Sally Lloyd, in honor of one of the colonel’ s daughters. My master’ s son-in-law, Captain Auld, was master of the vessel; she was otherwise manned by the colonel’ s own slaves. Their names were Peter, Isaac, Rich, and Jake. These were esteemed very highly by the other slaves, and looked upon as the privil eged ones of the plantation; for it was no small aff air, in the eyes of the slaves, to be all owed to see Baltimore.

Colonel Lloyd kept from three to four hundred slaves on his home plantation, and owned a large number more on the neighboring farms belonging to him. The names of the farms nearest to the home plantation were Wye Town and New

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Design. “ Wye Town” was under the overseership of a man named Noah Willi s. New Design was under the overseership of a Mr. Townsend. The overseers of these, and all t he rest of the farms, numbering over twenty, received advice and direction from the managers of the home plantation. This was the great business place. It was the seat of government for the whole twenty farms. All disputes among the overseers were settled here. If a slave was convicted of any high misdemeanor, became unmanageable, or evinced a determination to run away, he was brought immediately here, severely whipped, put on board the sloop, carried to Baltimore, and sold to Austin Woolfolk, or some other slave-trader, as a warning to the slaves remaining.

Here, too, the slaves of all t he other farms received their monthly all owance of food, and their yearly clothing. The men and women slaves received, as their monthly all owance of food, eight pounds of pork, or its equivalent in fish, and one bushel of corn meal. Their yearly clothing consisted of two coarse li nen shirts, one pair of li nen trousers, li ke the shirts, one jacket, one pair of trousers for winter, made of coarse negro cloth, one pair of stockings, and one pair of shoes; the whole of which could not have cost more than seven doll ars. The allowance of the slave chil dren was given to their mothers, or the old women having the care of them. The chil dren unable to work in the field had neither shoes, stockings, jackets, nor trousers, given to them; their clothing consisted of two coarse linen shirts per year. When these fail ed them, they went naked until t he next all owance-day. Chil dren from seven to