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In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, Frederick Douglass faces the problem of detailing his transformation from slave to man in a manner which is acceptable to both his audience and his own authorial purpose. Douglass must walk the thin line between being powerful and being threatening to his white audience. He attempts to avoid becoming a threat by appropriating the image of a self-made man, as defined in William E. Channing's essay entitled "Self-Culture." Douglass constructs his manhood in terms of civilization, a tactic later employed by Ida B. Wells in her anti-lynching campaign. Although physical strength and the escape from civilization into the wilderness was an equally popular construction of manhood at the time, Douglass follows Channing's belief that true manhood is achieved through knowledge, the mastery of letters and cultivation of manners. This conception of masculinity centers around moral uprightness and self-control as a means of suppressing passions and desires, the latter being something that most of Douglass' masters lacked. If civilization indicates manhood, then the brutal masters described in Narrative are not men at all. This reversal makes Douglass, the slave turned self-cultured man, a representation of true manhood.
According to Channing, every man has the potential to be a great man. Through self-culture, and the resulting moral and intellectual growth, men can expand and live up their potentials, becoming ideal men. Channing understands moral sense as the suppression of passions and desires that are inherent in human nature, but are not good for soul.
When a man looks into himself, he discovers...desires, appetites, passions, which terminate in himself, which crave and seek his own interest, gratification, distinction; and he discovers another principle, an antagonist to these which is impartial, disinterested, universal, enjoining on him a regard to the rights and happiness of other beings, and laying on him obligations which must be discharged, cost what they may or however they may clash with his particular pleasure or gain. (Channing 15)
Channing divides man's inner principles into two separate orders: self-interest and duty. The most important part in recognizing the difference is to understand that the sense of duty must win out over personal desire. Self-control or discipline which results in moral principle is the work of self-culture and Channing believes it is the way to make all men great. However, moral fortitude alone does not make a great man.
The intellectual principle, thought important in its own right, serves as an enhancement of the moral sense in man, in a way as an outward sign of inner virtue. Also, Channing argues that self-control aids the growth of the faculties, and so the moral and intellectual principles depend upon and enhance each other.
Now I reverence, as much as any man, the intellect; but let us never exalt it above the moral principle With this it is most intimately connected. In this its culture is founded, and to exalt this is its highest aim. Whoever desires that his intellect may grow up to soundness, to healthy vigor, must begin with moral discipline. Reading and study are not enough to perfect the power of thought. One thing above all is needful, and that is, the disinterestedness which is the very soul of virtue. (16)
In order to successfully acquire knowledge and expand the intellect, a man must have a firm moral principle. In this respect, Douglass differs from Channing in his valuation of intellect. Although he values moral sense, the knowledge of reading and writing is crucial to Douglass' self-culture and his eventual freedom.
The relationship between "civilization" and Channing's definition of self-culture lies in one measuring the other. A self-cultured man is a civilized man. However, another concept of civilization, that concerning the progress of races, plays an important role in Douglass' narrative. By becoming a civilized, and self-cultured man, he rids himself of the label of barbaric savage. Instead, Douglass applies the label to his white masters. This a dangerous and important reversal because in a time when black men were not treated as men, but as chattel, white men were supposed to embody "manliness." However, Douglass recognizes the disparity between civilization and manliness in his white masters, and strives to reinvent the definition of manhood in himself. He concentrates on power as the definitive trait of a true man. This power is not necessarily a physical strength, but a combination of self-control, psychological strength, and most importantly, the power of knowledge.
Douglass' Narrative follows his life from slave to man and starts on
the plantation. Douglass' road to manhood begins with his removal from the
plantation to a house in the city. He differentiates his life in the city from
his life on the plantation through a specific concept of "civilization." For
Douglass, the plantation is the representation of the corrupt Southern
wilderness. In contrast to the city, where he first discovers reading and
writing, the plantation is the home of savage and unrestrained white masters.
Unlike some conceptions of the city as the root of evil and corruption, Douglass sees the city as more civilized than the plantation. His reaction to being sent to work for Mr. Auld in the city demonstrates this idea:
I spent the most of all these three days in the creek, washing off the plantation scurf, and preparing myself for my departure. The pride of appearance which this would indicate was not my own. I spent the time in washing, not so much because I wished to, but because Mrs. Lucretia had told me I must get all the dead skin off my feet and knees before I could go to Baltimore; for the people in Baltimore were very cleanly, and would laugh at me if I looked dirty. Besides, she was going to give me a pair of trousers, which I should not put on unless I got all the dirt off me. The thought of owning a pair of trousers was great indeed! It was almost a sufficient motive, not only to make me take off what would be called by pig-drovers the mange, but the skin itself. I went at it in good earnest, working for the first time with the hope of reward. (Douglass 44)
This passage reveals the image of the city, Baltimore, as seen by Douglass' fellow slaves. Even though he points out that he did not really care about his personal cleanliness, an older slave woman did because she believed people living in Baltimore were very clean. The city is seen as a clean, civilized space and Douglass had to be clean off the plantation dirt in order to go there.
In addition to the reputation of the clean city, Douglass' reasons for cleaning himself up included the reward of a pair of trousers. Before this, his wardrobe, if one can even call it that, consisted of only a "coarse tow linen shirt" reaching to his knees. This he wore year round with "no shoes, no stockings, no jacket, no trousers" [emphasis mine](43). The opportunity to own a pair of trousers represents a step towards a more civilized state to Douglass. The clothing needed to go to Baltimore reflects the civilization of the city in comparison to the savage wilderness of the plantation where Douglass ran around almost naked. Later on, when he had been in Baltimore for some time, he notes that "a city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation" (50). With his move to the city, Douglass begins his self-culture and specifically emphasizes the literacy which is integral to this civilizing process and freedom.
Douglass' move to Baltimore introduces him to reading and writing. At first, it was merely something which interested and appealed to Douglass because the kindly Mrs. Auld taught him. However, with Mr. Auld's discovery and subsequent termination of the lessons, this knowledge becomes the key to both his physical and psychological freedom.
"...Now," said he [Mr. Auld], "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be keeping him. I would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. I would make him discontented and unhappy." These words...stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and call into existence an entirely new train of thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things....I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty--to wit, the white man's power to enslave the black man. It was a grand achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. (49)
Mr. Auld's speech to his wife reveals to Douglass that the lack of literacy and knowledge has allowed the white man to enslave the black race. From this point on, he sets out to learn how to read and write through any means possible. He set up lessons with the neighborhood white boys in exchange for food, snuck books into his room and sought lessons at the ship-yard. For the seven years he was in the city, Douglass secretly learned to read and write through various ways which were all risky because he was constantly watched to prevent him from getting lessons. The lengths to which he went to learn to read and write indicate how valuable Douglass thought literacy to be in his fight for freedom.
Douglass demonstrates the importance of the intellectual principle in his self-culture and freedom quite explicitly. The role in which his writing plays in one of his escape attempts shows that knowledge is not an intangible concept. In fact, it had very real, practical applications in his life. While the intellectual principle is seen in these terms, Douglass' defines his own moral sense in opposition to his masters' lack of such virtue. Following Channing's assertion that moral principle, and therefore self-control, is the foundation of manhood, Douglass sets out to represent his white masters as lacking self-control, and as a result, lacking in "civilization." In contrast to his masters, Douglass then appears as the embodiment of manhood. Throughout the narrative, he repeatedly refers to various overseers and masters as "savage" and "barbaric." The lack of self-control in regards to the punishment of slaves, especially women, is crucial to Douglass' goal of reversing the roles of man and savage. In one particular incident, Douglass witnesses the whipping of an aunt:
He [Captain Anthony] 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 literally 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. (25)
In his description of his aunt's whippings, Douglass conveys both the horror of the act and the master's lack of self-control. No doubt the fact that he is so brutal to female slaves makes him out to be even more of a monster. By giving in to his anger, impatience or whatever passions he may have, the master shows himself to not be a self-cultured man with moral principles that subordinate self-interested desires.
Another indication of the white man's lack of self-culture is his inability to suppress sexual desires and passions. This lack of self-control shows up throughout the text, though sometimes not very explicitly. As the son of a black slave woman and a white master, Douglass' existence carries with it the connotations of the uncontrolled sexual passions and desires of his father. Although the whipping of slave women is not exactly the unleashing of sexual passion on the part of the slave master, the connection between whipping and rape, both violent acts, is not lost on Douglass. For the most part, the uncontrolled actions of masters are all violent or sexual in nature. For this reason, Douglass deliberately presents himself as the complete opposite of the white masters in his narrative. Though Douglass' intention is to show how "a slave becomes a man," he says nothing about his sexuality. Douglass does not present himself as overly sexual, in fact he is not sexualized at all in the sense that we hear about his relationship with his wife. In part, he omits this part of his life because he also wants to portray himself as the civilized, self-controlled man.
The culmination of his self-culture occurs in the pivotal confrontation with Mr. Covey. This occurs after Douglass has returned from Baltimore and learned to read and write. At this point, Douglass decides to fight back, no longer passively accepting Covey's physical and psychological claim on him.
Mr. Covey seemed to think he had me, and could what he pleased; but at this moment---from whence came the spirit I don't know--I resolved to fight; and suiting my action to the resolution, I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose. He held on to me, and I to him. My resistance was so entirely unexpected, that Covey seemed taken all aback. He trembled like a leaf. This gave me assurance, and I held uneasy, causing the blood to run where I touched him with the ends of my fingers. (81-82)
Douglass physically resists and defeats Covey, in a way that can be perceived as lacking in self-control. However, in comparison to Covey's self-control, Douglass is the better representation of a self-cultured man. He specifically manipulates the rhetoric to his advantage. Throughout the text, Covey has been painted as the cruel and savage overseer, beating both men and women, and even buying a slave woman for breeding purposes. By defeating Covey, Douglass becomes a man in his own mind and prevails over a master who displays no characteristics of self-control and self-culture.
This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again with a determination to be free....My long-crushed spirit rose, cowardice departed, bold defiance took its place; and I now resolved that, however long I might remain a slave in form, the day had passed forever when I could be a slave in fact. (82-83)
Douglass achieves a physical victory on the outside, but more importantly he becomes psychologically free from Covey. This is an indication of Douglass' self-culture because to him, the freedom of his mind is more important than that of his body. Instead of looking to outward signs for manhood, such as strength and wealth, Douglass, like Channing, finds true manhood located in the strength of morals and intellect. One truly senses the change taking place in Douglass as he feels himself becoming a true man.
A Young Frederick Douglass
Faced with the task of telling his life story, his transformation from slave to man, Douglass uses a definition of manhood that exposes the savagery and barbarism of slavery and the white men who benefit from it. Appropriating Channing's idea of self-culture, Douglass documents his life as a process of self-culture and focuses on the enhancement of his intellect through literacy as the catalyst for his transformation. He establishes his moral principles, not by describing his own self-control, but by revealing his masters' lack of self-control. The masters are revealed as cruel and barbaric, possessing none of the qualities of a civilized man. In this way, Douglass represents the true man that his masters are incapable of being. The image of this civilized man is reinforced by Douglass' narrative voice which takes on the Harvard style tone, that sounds much like Channing's voice in "Self-Culture." This tactic may have been to support his use of Channing's ideas, but it also gave Douglass the unique position of speaking in the same style as his audience. This would perhaps be unexpected by his white Northern audience, but nevertheless reinforces Douglass' civility. By taking popular conceptions of civilization, self-control and literacy, and applying them to himself, Douglass invents in himself the representation of true manhood.
WORKS CITED
Channing, William E. The Works of William E. Channing. Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1875.
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written By Himself. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1968.
Questions? Contact Elisa Wong at ewong@Reed.edu