My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)

My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) Frederick Douglass

Historical Context:

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland, and was named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He later changed his last name to Douglass, from a character in a book, published by Walter Scott. He managed to escape slaver, at age 20, in 1838. Frederick Douglass was a great polemicist (debater). He published three versions of his autobiography, starting 1845. "My Bondage and My Freedom was his most polished and detailed of his experience of slavery. He was not sure of his date of birth, and did not have knowledge of who his parents were. Trees of genealogy had no roots among slaves. He could not document any slaves that knew their exact age. Very few slave mothers knew the months of the year, or the days of the month. His age was not known, because the slave masters refused to respond to his questions, regarding his birth records. Frederick, in his wittiness, using some dates that h e had acquired, assumed that he was born about the year of 1817.

Main Points:

I. The great aim of slavery is to reduce man to a level with the brute (beast), and obliterate, from the mind and heart of the slave, all just ideas of the sacredness of the family.

II. Slavery leads to disfunctional families.

A. Slave masters were often master and father to the same child. B. Frederick Douglass' father was a white man, or nearly white, and rumor was that his master was his father. C. The laws of slavery protected the slave masters in their denial of fathering slave children.

III. Ignorance is a high virtue in a human chattel (slave).

A. Frederick Douglass; slave master, Hugh, gave a lecture on anti-slavery.

IV. The direct pathway from slavery to freedom is knowledge.

Historical Significance:

Frederick Douglass' autobiography, "My Bondage and My Freedom", was the most complete of his three autobiography's, and contributed to the courage of later generations. It encouraged them to seek and fight for the God given right as a free human being. Civil rights activist, that included Martin Luther King, jr, were encouraged through the brevity of Frederick Douglass. The impact of his autobiography contributed to the freedom that is enjoyed by all men now. This freedom is the result of the blood, sweat and tears of those that were treated lake beast. the water of the sweat and tears fertilized the path to freedom.