This five-star story is story written by Frederick Douglass. Content warning: slavery
I chose to read this as my “diverse non-fiction” for Diversity Bingo 2017, since Frederick Douglass has fascinated me after the Epic Rap Battle featuring him vs Thomas Jeffersson. I got it for free via project Gutenberg.
No regrets. Douglass had a mind that I’m not sure was rivalled by anyone in his time. The way he wrote, the way he spoke: the language was rich and varied, and it was a pleasure to read. He has an interesting detachment, that I wasn’t expecting, when talking about his life both as a slave and as free.
Some of his "masters" treated him well, others treated him horrifyingly. He was beaten, denied human dignity, and still, he could regard them cooly, without prejudice. I’ll never know how he could do that: he treated them fairly. He recognised their good sides as well, which I don’t think I could.
One of the most interesting theories he put forth is that the slave has to be treated badly to remain a slave.
A slave under a bad master wants to live. A slave under a good master wants the best master. A slave under the best master wants to be his own master.
That, to me, is one of the key things to take from this incredible man: the trans-Atlantic slave trade wasn’t just bad because black people were treated badly. Not because of the torture, etc. But because they took fellow humans and made them into cattle. Property that was fed, clothed, given a roof over their heads, not because it was the right thing to do, but because it raised their value as property.
Another of the interesting points was comparing how he was treated in the US and in England. In the US, even by white abolitionists, he felt Othered. The anti-blackness was tangible even among those who were anti-slavery and fought against their instincts. In England, he was occasionally seen as exotic, but he was a man among men, not something a step up from a mindless, savage beast.
I wonder, how far could he have gotten if he’d had all the privilege of his white peers? Or would he instead have settled, when not needing to fight tooth and claw for himself? We will never know, though I am glad that his writings are still around.
Everyone should read this.