Study Guide for Frederick Douglass’ Writings

• Supplementary Resource

Visit this website for a detailed timeline of Frederick Douglass’ life.  It is amazing!

• Critical-thinking Questions

1. In his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, what is the first incident that awakens Douglass to the horrors of slavery? Describe the incident. What are the many implications of this act? He sees his own aunt being beaten mercilessly and wonders if he will be next. As an adult he writes that he realizes that this was one of the first times he really became aware that he was enslaved and what the horrors of that position entailed. He saw the injustice and the cruelty and was forever scarred. His world-view grew at that moment as he became aware of what outrages could be perpetrated against an innocent slave.

 

2. What interferes with Mrs. Auld’s efforts to teach Douglass to read? What does Douglass overhear that is revelatory and shapes his life?  How does Douglass learn to read?       Mrs. Auld is hardened and no longer tutors him. Slavery hurts Mrs. Auld as much as it hurts Douglass himself. The mentality of slavery strips her of her inherent piety and sympathy for others, making her hardened and cruel.

 

3. Describe Douglass’ critical encounters with Mr. Covey and, later, with the apprentices in Mr. Gardner’s shipyard. How does Douglass’ conduct in these situations reflect a change that is occurring within him? Douglass had retained much of his individuality in the bonds of servitude. As he grew older, however, he lamented how learning only made him more miserable, especially during periods where he had some sense of freedom and leisure. At Covey’s farm he had neither; here he experienced his nadir – his lowest, basest, most dehumanizing experience within a lifetime of slavery. This is the moment before the climax, of course; Douglass would eventually find the strength to resist Covey and succeed in asserting his manhood. However, while he was with Covey he typified the experience of many slaves. He did not use his intellect, his body was not his own, he was devoid of happiness and hope, and he lost sight of his personality and individuality. Covey was thus quite successful as a breaker of slaves, at least until Douglass finally fought back.
4. In “A Parody,” what hymn is Douglass parodying? Do you find the poem effective?  How did Douglass use this parody as a tool to reveal the hypocrisy of Christian slaveholders?  “Heavenly Union,” that he would sometimes sing at Abolitionist meetings. This is Douglass’s Weird Al Yankovic moment. The original hymn was well known in white churches, but in Douglass’s version, the joke is that none of the people singing it are actually part of any real union of humanity. When they go back home after church, they become slaveholders again.

 

5. Create a parody on a topic that is of great concern to you today and that needs to be corrected. Can you make this a parody of a hymn popular today?

 

6. If you were to write a narrative of your life, what would be the revelatory moments? What truths have you come to understand through hardship? I would mention when I started living on my own and had to mature quicker than my friends back home because I had to start taking care of myself while they were taken care of by their parents, another revelatory moment would be the death of my father and how it showed me the importance of a paternal figure in a persons life.

 

7. Can you envision your making a difference in relation to an injustice in our modern society? What are some of the ways that you have had or can have influence to make the world a better place?  In what ways would you consider Douglass a role model for effecting change?

yes i can envision myself doing it, stopping bullying when it is noticeable and trying to help and protect the people the are not able to do it themselves. Some other ways would be teaching young people to be more respectful and patient towards other people. I think he is a role model because he expresses everything he feels and actually tries and makes a big effort on improving things.