The psychological effects of slavery, as recounted by Frederick Douglass, are scarring and horrific. In a time when many people thought that the singing of slaves was a sign that they were happy with their lot, Frederick gives his own life experience to counter that assumption. When slaves were on their way to get their allowance and work on the Great Farm (a sign of good conduct, causing enthusiasm among those chose to work there), they indeed would sing songs. However, Douglass recounts the sad tones of these songs that told a tale of woe; albeit mostly incomprehensible, they represented a testimony against slavery. Hearing these desperate and cathartic voices would bring Frederick to tears and further his disgust with slavery. Does anyone else wish that there were recordings of these songs? Listening to them seems moving; perhaps these telling songs were the roots of blues music, which typically takes a sad thing and expresses it to release it.
Douglass gives accounts of great cruelties: the separation of the mother from the child (with the child bound to slavery as well, to satisfy masters' lusts and profit), the intense whippings by cruel overseers, and the lack of free time to tend one's own projects, resulting in sleep deprivation. How do you think these (and other banes of slavery given) had an effect on the psychology and culture of the early African American? How has this manifested through later history?
I can't seem to find the "add post" on the top right-hand corner of the blog. So I'm posting my "resource" here. Sorry Matthew !
ReplyDelete"Literacy and articulation are very closely linked for Douglass. During his struggle to learn how to read, he says, some anti-slavery arguments "gave tongue to interesting thoughts of my own soul, which had frequently flashed through my mind, and died away for want of utterance... The reading of these documents enabled me to utter my thoughts" (84, chapt. 7). The acts of reading and writing, together one of the major explicit themes of the Narrative, are even more important than audience, for while the latter develops for Douglass once he is free, the former are necessary for that freedom. Upon having learned what literacy is, Douglass "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" (78, chapt. 6). The pathway, that of learning to read and write, is paved with the ability to address through the written medium, the potential to gain vast stores of knowledge and ideas, the opportunity to clarify thought and reflect, the possibility of forging one's own free pass, and other wonderful prospects. The importance of literacy is not at all subjectively delineated; the very idea was sparked by Mr. Auld, who "gave me the best assurance that I might rely with the utmost confidence on the results which, he said, would flow from teaching me to read" (79, chapt. 6)."
David Stalder, Reed College, 1997 on the Academic Website of the Reed College :
http://academic.reed.edu/english/courses/english341nn/studpages/david/index.html
In chapter 6 but also throughout the book, Douglas points out the importance of literacy : as explained to him by Hugh Auld, illiteracy is the way for owners to hold their hand onto the slaves.
In a way, illiteracy was a vicious circle : slaves could not read or write, had no way of learning about human rights and freedom, and they considered as owner would tell them that black people were made to serve white people. They have been learning that they have no role in the civic structure and that their only place was on the field, and so were taught their parents, so will their children. Any sense of self-sufficiency and self-reliance are taken away from them as soon as they are born, and so is any idea of a personal identity. Slave owners deprive them of their identity to deepen the gap which differentiates themselves and the slaves. And literacy is the main shovel that helps deepen this gap. Moreover, since they acquire as natural this state of slavery, they do not feel the need to learn how to read or write, to educate themselves, which they cannot in any case. In this is the vicious circle.
But it is Mr. Auld's teaching on the state of black slaves and this ability to read and learn by himself which Mr. Auld's wife taught him which will help Douglass find freedom.