Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Hero
- Course Length: 3 weeks
- Course Type: Short Course
- Category:
- English
- Literature
- High School
Schools and Districts: We offer customized programs that won't break the bank. Get a quote.
Frederick Douglass, an American slave, was one righteous dude. He tricked his way into literacy, escaped his master, and then used his powers of persuasion to fight the good fight against slavery.
Oh, and later in life, he rallied hard for women's rights, too.
We're getting ahead of ourselves.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave is an amazing book. For one thing, most slaves never learned how to read or write, so the fact that the Narrative exists is pretty exceptional. Frederick Douglass proved that he was a powerful force at an early age—like when Shmoop was still wearing footie pajamas and watching Saturday morning cartoons.
Frederick Douglass fought for freedom not just for himself, but for all American slaves, using the mightiest tools he had: his words. The Narrative is more than just the true story of Douglass's hard life as a slave. It's also a compelling piece of literature, and a persuasive argument for abolition: the end of slavery. With comprehension quizzes and Common Core-aligned activities—including an argumentative essay about violence—we cover
- abolitionist arguments
- important slave revolts
- Douglass's rhetorical strategies,
- the tradition of the slave narrative
- and the Narrative itself, of course.
We're big fans of Frederick Douglass. By the end of this course, you will be, too.
Unit Breakdown
1 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
There's a reason that Frederick Douglass was nicknamed "the Lion." As you'll see, Shmoopers, he was courageous, noble, and had really great hair.
Sample Lesson - Introduction
Lesson 1.02: Garrison v. Douglass: Fight! Fight! Fight!
Usually, newspapers tell people about what's happening in the present—in the world today, maybe even at this very minute. In today's lesson, we're going to look at newspapers that were actually more concerned with the future.
(Source)
Some of them, like William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator or Frederick Douglass's The North Star, were about helping people imagine a different tomorrow—a world without racism and slavery.
It's easy to look at an issue in history and think that there weren't that many different opinions about how to deal with it. It's kind of like looking at a Google Maps aerial view. You don't really see a lot of detail until you zoom in.
Slavery is one of those issues. Basically, you were either for it or against it. But it's also true that, once you decided you were against it, there were a lot of different approaches to trying to end slavery and solve all of the problems that were a part of the slave trade. Easy task, right?
We're going to take a closer look at some of those arguments today, as Mr. Douglass and Mr. Garrison battle it out.
Sample Lesson - Reading
Reading 1.1.02: Selections from Issues of William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator and Frederick Douglass's "Our Paper and Its Prospects" from The North Star
We saw in the documentary that Douglass and Garrison were basically pals. Garrison even gave Douglass his first speaking opportunity.
They didn't stay besties, though.
Douglass and Garrison ultimately parted ways over disagreements about the best way to abolish slavery.
- Garrison was all about scrapping the US Constitution—which he believed was a pro-slavery document—and using what he called "moral suasion," arguments for the immorality of the slave trade, to convince people to end slavery.
- In some ways, Douglass was more militant. He considered violence against slaveholders to be justified if provoked—which we'll talk more about later. Douglass would, however, come to think that the US Constitution could be used to make an argument against slavery.
Instead of just talking about Garrison's and Douglass's views, we're going to read 'em ourselves.
- Start with Garrison's The Liberator. Read all of the separate segments that make up the first issue (The Liberator, Vol. 1 No. 1). Don't worry—they're typed so you can read them. Be sure and take a look at the scanned copies of the actual newspaper, too, to see what it looked like.
- Then take a look at the "Truisms" from Vol. 1 No. 2 of The Liberator.
- Finally, read "Our Paper and its Prospects." Zoom in on the images until you can read the words. Think about Garrison's "Truisms" compared to what Douglass says about slavery.
Sample Lesson - Activity
Activity 1.02a: Papers for Change
Expository Writing Rubric - 25 Points
Sample Lesson - Activity
- Course Length: 3 weeks
- Course Type: Short Course
- Category:
- English
- Literature
- High School
Schools and Districts: We offer customized programs that won't break the bank. Get a quote.