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

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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.

Man, times have changed. Present-day street scenes never have giant letters or big circles to pose in front of.
(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

  1. For a little brain tune-up, think about the articles and segments you've read from The Liberator and Douglass's intro to The North Star. How are these papers similar to, or different from, other news content you've read, like on a website? Is the format different? Who's the audience? Tell us the similarities and differences in five to seven complete sentences, below.

  2. Step Two:

    It's time to take a closer look at the arguments that both Douglass and Garrison are making. In his really, really detailed book The Debate Over Slavery, historian David F. Ericson says that abolitionist arguments for ending slavery fell into three basic categories. They were:

    • Deontological: Basically, this is any argument that says the practice of slavery is bad. These arguments talked about how the infrastructure built up around the slave trade was rotten to the core and how parts of it were fundamentally broken. Deontological arguments also argued for the immorality of slavery.
    • Contextualist: These kinds of arguments acknowledged that slavery might have been necessary at different points and in different places during history, but that slavery was not necessary anymore. Not only was it unnecessary, or so the most basic contextualist argument ran, it was actually holding the progress of society back. (Hint: Neither Douglass nor Garrison were real fans of these kinds of arguments.)
    • Consequentialist: Just like it sounds, these kinds of arguments focused on the consequences of slavery, saying that they were ultimately awful for everybody involved—black and white alike.
    1. Using what you just learned, tell us: Which kind of abolitionist argument is this section of The Liberator making? Quote a passage and explain why you think it counts as a contextualist, consequentialist, or deontological argument. Answer in at least three full sentences, please.

    2. What about this section of The Liberator? Which kind of abolitionist argument is it making? Again, include a passage and explain your reasoning in at least three sentences.

    3. Finally, take another look at this page of "Our Paper and Its Prospects." Tell us, Shmooper, which kind of abolitionist argument Mr. Douglass is making. Don't forget that passage. And try not to freak out over his use of the "royal we."


Sample Lesson - Activity

  1. Who started The Liberator?

  2. Where is the masthead located on a newspaper?

  3. How did Garrison feel about the US Constitution?

  4. Why did Garrison publish the piece called "Truisms" in The Liberator?

  5. Who published The North Star?

  6. What literary form does Garrison seem to be a fan of?

  7. In what segment from The Liberator's first issue do we find the phrase "My task is hard—for I am charged to save/Man from his brother—to redeem the slave!"