Reading and discussion questions for Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself.
Winter 2012
1. The Preface includes texts by William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips. What is their purpose?
2. How would you identify the genres of these two Preface texts? What difference does genre make in texts that have a similar purpose? Which one is more effective, in your view?
3. How does the distinction between human and animal appear in each of the two Preface documents?
4. The first chapter concerns Douglass’ birth, childhood, and relations. How are women represented in this chapter?
5. What are the consequences of slave-holding men having sex with enslaved women who then bear their children? Why is this feature of slavery significant to Douglass and for the autobiography?
6. “A want of information concerning my own [date of birth] was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood” (41). What impression of Douglass do you gain from this observation?
7. Chapter II gives a description of life on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation and of “slavery as it there existed” (46). What features of this description stand out for you?
8. Douglass comments about slave songs in this chapter. How does Douglass interpret them for a white reader, and what significance does he give them in his own development?
8. In Chapter III, how does irony inform Douglass’s account of the horses (53)?
9. In this chapter, in what way does Douglass argue that slaves are like other people?
10. Chapter IV features three murders. What is Douglass’s point in narrating these crimes? Or are they, in fact, “crimes”?
11. In Chapter V, Douglass is sent to Baltimore. To what force does Douglass attribute this event? What is his emotional state as he meets the Aulds?
12. Chapter VI presents the first stage of Douglass’s development of literacy. What is significant about the interruption of his education in reading?
13. Chapter VII narrates Douglass’s acquisition of The Columbian Orator, his reading of newspapers, and his learning to write. How do human relationships enter into these stages of literacy training?
14. In Chapter VIII, Douglass is sent back to the country to be counted as property in the settlement of a will. What strikes you in the style of Douglass’s description of Master Thomas (76)? Why would pious readers – those attached to the church – find this chapter challenging?
15. Chapter X is the longest in the book. In it, Douglass is sent to work in the field with the “slave-breaker,” Covey. He was, he reports, “broken in body, soul, and spirit” (83). How does the boundary between human and animal enter into the account at this point? What is striking about the apostrophe to the sailing vessels directly following this passage (83-84)? [Apostrophe is a breaking off, or a turning away, to direct speech toward an inanimate object.]
16. What is the “glorious resurrection” in this chapter? What are the implications for Douglass’s character and for the path from slavery to freedom? How do you judge his relationships with other slaves seeking freedom?
17. How are work, thinking, the impulse toward freedom interconnected on p. 106?
18. Chapter XI announces, rather than narrates, his escape. Why is it important to Douglass that modes of escape from slavery remain secret?
19. How does Douglass work with the issue of experience and identification on p. 112? What do you think of his account of his feelings upon reaching freedom (111-12)?
20. Only a brief two paragraphs are devoted to Douglass’ encounter with abolitionists and his new career as a public speaker for the cause of abolition (119). What is your impression of this passage?
21. Why do you think Douglass adds the Appendix?