Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave

by Frederick Douglass

  I found employment, the third day after my arrival, in stowing a sloop with a load of oil. It was new, dirty, and hard work for me; but I went at it with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was now my own master. It was a happy moment, the rapture of which can be understood only by those who have been slaves. It was the first work, the reward of which was to be entirely my own. There was no Master Hugh standing ready, the moment I earned the money, to rob me of it. I worked that day with a pleasure I had never before experienced. I was at work for myself and newly-married wife. It was to me the starting-point of a new existence. When I got through with that job, I went in pursuit of a job of calking; but such was the strength of prejudice against color, among the white calkers, that they refused to work with me, and of course I could get no employment.ci Finding my trade of no immediate benefit, I threw off my calking habiliments,cj and prepared myself to do any kind of work I could get to do. Mr. Johnson kindly let me have his woodhorse and saw, and I very soon found myself a plenty of work. There was no work too hard—none too dirty. I was ready to saw wood, shovel coal, carry the hod,ck sweep the chim ney, or roll oil casks,—all of which I did for nearly three years in New Bedford, before I became known to the anti-slavery world.

  In about four months after I went to New Bedford, there came a young man to me, and inquired if I did not wish to take the “Liberator.” cl I told him I did; but, just having made my escape from slavery, I remarked that I was unable to pay for it then. I, however, finally became a subscriber to it. The paper came, and I read it from week to week with such feelings as it would be quite idle for me to attempt to describe. The paper became my meat and my drink. My soul was set all on fire. Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds—its scathing denunciations of slaveholders—its faithful exposures of slavery—and its powerful attacks upon the upholders of the institution—sent a thrill of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before!

  I had not long been a reader of the “Liberator,” before I got a pretty correct idea of the principles, measures, and spirit of the anti slavery reform. I took right hold of the cause. I could do but little; but what I could, I did with a joyful heart, and never felt happier than when in an anti-slavery meeting. I seldom had much to say at the meetings, because what I wanted to say was said so much better by others. But, while attending an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket, on the 11th of August, 1841, I felt strongly moved to speak, and was at the same time much urged to do so by Mr. William C. Coffin, a gentleman who had heard me speak in the colored people’s meeting at New Bedford. It was a severe cross, and I took it up reluctantly. The truth was, I felt myself a slave, and the idea of speaking to white people weighed me down. I spoke but a few moments, when I felt a degree of freedom, and said what I desired with considerable ease. From that time until now, I have been engaged in pleading the cause of my brethren—with what success, and with what devotion, I leave those acquainted with my labors to decide.

  APPENDIX

  I FIND, SINCE READING over the foregoing Narrative that I have, in several instances, spoken in such a tone and manner, respecting religion, as may possibly lead those unacquainted with my religious views to suppose me an opponent of all religion. To remove the liability of such misapprehension, I deem it proper to append the following brief explanation. What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference—so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. Indeed, I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity. I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. Never was there a clearer case of “stealing the livery of the court of heaven to serve the devil in.”45 I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with the horrible inconsistencies, which every where surround me. We have men-stealers for ministers, women-whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood-clotted cowskin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday, and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus. The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of each week meets me as a class-leader on Sunday morning, to show me the way of life, and the path of salvation. He who sells my sister, for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity. He who proclaims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read the name of God who made me. He who is the religious advocate of marriage robs whole millions of its sacred influence, and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution. The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole families,—sundering husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers,—leaving the hut vacant, and the hearth desolate. We see the thief preaching against theft, and the adulterer against adultery. We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen! all for the glory of God and the good of souls! The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart-broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade go hand in hand together. The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The clanking of fetters and the rattling of chains in the prison, and the pious psalm and solemn prayer in the church, may be heard at the same time. The dealers in the bodies and souls of men erect their stand in the presence of the pulpit, and they mutually help each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his infernal business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other—devils dressed in angels’ robes, and hell presenting the semblance of paradise.

  Just God! and these are they,

  Who minister at thine altar, God of right!

  Men who their hands, with prayer and blessing, lay

  On Israel’s ark of light.cm

  What! preach, and kidnap men?

  Give thanks, and rob thy own afflicted poor?

  Talk of thy glorious liberty, and then

  Bolt hard the captive’s door?

  What! servants of thy own

  Merciful Son, who came to seek and save

  The homeless and the outcast, fettering down

  The tasked and plundered slave!

  Pilate and Herod friends! 46

  Chief priests and rulers, as of old, combine!

  Just God and holy! is that church which lends

  Strength to the spoiler thine?cn

  The Christianity of America is a Christianity, of whose votaries co it may be as truly said, as it was of the ancient scribes and Pharisees, “They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. All their works they do for to be seen of men.—They love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, ... ... and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.—But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers; therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.—Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint, and anise, and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters
of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides! which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter; but within, they are full of extortion and excess.—Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”cp

  Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Could any thing be more true of our churches? They would be shocked at the proposition of fel lowshipping a sheep-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a man-stealer and brand me with being an infidel, if I find fault with them for it. They attend with Pharisaical strictness to the outward forms of religion, and at the same time neglect the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. They are always ready to sacrifice, but seldom to show mercy. They are they who are represented as professing to love God whom they have not seen, whilst they hate their brother whom they have seen. They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put into his hand, and missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own doors.

  Such is, very briefly, my view of the religion of this land; and to avoid any misunderstanding, growing out of the use of general terms, I mean, by the religion of this land, that which is revealed in the words, deeds, and actions, of those bodies, north and south, calling themselves Christian churches, and yet in union with slaveholders. It is against religion, as presented by these bodies, that I have felt it my duty to testify.

  I conclude these remarks by copying the following portrait of the religion of the south, (which is, by communion and fellowship, the religion of the north,) which I soberly affirm is “true to the life,” and without caricature or the slightest exaggeration. It is said to have been drawn, several years before the present anti-slavery agitation began, by a northern Methodist preacher, who, while residing at the south, had an opportunity to see slaveholding morals, manners, and piety, with his own eyes. “Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”

  A PARODY.cq

  Come, saints and sinners, hear me tell

  How pious priests whip Jack and Nell,

  And women buy and children sell,

  And preach all sinners down to hell,

  And sing of heavenly union.

  They’ll bleat and baa, dona like goats,

  Gorge down black sheep, and strain at motes,

  Array their backs in fine black coats,

  Then seize their negroes by their throats,

  And choke, for heavenly union.

  They’ll church you if you sip a dram,

  And damn you if you steal a lamb;

  Yet rob old Tony, Doll, and Sam,

  Of human rights, and bread and ham;

  Kidnapper’s heavenly union.

  They’ll loudly talk of Christ’s reward,

  And bind his image with a cord,

  And scold, and swing the lash abhorred,

  And sell their brother in the Lord

  To handcuffed heavenly union.

  They’ll read and sing a sacred song,

  And make a prayer both loud and long,

  And teach the right and do the wrong,

  Hailing the brother, sister throng,

  With words of heavenly union.

  We wonder how such saints can sing,

  Or praise the Lord upon the wing,

  Who roar, and scold, and whip, and sting,

  And to their slaves and mammoncr cling,

  In guilty conscience union.

  They’ll raise tobacco, corn, and rye,

  And drive, and thieve, and cheat, and lie,

  And lay up treasures in the sky,

  By making switch and cowskin fly,

  In hope of heavenly union.

  They’ll crack old Tony on the skull,

  And preach and roar like Bashan bull,

  Or braying ass, of mischief full,

  Then seize old Jacob by the wool,

  And pull for heavenly union.

  A roaring, ranting, sleek man-thief,

  Who lived on mutton, veal, and beef,

  Yet never would afford relief

  To needy, sable sons of grief,

  Was big with heavenly union.

  ‘Love not the world,’ the preacher said,

  And winked his eye, and shook his head;

  He seized on Tom, and Dick, and Ned,

  Cut short their meat, and clothes, and bread,

  Yet still loved heavenly union.

  Another preacher whining spoke

  Of One whose heart for sinners broke:

  He tied old Nanny to an oak,

  And drew the blood at every stroke,

  And prayed for heavenly union.

  Two others oped their iron jaws,

  And waved their children-stealing paws;

  There sat their children in gewgaws;

  By stinting negroes’ backs and maws,

  They kept up heavenly union.

  All good from Jack another takes,

  And entertains their flirts and rakes,

  Who dress as sleek as glossy snakes,

  And cram their mouths with sweetened cakes;

  And this goes down for union.

  Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system, and hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds—faithfully relying upon the power of truth, love, and justice, for success in my humble efforts—and solemnly pledging my self anew to the sacred cause,—I subscribe myself,

  Frederick Douglass.

  Lynn, Mass., April 28, 1845.

  ENDNOTES

  1 (p. 3) having recently made his escape from the southern prison-house of bondage: On September 3, 1838, Douglass (then Frederick Bailey) escaped from slavery; he traveled north from Baltimore, Maryland, and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he became active in the abolition movement.

  2 (p. 3) “gave the world assurance of a MAN”: Garrison is quoting from a passage in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in which Hamlet describes his father: “A combination and a form indeed, / Where every god did seem to set his seal / To give the world assurance of a man” (act 3, scene 4).

  3 (p. 3) I shall never forget his first speech at the convention: The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Convention was held on the island of Nantucket in 1841, from August 10 to August 12. Note also in this paragraph that Garrison’s description of Douglass exemplifies how, as a former slave, he would be presented by the abolitionists as an exhibit and “an ornament.”

  4 (p. 4) by the terms of the slave code: The slave codes, different in each state, were laws pertaining to the legal status of slaves and free blacks. They included punishments for such crimes as murder and arson as well as insolence toward and association with whites; punishments ranged from branding or whipping to death.

  5 (p. 4) A beloved friend from New Bedford: Garrison is referring to William C. Coffin, a leading antislavery activist in New Bedford when Douglass moved there in 1838.

  6 (p. 4) PATRICK HENRY, of revolutionary fame: Patrick Henry (1736-1799) was a Virginia-born American Revolutionary leader, an orator, and a politician. Henry is renowned for his saying “Give me liberty, or give me death,” delivered in a convention speech in 1775; Douglass alludes to these famous words in his Narrative (see p. 79).

  7 (p. 5) John A. Collins: Collins (1810-1879) was an abolitionist and reformer and a member of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society; he resigned from the Society in 1843.

&nbs
p; 8 (p. 6) Charles Lenox Remond : Born in Massachusetts to free parents, Remond (1810-1873) became an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in 1838; he was the first African American employed by the Society as a lecturer. During the Civil War, Remond recruited soldiers for the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteers infantry. He later clerked in the Boston Custom House.

  9 (p. 6) Daniel O‘Connell: Known as the Liberator, Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) was an Irish nationalist leader who fought for Catholic emancipation and Irish independence; O‘Connell toured with Douglass in 1842.