Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass — Outline
Thesis
“From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.”
Development
- 1.
Opening: origins and the custom of separation
CHAPTER I“It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age.”
- 2.
Plantation life and the meaning of slave songs
CHAPTER II“Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains.”
- 3.
Power and enforced silence on Colonel Lloyd's estate
CHAPTER III“It is partly in consequence of such facts, that slaves, when inquired of as to their condition and the character of their masters, almost universally say they are contented, and that their masters are kind.”
- 4.
The overseer's violence and its impunity
CHAPTER IV“killing a slave, or any colored person, in Talbot county, Maryland, is not treated as a crime, either by the courts or the community.”
- 5.
Departure for Baltimore as providential turning-point
CHAPTER V“Going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity.”
- 6.
Literacy forbidden: the logic of enslavement exposed
CHAPTER VI“What he most dreaded, that I most desired. What he most loved, that I most hated.”
- 7.
Self-education and the anguish of awakened consciousness
CHAPTER VII“The silver trump of freedom had roused my soul to eternal wakefulness.”
- 8.
Valuation, inheritance, and the grandmother abandoned
CHAPTER VIII“If any one thing in my experience, more than another, served to deepen my conviction of the infernal character of slavery, and to fill me with unutterable loathing of slaveholders, it was their base ingratitude to my poor old grandmother.”
- 9.
Corruption: Thomas Auld's conversion and religion as sanction for cruelty
CHAPTER IX“I have said my master found religious sanction for his cruelty.”
- 10.
Covey the negro-breaker: breaking and resistance
CHAPTER X“You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.”
- 11.
Escape: planning, suppression of details, and arrival in freedom
CHAPTER XI“I would keep the merciless slaveholder profoundly ignorant of the means of flight adopted by the slave.”
- 12.
Appendix: distinction between slaveholding religion and Christianity of Christ
APPENDIX“between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference”
Conclusion
“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.”