The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

What an impactful story.

The version of Frederick Douglass' autobiography that I purchased had a substantial introduction to it which was written over 100 years after the original writing. By the time I started the actual original writing by Douglass, I was more than halfway through the physical book itself.

I can understand why this writing was able to help turn the tide against slavery at the time. It is a relatively fast read, it's factual, and the pictures he can draw with the words he chooses are heart-wrenching. Not to mention that it was written by a black man, someone who, according to many at that time, was incapable of intelligent thought or emotion. It's amazing to think that this autobiography was published when he was just 27, and the experiences that he had lived through up to that point were well beyond what many of us could ever endure.

He makes a case for how slavery turned humans into brutes by their very treatment, thus making it appear to the slaveholders that they were indeed brutes who needed to be treated that way. He also makes a strong case for how slaveholding brought out the worst in those who had power over other humans, bringing both master and slave to the basest human condition.

He suffered his first whipping at the tender age of 6. That's my oldest daughter's age. Whenever I read something where the age of the children in the story is the equivalent of my children's age at the time, it's hard for me to not draw parallels.

The other night I was giving my oldest daughter a bedtime backrub at her request. She trustingly lifted up her pajama top to let me lightly use my fingernails on her back, knowing that I wouldn't tickle her. I cannot imagine what it would be like if when I saw her back she had the raised scars of whip marks at that age. Even moreso, I cannot imagine the state of mind of the adult who could inflict that kind of hurt upon a child.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has not yet read it. It's a period of history that is not even 150 years behind us -- that's about six generations ago. Perhaps that seems like ancient history to some, but in considering the span of human history, it's not long enough.