Slavery, Slavery, Slavery, Slavery, Slavery.... and Freedom!

...Douglass, Solomon, and Freedom

Knowledge is power, and the truth will set you free. Or at least, in the case of Frederick Douglass, knowledge was the enabling force that led Douglass to his eventual freedom. In reflection, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass embodies this philosophy. Douglass is a slave who is taught by his mistress, Sophia, to read and write. In fact, the relationship between slave and master is intriguing to Douglass. At first, his mistress Sophia shows Douglass a tender and gentle disposition. She does not rule him harshly. Instead, she is nurturing. She teaches him how to start reading. Through this simple act, she rejects the Southern belief and practice of the 1800's to deny slaves the possibility of education. She aids the development of Douglass' literacy. However, this loving disposition between the two, slave and mistress, does not persist as Sophia becomes aware of her actions through the informing knowledge of her husband. Her heart turns cold and she becomes harsh in her rule, baring the guilt of inflicting pain upon her slave as a consequence of her transformation. But Douglass’ exposure to literacy persists as he continues to learn how to read and write from the neighborhood boys surrounding him.

Once exposed to the truth, one can never go back to the way things were. I’d like to think this is somewhat similar to the shadows in Plato’s cave. Once someone sees the actual figures making the shadows on the wall, one will never be satisfied with knowing only the shadows ever again. One will know that there is something else out there making them. One can never go back to how life was before, because the knowledge of knowing something else has widened the possibility of knowing more than what they had settled for in the beginning. Plato claims that some can never handle the truth, and many cower away from the power it can give you. Is this the same mentality that the slave owners want to inflict upon their slaves? Will the slaves grow hungry for freedom if they are exposed to its concept through reading and writing? Will they group together and overtake their masters and mistresses of the South?  Or will they be better off not knowing there is a world out there that could give them something better than what they have right now?

        This self-consciousness is what Douglass gains through his mistress. Knowledge sets Douglass free. His mistress has enabled him to learn and know a world of possibility, and Douglass is exposed to the world around him simply, through understanding words on a page. So there is possibility for having a better life and improving one’s self, and there is a concept known as freedom that involves being the master of your own fate, doing what you want, when you want, and where you want it. Therefore, through his pursuit of attaining more knowledge and access to information, he begins to set himself free from the life, morals, and rules that he had once known to be final. This is Douglass’ plight to becoming a self-made man.

          It’s a bit ironic if we are to compare it to the story of 12 Years A Slave, the academy award winning film for best movie of 2014. The protagonist, Solomon Northup, is a prominent member of society in the North. He is well educated and an accomplished violinist. In the plot, he is kidnapped and sold into slavery by two white men seeking profit for enslaving blacks. His slavery lasts for twelve years. Throughout his time as a slave, Solomon learns that he is better off hiding his past identity. He hides his abilities of being able to read and write from his mistress and master. This is the only way he will be able to survive so that he will not be killed by white folk who might find his abilities to be intimidating and threatening to their position. 

           In a conversation with two other captured black men, Solomon discusses escape. One of the men encourages the others to just surrender to slavery. This man has been a slave his entire life and finds hope in knowing that his master will save him. But Solomon and the other educated man distinguish themselves from other slaves describing their educational differences to set them apart. Unlike the slave, these men were exposed to a life of knowledge. Unlike the slave who was born into slavery that is content with knowing a fixed position in life, Solomon and the other man are not content. Finally, in meeting a Southern man with liberal ideas, Solomon entrusts a letter for him to deliver to his friends in the North so that he will be rescued from slavery, freed and reunited with his family once again. Happily, he is rescued, but so many others are left behind to continue their lives as slaves and throughout their lives, they will know nothing else.

           In both narratives, the central theme that persists is knowledge. Knowledge is power and the truth that they gain through knowledge brings them freedom. The truth sets both of the two men, Solomon and Douglass, a part from everything else. The ability to read and write allows them a chance at freedom. Knowledge allows them rebellion against a lifetime of oppression. Yes, the truth will set you free!

The Little Black Boy

"The Little Black Boy"

In The Little Black Boy, a black child discusses his spirituality by using the color of his skin to determine his position with God and his position in society. It is very obvious to claim that there is some racism in the poem. But what is actually racist about the poem is very debatable. The child was born with black skin, but claims that his soul is white. His mother tells him that the sun, where God lives, creates the light. Perhaps the whiteness of his soul that the boy refers to is the symbolic color for the light that God sheds upon his creation. The poem continues to say that because of the color of his skin, the black boy can bare the heat and the light from the sun's rays. The black boy says that, "these black bodies, and this sun burnt face, Is but a cloud and like a shady grove". Because their skin can bare the pain, they are closer to God. They are his lambs, and he is the shepherd. God says, "come out from the grove, my love and care, and round my golden tent like lambs rejoice." Perhaps this golden tent alludes to the tent that Moses entered when he met with God in the desert to lead the Israelites to his kingdom of the promised land. Like Moses, the black boy is chosen by God.

 The boy directs the rest of his speech to the 'little English boy saying, "When I from black and he from white cloud free, and round the tent of God like lambs we joy, I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear, to lean in joy upon our fathers knee." The English boy sheds his white cloud, as the black boy sheds his black cloud. The cloud symbolizes the skin of the black boy and the white boy. The cloud is very literal and very deceiving. Society has placed the black boy at a lower level of the human hierarchy than the white boy because of his skin. But this, too, deceives the people from knowing that the black boy's soul is white, truthful, righteous and honest. The white boy's soul is darker. Because of the white boy's skin, the black boy will bring the white boy to the truth, because he was given the power, through his skin to bear God's rays of light and heat.

The last two lines, "And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair and be like him and he will then love me," is very tricky. Is the black boy referring to the silver hair of God? Through art and literature God is known to have silver hair. Or is the black boy referring to the white boy's hair? My interpretation is that the black boy was referring to the white boy. The black boy is able to touch God's knee. But the knee is symbolic of a sign of reverence. We kneel down in front of a cross or a king to show respect. Although the narrator is a child, naive and full of hope, to be able to touch the hair of God is a mighty gesture and honor. However, Moses was the one person, able to see the face of God and his hair turned white because of it. If the black boy was symbolic of Moses, perhaps this theory of the silver haired person to be God would be acceptable. But I believe that the main focus of the poem is the acceptance of the spirituality of the black boy through God's eyes and through the white boy's eyes. The white boy represents the whole of society, and sadly, the only way for the black boy to be loved and accepted by him, is the revelation of  the black boy's white soul, and the action of saving the white boy's black soul. As unfortunate as having to prove one's worth is, The poem Little Black Boy, personifies the truth concerning our perception of the people in the world around us.