Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas
explored in a literary work.
Ignorance as a Tool of Slavery
Douglass’s Narrative shows how white
slaveholders perpetuate slavery by keeping their slaves ignorant.
At the time Douglass was writing, many people believed that slavery
was a natural state of being. They believed that blacks were inherently
incapable of participating in civil society and thus should be kept
as workers for whites. The Narrative explains the
strategies and procedures by which whites gain and keep power over
blacks from their birth onward. Slave owners keep slaves ignorant
of basic facts about themselves, such as their birth date or their
paternity. This enforced ignorance robs children of their natural
sense of individual identity. As slave children grow older, slave
owners prevent them from learning how to read and write, as literacy
would give them a sense of self‑sufficiency and capability. Slaveholders
understand that literacy would lead slaves to question the right
of whites to keep slaves. Finally, by keeping slaves illiterate,
Southern slaveholders maintain control over what the rest of America
knows about slavery. If slaves cannot write, their side of the slavery
story cannot be told. Wendell Phillips makes this point in his prefatory
letter to the Narrative.
Knowledge as the Path to Freedom
Just as slave owners keep men and women as slaves by depriving them
of knowledge and education, slaves must seek knowledge and education
in order to pursue freedom. It is from Hugh Auld that Douglass learns
this notion that knowledge must be the way to freedom, as Auld forbids
his wife to teach Douglass how to read and write because education
ruins slaves. Douglass sees that Auld has unwittingly revealed the
strategy by which whites manage to keep blacks as slaves and by
which blacks might free themselves. Doug-lass presents his own self-education
as the primary means by which he is able to free himself, and as
his greatest tool to work for the freedom of all slaves.
Though Douglass himself gains his freedom in part by virtue
of his self-education, he does not oversimplify this connection.
Douglass has no illusions that knowledge automatically renders slaves free.
Knowledge helps slaves to articulate the injustice of slavery to themselves
and others, and helps them to recognize themselves as men rather
than slaves. Rather than provide immediate freedom, this awakened
consciousness brings suffering, as Hugh Auld predicts. Once slaves
are able to articulate the injustice of slavery, they come to loathe
their masters, but still cannot physically escape without meeting
great danger.
Slavery’s Damaging Effect on Slaveholders
In the Narrative, Douglass shows slaveholding
to be damaging not only to the slaves themselves, but to slave owners
as well. The corrupt and irresponsible power that slave owners enjoy
over their slaves has a detrimental effect on the slave owners’
own moral health. With this theme, Douglass completes his overarching
depiction of slavery as unnatural for all involved.
Douglass describes typical behavior patterns of slaveholders
to depict the damaging effects of slavery. He recounts how many
slave-owning men have been tempted to adultery and rape, fathering
children with their female slaves. Such adultery threatens the unity
of the slave owner’s family, as the father is forced to either sell
or perpetually punish his own child, while the slave owner’s wife
becomes resentful and cruel. In other instances, slave owners such
as Thomas Auld develop a perverted religious sense to remain blind
to the sins they commit in their own home. Douglass’s main illustration
of the corruption of slave owners is Sophia Auld. The irresponsible
power of slaveholding transforms Sophia from an idealistic woman
to a demon. By showing the detrimental effects of slaveholding on
Thomas Auld, Sophia Auld, and others, Douglass implies that slavery should
be outlawed for the greater good of all society.
Slaveholding as a Perversion of Christianity
Over the course of the Narrative, Douglass
develops a distinction between true Christianity and false Christianity.
Douglass clarifies the point in his appendix, calling the former
“the Christianity of Christ” and the latter “the Christianity of
this land.” Douglass shows that slaveholders’ Christianity is not
evidence of their innate goodness, but merely a hypocritical show
that serves to bolster their self-righteous brutality. To strike
this distinction, Douglass points to the basic contradiction between
the charitable, peaceful tenets of Christianity and the violent,
immoral actions of slaveholders.
