LITR 4232: American Renaissance
University of Houston-Clear Lake, spring 2003
Sample Student Research Project

Claire Garza
American Literature
March 21, 2003
Dr. White

The Slavery Experience

           Slave Narratives have been called both classic and popular forms of American literature throughout the last century. The real life narratives are seen as popular because they sold well in their time and appealed to a mass audience of readers. They are classic because they are books always being read and interpreted throughout the ages. This essay will focus on the experiences of several slaves and their families; as outlined by three slave narrative authors, Harriet Jacobs, Frederick Douglas and Lunsford Lane. This essay will compare and contrast the dark trials these authors encountered, while focusing on the endurance and the spirituality that helped them triumph over adversity. The psychology of some Christian leaders and the justification for slavery will also be mentioned.

There are many dark moments in the life of a slave and many have struggled hard to find the light. During Harriet Jacobs' dark trial, she shows an endurance that most people would admire. As a slave she has no rights to her thoughts, or her body. Constantly the object of her master's lust, she fights his sexual advances daily. Her only escape is to find another man to impregnate her. She must do this before her master has the opportunity to get her alone. She makes a decision to lie with a man who respects her. He is kind to her, and she believes he will provide for her and protect her from her master. The birth of her children is the hardest trial she will have to endure, for the moment she sees them, she loves them and the day comes that she must leave them behind to work the fields. Three weeks pass and finally she plans to leave the plantation to see them at night. "One night when all was quiet, we started. Fear gave speed to our steps and we were not long in performing the journey. I went to see my children and thanked God for their happy sleep. The tears fell as I leaned over them" (Jacobs, 1973). Not only does Jacobs's experience show her concern for her children, but it also proves her spirituality and reliance on God. Jacobs goes on to write further about her trials while on the plantation. She is looking every day for a way to escape this harsh way of life.

She says:

 "I could have made my escape alone; but it was more for my helpless children than for myself that I longed for freedom. Every trial I endured, every sacrifice I made for their sakes, drew them closer to my heart, and gave me fresh courage to beat back the dark waves that rolled and rolled over me in a seemingly endless night of storms" (Jacobs, 1974).

The endless night of storms is Jacob's own life. She has fought against the dark waves of oppression. As she pushes forward, the waves always push her back. Jacobs is in a constant battle with fear. This fear is her darkness. She is seen fighting back at the darkness when she uses it to her best advantage. She uses it to cover her tracks during her night visit and ironically fears the light of day will illuminate her secret plan. Jacobs finds the courage to endure this trial for her children's sakes. She is willing to sacrifice for her children just as Jesus suffered on the cross for our sins. Jesus wished to draw us closer to his heart and Jacobs wishes the same of her children.

Although Jacobs did not have a perfect life, she did not have to endure the lash; she was usually given jobs as housemaid, or personal servant to her mistress. She was favored by the master and therefore was not wiped like the other slaves. Her trials were harsh, but she existed on a plane apart from the other slaves. Frederick Douglas also existed on this plane for some time. As a child he grew up working inside of a house and was a favored boy.  When he wasn't running errands, he had free leisure time to play. His Master protected him. Later on in his story, Douglas has the advantage of leaving his current plantation to work for Mr. and Mrs. Auld in Baltimore. Mrs. Auld had never had a slave under her direction before and therefore was kind to Douglas early on. She began to teach him how to spell. Soon after her instruction began it was ended by her husband, who told her, "If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave" (Douglas, 1838). Upon the utterance of these words, Douglas had a mission. He would desire what his master did not want him to have. He would rise above this experience and use it to his advantage. Douglas now understood the "pathway from slavery to freedom"(Douglas, 1839). This pathway shone out from the sky like a light from heaven. This was Douglas's remarkable epiphany. He was embarking on the journey of his life. This journey was the romantic aspect of Douglas's story as he searched for answers. He would finally be able to leave the darkness of ignorance and come into the light of education. Jacobs did not have this sort of direction; she took the dark road to freedom. From the darkness of the shed she was forced to hide inside, to the dark stretch of road she followed to visit her children. Her path was not so directly shown.

            After learning the path to freedom, Fredrick still had the problem of who he might coax into teaching him. He set about learning to read from some local white boys. Ironically, these boys were not as well fed as Frederick. He would bring them bread to eat; and in return they would teach him how to read. This system was remarkably well thought out and Fredrick fully embraced reading and writing. Although this "grand achievement" (Douglass 1839), was finally reached, it did not bring Douglas happiness, but rather an innate hatred of his situation. He longed to be free of the oppression of slavery, and to make the wrongs of his people known. He read voraciously on the subject of slavery and sought to know the meaning of the word abolition.  The more Frederick learned about slavery, the more he detested it. He came to understand some of the reasoning for his master's thoughts. As he wrote in his essay titled, "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" he writes, " But the church of this country is not only indifferent to the wrongs of the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. These ministers make religion a cold and flinty-hearted thing, having neither principles of right action, nor bowels of compassion. It is a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man-stealers, and thugs" (Douglass, 1893). The church had a huge influence on their spirituality. It helped make decisions for them, by interpreting the law falsely. Inhibiting the slave spirit by taking away the ability to learn to read and write was successful for a brief time. Frederick was the first of many to write down his experiences with the hopes of effecting change in not only the laws of man, but also when interpreting the laws of God. 

            Soon after learning to read, Frederick was forced back to the old plantation of his youth; straight into the hands of Colonel Lloyd. This man that protected him as a child could no longer protect him as a man. For the first time in his life, Frederick would experience the pain of hunger, and the inhumanity of being whipped. After living with Lloyd for some time, Frederick was hired out for a year to a man named Covey. Nicknamed "the snake" for his ability to sneak up on the slaves at work, he was a cruel taskmaster and a heartless man. The nickname "snake" could also double to mean that he was liken to the devil. He was feared by all that knew his history. Mr. Covey was the first man to really whip Frederick. Easy to anger, Covey succeeded in breaking Frederick's spirit after only a few months.  He writes, "I was broken body, soul, and spirit. My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed, the cheerful spark that lingered about my eye died; the dark night of slavery closed in upon me, and behold a man transformed into a brute!" (Douglass, 1852). Frederick has now fully experienced the darkness of Covey's soul, and the torment of slavery on the mind. He has described slavery as a dark night. Frederick's spirit, his source of light had been extinguished. The mind that once beheld the beauty of written language has now been reduced to that of an animal, a "brute". When he is at his lowest he turns to God and says, "I am left in the hottest hell of unending slavery. O God, save me! God deliver me! Let me be free!" (Douglass, 1852). He truly believes God will deliver him from the evil and bear him into the light of freedom.

          Lunsford Lane had an experience akin to what Frederick encountered. As a child Lunsford was allowed to play in the yard with the other white children. He did not see a difference in their status. As he got older he was given more menial jobs to accomplish than the other slaves, such as tending the horses and chopping wood. As the work continued and Lunsford was excluded from schooling, he began to notice a difference between the other boys and himself. He writes, " I found, too, that they had learned to read, while I was not permitted to have a book in my hand. To be in possession of anything written or printed, was regarded as an offense" (Lane, 7).  Lunsford now fully aware of his trial in life is to live the life of a slave. He would now have to accept his situation in life and make the best of it. In this manner he is like Frederick and goes on to acquire a position as a house servant. This position is preferred over the hard labor of the fields. Lunsford, although lucky enough to have avoided fieldwork, still describes his life as a dark one. He says:

"And now will the reader take with me a brief review of the road I had trodden. I cannot here dwell upon its dark shades, though some of these were black as the pencillings of midnight, but upon the light that had followed my path from my infancy up, and had at length conducted me quite out of the deep abyss of bondage" (Lane, 18).

When Lunsford talks about the light that has followed his path he is talking about the lightened load he had in comparison with other slaves. The darkness he refers to is the institution of slavery which outlawed reading and writing, kept him as a house servant, and forced him to watch others of his race abused. Lunsford's darkness was further extended when his master decided to find God. The slaves were given less time to themselves and more time to learn about God's word. Every Sunday they would receive one sermon and the whites another. This time taken away on Sunday from the slaves would have been used as a small leisure time, where skills or trades might be handed down. It took away another piece of their individuality and choice. In this way, the master could have full authority over the slaves life's, before and after work time. The scriptures were altered to make the slaves dutiful to work and loyal to master. It also made them humble in their existence. They were not allowed to think about descent. They were easier to control if they believed they were doing what God wanted them to do. The false baptisms made the slaves think they might be saved along with the whites if they continued to obey.

Lunsford writes:

            "And on the Sabbath there was one sermon preached expressly for the colored people which it was generally my privilege to hear. I became quite familiar with the texts, " Servants be obedient to your masters."-- "Not with the eye service as men pleasers."--"He that knoweth his master's will and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes," and others of this class: for they formed the basis of most of these public instructions for us. The first commandment impressed upon our minds was to obey our masters and the second was like unto it, namely, to do as much work when they or the overseers were not watching us as when they were" (Lane, 21).

This work ethic proclaimed to be the word of God was a perfect way to get maximum work out of each slave. Whether or not the slaves wanted to embrace God, they were not given the choice. Some were baptized like Lunsford was to make the weekly sermons more credible. After some time, the slaves began to question the sermons and eventually dismissed their reliability. Lunsford would go through many more battles against the oppressors. Legally, they would give him the run around. Morally, they would give up any sense of Christianity to keep him a slave for life. Lane would go on to have a family. In this way Lane was more fortunate than Frederick and Harriet, in that he was able to stay in constant watch over his family. They were never really that far away from him. They stayed together and were never sold off the plantation. Harriet had to endure a separation anxiety from her young children that Lunsford never did. Frederick was separated from his family from the beginning. He lost track of parents and siblings. Lunsford would endure many trials in life, but his hope was vested in his family and future. During this hard time of trying to procure freedom for his family, the prejudiced legal system would keep him dangling from a string. Lunsford would spend a good part of his life waiting for the money and the right moment to escape the bonds of darkness. In the end he would free his family for the sum of eighteen hundred and eighty dollars.

            "The recorded memoirs of the questing slaves were felt by many readers of the ninetieth century to epitomize the condition of man on the earth as it documented the personal history of the individual to whom bondage was real and freedom was more than a dream" (Bontemps vii). After all the toils these three authors survived, freedom had finally been achieved. The trials they endured and their strength to carry on is admirable. To outlive the horrors, to be survivors of this time period, and provide a better future for their children is an amazing feat. As the authors utter their excited, triumphant speech, we listen. Upon his first steps onto free soil, Lunsford says, "This we have not recovered; but our lives have been spared to bless the day that conferred freedom upon us. I felt when my feet struck the pavements in Philadelphia, as though I had passed into another world. I could draw in a full long breath, with no one to say to the ribs, " why do ye so?" (Lane, 51) Philadelphia is the land of the free. The scene seems surreal to Lane. There is a sublime feeling of excitement and fear all at the same time. He doesn't know what to expect of this new life, but he is eager to begin it. Frederick has a similar feeling as he enters free mans land. He says with joy, " I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free State. I have never been able to answer the question with any satisfaction to myself. It was the highest moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced." Frederick is in a euphoric state here, which later he describes to have worn off when the reality of loneliness set in. During the loneliness Fredrick sought out peace with the past. He journeyed back to the plantation to see Mr. Auld. Here is a part their reconciliatory meeting:

The reversal of their conditions--Auld now over eighty years old and much reduced from the young man Frederick had both hated and feared; Douglass now in the prime of his life, and international celebrity--predisposed the black man to remember only Auld's "good deeds" and to treat the old man with deference (Andrews, 7).

Fredrick eventually made his peace with Auld. Harriet has a different speech to offer. When she discovers she is free, she says, "I felt as if a heavy load had been lifted from my weary shoulders. We are as free from the power of slaveholders as are the white people of the north. (Jacobs, 1984-5). She and her children are free. She later explains:

I have not written my experiences in order to attract attention to myself; on the contrary, it would have been more pleasant to me to have been silent about my own history. Neither do I care to excite sympathy for my own sufferings. But I do earnestly desire to arouse the women of the North to a realizing sense of the condition of two million of women at the South, still in bondage, suffering what I suffered, and most of them far worse (Berlant, 550).

Even though her dream has not yet been realized, she is grateful for all the help she has received along the way from both God and his people. She tries to help others now who are still in bondage, through her humble appeal to northern women.

Word Cited

Andrews, William. "Reunion in the Postbellum Slave Narrative: Frederick Douglass and Elizabeth Keckley." Black American Literature Forum. 23.1 (1998): 5-16.

Berlant, Lauren. " The Queen of America Goes to Washington City: Harriet Jacobs, Frances Harper, Anita Hill." American Literature. 65.3 (1993): 549-574.

Bontempts, Arna. "The Slave Narrative: An American Genre." Great Slave Narratives. Ed. Arna Bontempts. Boston: Beacon Press Books, 1969. Vii-1. 

Douglass, Frederick. "Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass and American Slave." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 1817-81.

Douglass, Frederick. "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?" The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 1881-1900.

Harriet, Jacobs. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Paul Lauter. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002. 1962-86.

Lunsford, Lane. "Narrative of the Life of Lunsford Lane. "The American Negro, His History and Literature. Ed. William Loren Katz. New York: Arno Press, 1968. 42-110.