From Courage to Freedom: The Reality behind the Song

Lesson 1 of the Curriculum Unit — From Courage to Freedom: Frederick Douglass's 1845 Autobiography

Introduction:

In his autobiography, Douglass is quick to distinguish the myth from the reality. He uses incidents of cruelty that he witnessed along with songs of the slaves themselves—spirituals—to emphasize this distinction.

Guiding Question:

• How does Frederick Douglass's skilled use of language paint a realistic portrait of slavery?
• According to Douglass, what were some common misconceptions about slaves and their situation?

Learning Objectives

• Analyze and understand a specific type of historical and literary primary document, the slave narrative/autobiography.
• Recognize and explain the use and effectiveness of precise word choice, imagery, irony, and rhetorical appeals.
• Learn to look for and contrast instances of reality and romanticized myth by using the slave narrative as a source for historical study.
• Examine Douglass's exploration of the multiple meanings behind slave spirituals

Preparing to Teach this Lesson

• Review the Introduction and the Preparing sections of the Curriculum Unit Overview Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. If necessary, download and print out any documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• This lesson plan covers Chapter One and Chapter Two of Douglass's Narrative.
• Review persuasive appeals, imagery, irony, repetition, and connotative and denotative language (see Curriculum Unit Overview for more information).
• Download, duplicate, and pass out copies of the worksheet Reading Douglass's Rhetoric, available as a PDF document. Alternatively, have students copy the text from Douglass's narrative and paste it into a word processing document, where they can underline or highlight important words and write notes on Douglass's rhetorical appeals.

Suggested Activities:

Then hand out copies of the timeline of Douglass's life found at the link below. Ask the students to pencil in Douglass's age at each key moment and consider his life experiences in terms of their own thus far.

To introduce them to the slave narrative, have the students read Andrews' introduction to the narrative. Have them state the characteristics of the slave narrative, the audience for which the narrative was intended, and the influence of the narratives.

• Concise overview of Douglass's life at the EDSITEment-reviewed National Park Service Links to the Past: American Visionaries
• William L. Andrews' "An Introduction to the Slave Narrative" found at the EDSITEment reviewed UNC Chapel Hill's Documenting the American South

Convincing the Audience: Preparing the Class for Douglass's Rhetoric

• Logos: appeal to reason
• Ethos: appeal to one's own character
• Pathos: appeal to emotion

Also review the terms imagery, irony, repetition, and connotative and denotative language with students.

Chapter One: The Reality of Slave Life

Ask students to share their reactions. During class discussion, students might point out

• the fact that Douglass knew neither his birth date nor the name of his father
• the fact that Douglass, as was typical of many slave children, was separated from his mother shortly after birth and never really knew her
• the fact that many slave children were products of liaisons between the master and one of his female slaves; how this relationship often produced antagonism between the master's wife and the slave children as well as between the master's "legitimate" children and his slave children; how the master/father would even sell his slave children
• the fact that at any time, for any particular reason (or not) slaves could be subject to brutal violence.

"He was a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slaveholding. He would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave. I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an old aunt of mine, whom he used to tie up to a joist, and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his gory victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped the longest. He would whip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; and not until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin. I remember the first time I ever witnessed this horrible exhibition. I was quite a child, but I well remember it. I never shall forget it whilst I remember any thing. It was the first of a long series of such outrages, of which I was doomed to be a witness and a participant. It struck me with awful force. It was the blood-stained gate, the entrance to the hell of slavery, through which I was about to pass. It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it."

Chapter Two: Spirituals, Myth, and the Reality Behind the Song

"Few privileges were esteemed higher, by the slaves of the out-farms, than that of being selected to do errands at the Great House Farm. It was associated in their minds with greatness. A representative could not be prouder of his election to a seat in the American Congress, than a slave on one of the out-farms would be of his election to do errands at the Great House Farm."

Questions:

The class should then read aloud the next paragraph in which Douglass introduces the spirituals, or songs, that the slaves would sing on their way to the Great House:

"The slaves selected to go to the Great House Farm, for the monthly allowance for themselves and their fellow-slaves, were peculiarly enthusiastic. While on their way, they would make the dense old woods, for miles around, reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once the highest joy and the deepest sadness. They would compose and sing as they went along, consulting neither time nor tune. The thought that came up, came out-if not in the word, in the sound;--and as frequently in the one as in the other. They would sometimes sing the most pathetic sentiment in the most rapturous tone, and the most rapturous sentiment in the most pathetic tone. Into all of their songs they would manage to weave something of the Great House Farm. Especially would they do this, when leaving home. They would then sing most exultingly the following words: "I am going away to the Great House Farm!
O, yea! O, yea! O!"This they would sing, as a chorus, to words which to many would seem unmeaning jargon, but which, nevertheless, were full of meaning to themselves. I have sometimes thought that the mere hearing of those songs would do more to impress some minds with the horrible character of slavery, than the reading of whole volumes of philosophy on the subject would do."

• As a class determine how Douglass describes the songs or spirituals that the slaves would sing.
• What seems to be the tone of the spiritual "Great House Farm"? Why?
• For what might the phrase "Great House" be a metaphor? Consider the context of the song and evaluate the denotation and connotation of "Great House."
• Have the class read the lyrics to another spiritual, "I Want to Go Home," as found in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's June 1867 Atlantic Monthly essay "Negro Spirituals" (http://xroads.virginia.edu) in comparison to the "Great House Farm." What is the tone of these lyrics? What might "home" denote and connote in this song?

  "I Want to Go Home"
  
  "Dere's no rain to wet you,
  O, yes, I want to go home.
  Dere's no sun to burn you,
  O, yes, I want to go home;
  
  O, push along, believers,
  O, yes, I want to go home.
  Dere's no hard trials,
  O, yes, I want to go home.
  
  Dere's no whips on de wayside,
  O, yes, I want to go home.
  O, push along, my brudder,
  O, yes, I want to go home.
  
  Where dere's no stormy weather,
  O, yes, I want to go home.
  Dere's no tribulation,
  O, yes, I want to go home."

• Have a student read aloud the passage; afterwards have the class state what the spirituals represent to Douglass. The class should consider the following questions:
  • Upon reflection, what does Douglass realize about why slaves sang spirituals and about the basic purpose of the spirituals?
  • Which of Douglass's descriptive words or phrases in the passage show the extent to which he deplores slavery? Which rhetorical appeals does Douglass use and to what effect?

"I did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and apparently incoherent songs. I was myself within the circle, so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. They told a tale of woe which was then altogether beyond my feeble comprehension; they were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish. Every tone was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God for deliverance from chains. The hearing of those wild notes always depressed my spirit, and filled me with ineffable sadness. I have frequently found myself in tears while hearing them. . . To those songs I trace my first glimmering conception of the dehumanizing character of slavery. I can never get rid of that conception. Those songs still follow me, to deepen my hatred of slavery, and quicken my sympathies for my brethren in bonds. If any one wishes to be impressed with the soul-killing effects of slavery, let him go to Colonel Lloyd's plantation, and, on allowance-day, place himself in the deep pine woods, and there let him, in silence, analyze the sounds that shall pass through the chambers of his soul,—and if he is not thus impressed, it will only be because 'there is no flesh in his obdurate heart."

• How does Douglass dismiss the misconception that a singing slave is necessarily a content and happy slave? What analogy does he use? Is this analogy effective?

"I have often been utterly astonished, since I came to the north, to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness. It is impossible to conceive of a greater mistake. Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears. At least, such is my experience. I have often sung to drown my sorrow, but seldom to express my happiness. Crying for joy, and singing for joy, were alike uncommon to me while in the jaws of slavery. The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion."

Assessment:

Extending the Lesson:

Have the class read the lyrics to "Many Thousand Go" as found in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's June 1867 Atlantic Monthly essay "Negro Spirituals," via EDSITEment-reviewed American Studies at UVA. Those familiar with Bob Dylan's "No More Auction Block for Me" will recognize the tune of "Many Thousand Go." The class may also like to listen to spirituals found at www.negrospirituals.com ; for example, "Heaven" or "Old Time Religion" in particular has the apparent joyousness that may have led some to believe that "singing, among slaves" was "evidence of their contentment and happiness."

Next Lesson

Return to the Curriculum Unit Overview

Selected EDSITEment Websites

• Douglass's 1845 Narrative
  [ http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbcb:
  @field(DOCID+@lit(lhbcb25385))]

• An Introduction to the Slave Narrative
  [http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/intro.html]

Silva Rhetoricae
[http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm]

Internet Public Library

• Wikipedia
  [http://en.wikipedia.org/]
• Dictionary.com
  [http://dictionary.reference.com/]

• Thomas Wentworth Higginson's essay "Negro Spirituals"
  [http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TWH/twh_front.html]