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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass


by Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Suffering Quotes


Quote #1


It was common for people who argued in favor of slavery to say that slaves were happy, pointing to the fact that slaves would often sing while they worked. But Douglass says that this is completely backward: slaves don't sing because they're happy, they sing because they're sad. The songs Douglass is talking about, by the way, are called "sorrow songs," out of which evolved the blues.

Quote #2

It was a most terrible spectacle. I wish I could commit to paper the feelings with which I beheld it. (1.8)

Notice how flat and unemotional Douglass's language is. He even admits that his language can't quite capture his experience. When he tries to describe his emotions on watching his Aunt Hester stripped naked and whipped mercilessly, he fails: no words he is capable of writing down can quite get the point across.

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