Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself 363him for the next six months. Douglass states, “This
battle... rekindled the expiring embers of freedom,
and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.
It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired
me again with a determination to be free.” By this
point in the narrative, Douglass has become a man,
and dreams of freedom are foremost in his mind. He
attempts to make these dreams a reality with his first
escape attempt in 1835.
Douglass’s plot to escape with fellow slaves fails
when it is discovered by his master. When Master
Hugh once again denies Douglass the privilege
to decide his hours, employment, and contracts,
Douglass attempts escape again. On this occasion,
September 3, 1838, he succeeds. He does not pro-
vide the reader with explicit details of his escape
in order to protect those who protected him. He
reaches New York and describes feelings of “great
insecurity and loneliness.” Freedom to Douglass
becomes an endless feeling of seeing every white and
black man as a potential betrayer of his freedom. He
receives help from friends and from his wife, Anna.
Ultimately, he exercises an important symbolic act of
freedom; he chooses his own name.
Patrice Natalie Delevante
Gender in Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, an American Slave, Written by
Himself
In his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an
American Slave, Douglass depicts white southern
identity during the period of American slavery and
throughout the Civil War as a social construct, cre-
ated by white masters and mistresses for the sole
purpose of projecting themselves as the superior
race. In order for white slaveholders to sustain their
self-created identity, they must constantly reinforce
their supposed superiority to their slaves. For both
white men and white women, gender roles compli-
cate this construct. Because in traditional southern
society, men are superior to women, and whites are
superior to blacks, relationships between the races
complicate this system. Two episodes in Doug-
lass’s narrative illustrate this complication. Captain
Anthony and Mrs. Hicks, both slaveholders, “privi-
lege” their slaves Aunt Hester and Douglass’s wife’s
cousin, respectively, until those slaves challenge the
established gender roles.
Douglass introduces Captain Anthony as the
compulsive protector of his slave Aunt Hester.
Although Hester is a domestic slave to a white
southerner who “was not considered a rich slave-
holder” from the perspectives of both white and
black communities, Douglass describes her as pos-
sessing a “noble form, and of graceful proportions,
having very few equals and fewer superiors, in
personal appearance, among the colored or white
women of [their] neighborhood.” White southern
manhood prided itself on the ability to protect,
nurture, and gain entitlements and access to white
southern women; however, black women, being seen
as literal property, were certainly not thought of as
having their own sexual or romantic thoughts or
desires.
Captain Anthony strictly polices Aunt Hester’s
whereabouts, limiting her tasks to those not requir-
ing travel from the plantation in the evenings. Most
important, Aunt Hester is forbidden from ever visit-
ing or being seen with a local black male slave, Ned.
The reader is not given the reasons for the prohibi-
tion but it can be inferred that Anthony does not
want Aunt Hester to engage sexually with another
man. She breaks this rule, however, and for her
transgression, Aunt Hester is stripped to the waist
and brutally whipped, a scene the young Douglass
witnesses and later recalls vividly.
Another episode illustrating gender roles
involves Douglass’s white neighbor Mrs. Hicks.
Mrs. Hicks shares her maternal space and bedroom
with Douglass’ wife’s cousin, a girl of 15 or 16 at the
time. Mrs. Hicks sleeps in her bed at night while
Douglass’s wife’s cousin cares for her baby. Mrs.
Hicks, Douglass relates, finds her baby “crying” and
Douglass’ wife’s cousin “slow to move,” as a result of
her “having lost rest for several nights,” from having
had to tend to the Hicks baby. For this, Mrs. Hicks
viciously attacks the teenager with a stick from the
fireplace, breaking her “nose and breastbone” and
ultimately killing her. The reader can conclude
from Douglass’s description of that tragic night
that white womanhood, disquieted by maternal rage
precipitated by accidental neglect, ended the life of
a young girl. White southern manhood is also called