Frederick Douglass' Narrative, first published in 1845, has been described by a recent commentator as "a consciously literary work, and one of the first order." While I suspect that few readers would challenge this view, surprisingly few have sung the work's praises in the annals of literary criticism. Although pioneering discussions of Douglass' use of agrarian and animal imagery, nautical metaphors, ironic humour, and techniques which create verisimilitude have established a firm base upon which further studies may be built, there is one area of investigation in which the groundwork has yet to be laid. This is the whole subject of the role of religious language and Biblical allusion in the Narrative.
From the start Douglass associates the slaveholders with the forces of evil through his choice of traditional Christian terms for the demonic. . . .
The use of Biblical references and imagery would not have seemed peculiarly "literary" or learned to men of Douglass' time. Knowledge of the Scriptures was "general," and an author's allusions to Christian concepts would have bolstered his readers' understanding, not interfered with it. The white abolitionist audience for whom Douglass wrote the Narrative would certainly have responded to a language of religious reference, but Douglass was probably not consciously catering to their tastes. Jeanette Robinson Murphy, one of the first commentators on black spirituals, has pointed out that the slaves themselves recognized a parallel between their situation and that of the Israelites: "One of the most persistent fancies that the old slaves cherished was that they were the oppressed Israelites . . . and that Canaan was freedom . . . In many of their songs they appropriate Bible prophecies and ideas to themselves." One of the most familiar patterns in sermons delivered by black ministers was that of the linear Christian view of history: the sermon "began with the Creation, went on to the fall of man, rambled through the trials and tribulations of the Hebrew children, came down to the redemption by Christ, and ended with the Judgment Day and a warning and an exhortation to sinners." The prophecy of a coming Judgment Day figures prominently in the Narrative's allusions, as I shall demonstrate; it seems likely that Douglass was inspired, at least in part, by the black homiletic tradition.
Douglass uses Biblical phrasing primarily to refute the claim that Christianity sanctions slavery. He makes this strategy clear when he explains that "of all slaveholders . . . religious slaveholders are the worst." The case of Captain Auld is the most telling: he "experiences religion," and becomes a "much worse man after his conversion than before", having found "religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty." In fact, the religious sanction is founded on a misreading of Scripture, as Douglass' example of such a passage shows. His master quotes the following as justification for beating a slave: "'He that knoweth his master's will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes'". The verse quoted appears in Luke xii, a chapter which focuses on the responsibilities of a Christian disciple. The "Master", Christ, exhorts his followers to seek the kingdom of heaven and to live in a state of constant readiness for that day when they will be judged, for they are "like unto men that wait for their lord." In the parable which follows, Christ develops this figure of man as servant; all who "wait for their lord" must be prepared to meet him at any time, "for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." The servants of God may not postpone their preparations:
But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens . . . [t]he Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.
In the appendix to the Narrative, Douglass quotes extensively from Matthew xxiii, identifying Christianity in America with the worst excesses of the "ancient scribes and Pharisees." These quotations serve as excellent illustrations of the technique that identifies Biblical patterns operative in secular history. The passages selected emphasize the price to be paid by the oppressors: "'They bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers . . . But woe unto you . . . ye shall receive the greater damnation.'" The threatening voice of the prophet of social revolution is unmistakable.
The cursing of Ham, which some slaveholders insisted was proof of the justness of American slavery, is alluded to in the first chapter of the narrative. Douglass thus begins his account with a reference to that section of the Book of Genesis which was held by the enslavers to mark the beginning of black history. As Douglass proceeds to demonstrate, however, this "justification" of slavery is no longer "scriptural," for there are many slaves "who, like myself, owe their existence to white fathers, and those fathers most frequently their own masters." "If the lineal descendants of Ham are alone to be scripturally enslaved," Douglass argues, "it is certain that slavery at the south must soon become unscriptural." The very existence of slaves with white fathers "will do away the force of the argument, that God cursed Ham, and therefore American slavery is right." Douglass rejects the division of the human race into the enslaved (the descendants of Ham) and the enslavers, and advances, instead, the traditional Christian division of the race of man into the children of God and the children of the devil. In the lengthy quotation from Matthew xxiii in the appendix, that basic division appears in the explicit description of the Pharisees (whom Douglass has just identified with the "votaries" of "the Christianity of America") as "the child[ren] of hell." Douglass' citing of the term, "child of hell," is especially helpful in placing his prevalent use of such adjectives as "fiendish" and "infernal" within a Biblical context.
From the start Douglass associates the slaveholders with the forces of evil through his choice of traditional Christian terms for the demonic: the deeds of the slaveholders are "most infernal"; slavery itself is of an "infernal character"; "infernal purpose", "infernal work", and "infernal grasp" all refer to the actions of the oppressors. "Fiendish" is another prevalent adjective, and, in what is perhaps the clearest illustration of Douglass' purpose in employing these traditional Christian terms for evil, the slave traders are described as "fiends from perdition" who "never looked more like their father, the devil." "None of them is lost," said Christ, "but the son of perdition." "He that commiteth sin is of the devil . . . Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin . . . In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil." Mr. Plummer, Mr. Severe, and a "swarm of slave traders" are described as profane swearers; their blasphemy is further evidence of their sinfulness. Like their association with things "infernal" and "fiendish," the slaveowners' "bitter curses and horrid oaths" mark them as "children of the devil." It is these human demons who have brought about "the hottest hell of unending slavery."
Throughout the Narrative Douglass refers to his own brethren as "souls"; an explicit contrast is thus made between the genealogy of the slaveholders and that of the slaves, "children of a common Father." The scholars at Douglass' Sabbath school, for example, are "precious souls . . . shut up in the prisonhouse of slavery; their songs are the "prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish." The word "souls" emphasizes the slaves' humanity, their possession of that spark of divinity which animates an immortal being. The repetition of the term also draws attention to "the soul-killing effects of slavery." In contrast with the "souls" of the slaves are the "hardened hearts" of the enslavers. If any man needs to be convinced of the spirit-destroying effects of slavery, he has only to listen to the songs of Colonel Lloyd's prisoners and "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.'" The Biblical passage alluded to here is from the Book of Ezekiel; the destruction of the wicked and God's offer of a new spirit to those who will abide by His laws are prophesied: "I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh." As for those whose hearts remain obdurate, "I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD." Douglass is connecting his voice with the voices of the Old Testament prophets when he promises the coming destruction of the wicked. This strategy is used frequently in the Narrative.
Another instance of it is found in Douglass' description of his friend Nathan Johnson, "of whom I can say with a grateful heart, 'I was hungry, and he gave me meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger and he took me in.'" The passage quoted is Matthew xxv, 35, and once more the allusion invokes the Second Coming. Christ welcomes those who cared for their fellow men, though strangers, for they will inherit His kingdom: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Those who did not take in the needy stranger are cursed and sent into the "everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." As the gospel account alluded to makes clear, to reject the appeals of suffering humanity is to reject Christ Himself and, thus, Salvation. The passage provides further evidence of Douglass' use of Biblical allusion to strengthen his argument against the religious "sanctions" of slavery.
The association of suffering humanity with Christ is used most effectively in the description of Douglass' fight with Mr. Covey, though this is not the only place where such a parallel is drawn. In chapter eight, for example, Douglass describes his fellow-slaves as "men and women of sorrow, and acquainted with grief"; in Isaiah the Lord is "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." The slaves and their Lord are explicitly connected with each other. The same may be said of the description of the fight with Covey; Douglass is associated with Christ and Covey with Satan. The struggle thus stands representative of the perpetual battle between the children of God and the devil. Covey is called "the snake" by the slaves, and his defining characteristic is "his power to deceive", exactly that ability which is always associated with Satan. Douglass remarks ironically, "He seemed to think himself equal to deceiving the Almighty." Covey succeeds in "breaking" Douglass, but only for a short time. Before describing the battle that he calls "the turning-point" however, Douglass presents his famous account of the sailing ships on the Chesapeake Bay.
This account might aptly be seen as a kind of emblem for the overall movement of the Narrative. Framed between the description of Covey and the actual fight, and placed in the centre of the central episode, its position indicates its importance. Initially, "freedom's swift-winged angels" evoke utter despair and the anguished cry, "Is there any God? Why am I a slave?". But as Douglass thinks about the "protecting wing" of the sails, he vows that he will escape and that he will do so by water. We know from his later autobiographies that it was in the clothing of a sailor that he was delivered from bondage; his prophetic resolutions led him to freedom. The movement toward hope in the ship episode is emblematic of the movement of Douglass' life as it reaches its turning point: "There is a better day coming."
The struggle with Covey begins when Douglass loses consciousness in the fields. The overseer refuses to believe that he is unable to rise and strikes him on the head, leaving a large wound. Douglass runs, pushing through bogs and briers,
barefooted and bareheaded, tearing my feet sometimes at nearly every step . . . From the crown of my head to my feet, I was covered with blood . . . My legs and feet were torn in sundry places with briers and thorns, and were also covered with blood.
Douglass' resemblance to the crucified Christ is unmistakable. When he finally confronts Covey again, he resolves to fight: "I seized Covey hard by the throat; and as I did so, I rose." His triumph is "a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom." In 1841 Theodore Parker suggested that Christ must be seen as the "paragon of humanity": "There was never an age," he said, "when men did not crucify the Son of God afresh." Parker's remarks are especially illuminating when brought to bear on the parallel crucifixions and resurrections of the Narrative; so, too, are the words of St. Paul in the second epistle to the Corinthians: "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." "As ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation."
For Douglass, consolation rests in the day of the destruction of slavery. Of Mr. Covey, the man who embodies the infernal, he says, "His comings were like a thief in the night." Once more, language turns back upon its surface meaning: In Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians we find, "The day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night", and in the Second Epistle General of Peter, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." The day of the Lord is the Day of Judgment.
The voice that speaks to us through this fabric of Biblical allusion is a prophetic voice. After each of three narrow escapes Douglass alludes to the famous Old Testament prophet Daniel, who was protected by the God he served: "I had escaped a worse than lion's jaws"; "I suppose I looked like a man who had escaped a den of wild beasts, and barely escaped them"; "I said I felt like one who escaped a den of hungry lions." In the Biblical account not only is Daniel saved, but those who had condemned him are cast into the pit where "the lions had mastery of them, and brake all their bones in pieces." Again the promise of the punishment of the wicked is alluded to.
Douglass aligns himself with one more prophet: Jeremiah. In the only true "vision" of the Narrative, he imagines the condition of his aged grandmother. She lives in utter loneliness, having been turned out to die; the children, "who once sang and danced in her presence, are gone", and she suffers in "the darkness of age." The vision concludes with the question, "Will not a righteous God visit for these things?". In the appendix to the Narrative, Douglass quotes the scriptural reference: "'Shall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord. Shall not my soul be averaged on such a nation as this?'".
The voice of the Narrative is that of the prophets of all ages. The apocalypse heralded is a fire of the soul, a spiritual liberation and resurrection which will lead to the day of actual physical freedom from slavery's chains. Douglass' work is a plea for action, a challenge to his readers to take up "the sacred cause" that is truly sanctioned by Scripture, and hasten "the glad day of deliverance." The prophet has spoken, and who are we to doubt that "this good spirit was from God"?