The Slave Narrative of Frederick Douglass: A Teacher's Guide
c.1866 When this photograph of Frederick Douglass was taken, slavery in the United States had been abolished.
This website is a guide to aid teacher's in getting the most out of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.
In order for students to obtain thorough understanding of the key elements of the novel, this website touches upon:
Prior Knowledge
Theme of Novel
Symbolic Image
Student Assessment
Personal/Social Connection
Refective Quote
Vocabulary
Lyrics with Connection
Prior Knowledge
Frederick Douglass was born on Holmes Hill Farm, in 1818 in Maryland, his mother a slave and his father a slave-keeper. When he was young he served as a slave on farms throughout Baltimore. Frederick's mother's name was Harriet Baily, and she worked the cornfields surrounding Holmes Hill. He knew little of his father except that he was white.
In 1818, the year Douglass was born, there were 11 slave states, in which slavery was allowed, and 11 free states, in which it was prohibited. Most Missourians supported slavery, but many Northern members of Congress did not want Missouri to become a slave state. In 1820, Congress reached a settlement known as the Missouri Compromise. This measure admitted Missouri as a slave state, but it also called for Maine to enter the Union as a free state. Congress thus preserved the balance between free and slave states at 12 each. Abolition leaders included William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Lewis Tappan, and Theodore Dwight Weld. During the 1830's and 1840's, these white abolitionists were joined by many free blacks, including such former slaves as Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.
Most of the abolitionist leaders attacked slavery in writings and public speeches. Garrison began to publish an anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831. Douglass, who was the most influential black leader of the time, started an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star in 1847. Tubman and many other abolitionists helped Southern slaves escape to the free states and Canada. Tubman returned to the South 19 times and personally led about 300 slaves to freedom. She and others used a network of routes and housing to assist the fleeing blacks. This network became known as the underground railroad.
After 1848, Congress had to deal with the question of whether to permit slavery in the territories that the United States gained from Mexico as a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848). The territories covered what are now California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other states.
Tension in the South increased in 1859, when John Brown led another abolitionist group in seizing the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia (now West Virginia). Federal troops quickly captured Brown, and he was executed later that year. But his raid helped convince many Southerners that the slavery issue would lead to fighting between the North and the South.
Theme Of Novel "Ignorance is not always Bliss"
Take a class period to engage in a group discussion with your students about the message "Ignorance is not always bliss".
This will prepare them for reading this book with a personal understanding of what slavery was and how Douglass desperately sought freedom.
Ask students what they think the quote means. Ask them how they think this quote relates to slavery, and how ignorance inhibits one from freedom. Then, ask them to write some ideas on the board what they think it means to be a slave. After discussing what they wrote, then address what they think it means to be free.
"Am I not a man and a brother?"
Symbolic Image
The first and most identifiable image of the 18th century abolitionist movement was a kneeling African man. Pass around the image to the right and ask your students to write a short response about what they think it's illustrating and how it will embody the spirit of the text. After they pass in their responses, discuss the background of the image.
Members of the Society of Friends (a.k.a Quakers) were among the earliest leaders of the abolitionist movement. By the beginning of the American Revolution, Quakers had moved from viewing slavery as a matter of individual conscience, to seeing the abolition of slavery as a Christian duty.
The society approved a design "expressive of an African in Chains in a Supplicating Posture", also the engraved motto: "Am I Not A Man and A Brother?". The design was approved by the Society, and its promotion then began.
In the year 1788, the design was shipped to Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, where the medallions became a fashion statement for abolitionists and people who were anti-slavery. Although the intent of the emblem was to alter the public opinion of the inhumane African slave trade, ultimately it effected the perception of black inferiority. Student Assessment In order to check to see if students understood the reasons this book is important, assess your students by assigning them the following essay prompt:
Pretend you are an African-American slave in the 1800's, create a story illustrating your life. Don't forget to include:
your youth,
where you served as a slave,
what your jobs are as a slave,
what kind of master you have,
describe the slaves you work with,
and if you have any hope of freedom.
Be creative, while also demostrating your thorough understanding of the time period and the conditions in which the slaves were treated. If you were a slave, how would you feel? Personal/ Social Connection
Engage in another conversation, asking your students to consider what life would be like today if slavery was never abolished; ask them to consider their lives witnessing slavery, and what their life would be like if they were a slave.
What would they do to as a movement against slavery? Would they be scared of the consequences of their actions from higher authority?
Reflective Quote At the turning point in the novel, when Mr. Auld tells his wife not to teach the slave to read and write, because keeping them ignorant is important; Douglass becomes determined to become educated and knowledgable. It was at this moment he understood the key to his freedom. From then on, Douglass did everything he could to further his knowledge and to self-teach himself. The following quotes from the story best embodies the spirit of the text because it was crucial to the rest of his life and his success. Without this epiphany he experienced, his entire life would have been different, he would have never understood what freedom meant or would have went on to aid in the abolition movements taking place in the north; and he would have never wrote down his story for all of us to read.
"Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell."
More significant quotes from the turning point in the novel:
"The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers."
"I could regard them in no other light than a band of succesful robbers who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us slavery."
Vocabulary is a crucial element in the understanding of any text. By approaching reading with first defining challenging words from a vocabulary list, students will be able to lucidly read the novel.
Vocabulary
obdurate
ascertaining
impudence
subversion
mainfestation
abhorrence
vestige
lacerated
odium
incur
chattel
unabated
denunciation
vindicate
emancipation
utterance
writhed
abolition
apprehension
profligate
dissipation
hearth
desolate
deslitute
conspicious
reverence
exhorter
languished
goaded
interpose
sagacity
pernicious
elasticity
Lyrics with Connection In order to further your students understanding of the novel, ask them to write a short response to each of these songs of freedom, similar to the ones Frederick Douglass wrote about in the novel.
Go Down, Moses Traditional spiritual
When Israel was in Egypt's land, Let my people go! Oppressed so hard they could not stand, Let my people go!
Chorus: Go down, Moses, Way down in Egypt's land. Tell old Pharaoh To let my people go!
"Thus spoke the Lord," bold Moses said "Let my people go! If not, I'll smite your firstborn dead. Let my people go!" "No more shall they in bondage toil... Let them come out with Egypt's spoil...
The Lord told Moses what to do... To lead the Hebrew children through...
O come along Moses, you'll not get lost... Stretch out your rod and come across.
As Israel stood by the water side... At God's command it did divide...
When they reached the other shore... They sang a song of triumph o'er...
Pharaoh said he'd go across... But Pharaoh and his host were lost...
O let us all from bondage flee... And let us all in Christ be free...
You need not always weep and mourn... And wear these slav'ry chains forlorn...
Your foes shall not before you stand... And you'll possess fair Canaan's land.
Michael Traditional spiritual
Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah! Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah!
The Jordan River is deep and wide, hallelujah! Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah! (or: Save the souls on the other side, Get my freedom on the other side) Sister, help to trim the sail, hallelujah! Sister, help to trim the sail, hallelujah!
The river Jordan is chilly and cold, hallelujah! Chills the body but not the soul, hallelujah!
Steal Away Traditional Spiritual Steal away, steal away, Steal away to Jesus! Steal away, steal away home, I ain't got long to stay here.
No More Auction Block Anonymous No more auction block for me, No more, no more. No more auction block for me, Many thousand gone.
No more driver's lash for me ...
No more pint of salt for me ...
No more peck of corn for me ...
No more hundred lash for me ...
O Freedom Anonymous O freedom, O freedom, O freedom after a while, And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free.
There'll be no more moaning, no more moaning, No more moaning after a while ... No more weeping, no more crying, No more weeping after a while ...
There'll be no more kneeling, no more bowing, No more kneeling after a while ...
There'll be shouting, there'll be shouting, There'll be shouting after a while ...
He's Just the Same Today Traditional Spiritual
When Moses and his soldiers from Egypt's land did flee, His enemies were in behind him, and in front of him the sea. God raised the water like a wall, And opened up the way, And the God that lived in Moses' time is just the same today. Is just the same today, Just the same today, And the God that lived in Moses' (Daniel's) time is just the same today.
When Daniel, faithful to his God, would not bow down to men, And by God's enemy he was hurled into the lion's den, God locked the lion's jaw, we read, and robbed him of his prey, And the God that lived in Daniel's time is just the same today.
John Brown's Body Anonymous
John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave, John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave, John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave, His soul goes marching on! Glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, glory, hallelujah! Glory, glory, hallelujah! His soul is marching on.
The stars of heaven are looking kindly down (3x) On the grave of old John Brown!
He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, (3x) His soul goes marching on!
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, (3x) His soul goes marching on!
Various sources also list the following verses:
John Brown died to put an end to slavery. (3x) (or: that the slaves might be free) His soul goes marching on!
He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true. He frightened Old Virginny till she trembled through and through. They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew, But his soul goes marching on!
Old John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave, While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save, But though he lost his life in struggling for the slaves, His soul is marching on.
The Slave Narrative of Frederick Douglass: A Teacher's Guide
c.1866 When this photograph of Frederick Douglass was taken, slavery in the United States had been abolished.
This website is a guide to aid teacher's in getting the most out of Frederick Douglass's Narrative.
In order for students to obtain thorough understanding of the key elements of the novel, this website touches upon:
Prior Knowledge
Prior Knowledge
Frederick Douglass was born on Holmes Hill Farm, in 1818 in Maryland, his mother a slave and his father a slave-keeper. When he was young he served as a slave on farms throughout Baltimore. Frederick's mother's name was Harriet Baily, and she worked the cornfields surrounding Holmes Hill. He knew little of his father except that he was white.
In 1818, the year Douglass was born, there were 11 slave states, in which slavery was allowed, and 11 free states, in which it was prohibited. Most Missourians supported slavery, but many Northern members of Congress did not want Missouri to become a slave state. In 1820, Congress reached a settlement known as the Missouri Compromise. This measure admitted Missouri as a slave state, but it also called for Maine to enter the Union as a free state. Congress thus preserved the balance between free and slave states at 12 each. Abolition leaders included William Lloyd Garrison, Lucretia Mott, Lewis Tappan, and Theodore Dwight Weld. During the 1830's and 1840's, these white abolitionists were joined by many free blacks, including such former slaves as Frederick Douglass, Henry Highland Garnet, Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth.
Most of the abolitionist leaders attacked slavery in writings and public speeches. Garrison began to publish an anti-slavery newspaper, The Liberator, in 1831. Douglass, who was the most influential black leader of the time, started an abolitionist newspaper called the North Star in 1847. Tubman and many other abolitionists helped Southern slaves escape to the free states and Canada. Tubman returned to the South 19 times and personally led about 300 slaves to freedom. She and others used a network of routes and housing to assist the fleeing blacks. This network became known as the underground railroad.
After 1848, Congress had to deal with the question of whether to permit slavery in the territories that the United States gained from Mexico as a result of the Mexican War (1846-1848). The territories covered what are now California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of four other states.
Tension in the South increased in 1859, when John Brown led another abolitionist group in seizing the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry in Virginia (now West Virginia). Federal troops quickly captured Brown, and he was executed later that year. But his raid helped convince many Southerners that the slavery issue would lead to fighting between the North and the South.
Theme Of Novel
"Ignorance is not always Bliss"
Take a class period to engage in a group discussion with your students about the message "Ignorance is not always bliss".
This will prepare them for reading this book with a personal understanding of what slavery was and how Douglass desperately sought freedom.
Ask students what they think the quote means. Ask them how they think this quote relates to slavery, and how ignorance inhibits one from freedom. Then, ask them to write some ideas on the board what they think it means to be a slave.
After discussing what they wrote, then address what they think it means to be free.
Symbolic Image
The first and most identifiable image of the 18th century abolitionist movement was a kneeling African man. Pass around the image to the right and ask your students to write a short response about what they think it's illustrating and how it will embody the spirit of the text. After they pass in their responses, discuss the background of the image.
Members of the Society of Friends (a.k.a Quakers) were among the earliest leaders of the abolitionist movement. By the beginning of the American Revolution, Quakers had moved from viewing slavery as a matter of individual conscience, to seeing the abolition of slavery as a Christian duty.
The society approved a design "expressive of an African in Chains in a Supplicating Posture", also the engraved motto: "Am I Not A Man and A Brother?". The design was approved by the Society, and its promotion then began.
In the year 1788, the design was shipped to Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia, where the medallions became a fashion statement for abolitionists and people who were anti-slavery. Although the intent of the emblem was to alter the public opinion of the inhumane African slave trade, ultimately it effected the perception of black inferiority.
Student Assessment
In order to check to see if students understood the reasons this book is important, assess your students by assigning them the following essay prompt:
Pretend you are an African-American slave in the 1800's, create a story illustrating your life. Don't forget to include:
Be creative, while also demostrating your thorough understanding of the time period and the conditions in which the slaves were treated. If you were a slave, how would you feel?
Personal/ Social Connection
Engage in another conversation, asking your students to consider what life would be like today if slavery was never abolished; ask them to consider their lives witnessing slavery, and what their life would be like if they were a slave.
What would they do to as a movement against slavery? Would they be scared of the consequences of their actions from higher authority?
Reflective Quote
At the turning point in the novel, when Mr. Auld tells his wife not to teach the slave to read and write, because keeping them ignorant is important; Douglass becomes determined to become educated and knowledgable. It was at this moment he understood the key to his freedom. From then on, Douglass did everything he could to further his knowledge and to self-teach himself. The following quotes from the story best embodies the spirit of the text because it was crucial to the rest of his life and his success. Without this epiphany he experienced, his entire life would have been different, he would have never understood what freedom meant or would have went on to aid in the abolition movements taking place in the north; and he would have never wrote down his story for all of us to read.
"Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me the inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell."
More significant quotes from the turning point in the novel:
"The more I read, the more I was led to abhor and detest my enslavers."
"I could regard them in no other light than a band of succesful robbers who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us slavery."
Vocabulary is a crucial element in the understanding of any text. By approaching reading with first defining challenging words from a vocabulary list, students will be able to lucidly read the novel.
Vocabulary
Lyrics with Connection
In order to further your students understanding of the novel, ask them to write a short response to each of these songs of freedom, similar to the ones Frederick Douglass wrote about in the novel.
Go Down, Moses
Traditional spiritual
When Israel was in Egypt's land,
Let my people go!
Oppressed so hard they could not stand,
Let my people go!
Chorus:
Go down, Moses,
Way down in Egypt's land.
Tell old Pharaoh
To let my people go!
"Thus spoke the Lord," bold Moses said
"Let my people go!
If not, I'll smite your firstborn dead.
Let my people go!"
"No more shall they in bondage toil...
Let them come out with Egypt's spoil...
The Lord told Moses what to do...
To lead the Hebrew children through...
O come along Moses, you'll not get lost...
Stretch out your rod and come across.
As Israel stood by the water side...
At God's command it did divide...
When they reached the other shore...
They sang a song of triumph o'er...
Pharaoh said he'd go across...
But Pharaoh and his host were lost...
O let us all from bondage flee...
And let us all in Christ be free...
You need not always weep and mourn...
And wear these slav'ry chains forlorn...
Your foes shall not before you stand...
And you'll possess fair Canaan's land.
Michael
Traditional spiritual
Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah!
Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah!
The Jordan River is deep and wide, hallelujah!
Milk and honey on the other side, hallelujah!
(or: Save the souls on the other side, Get my freedom on the other side)
Sister, help to trim the sail, hallelujah!
Sister, help to trim the sail, hallelujah!
The river Jordan is chilly and cold, hallelujah!
Chills the body but not the soul, hallelujah!
Steal Away
Traditional Spiritual
Steal away, steal away,
Steal away to Jesus!
Steal away, steal away home,
I ain't got long to stay here.
No More Auction Block
Anonymous
No more auction block for me,
No more, no more.
No more auction block for me,
Many thousand gone.
No more driver's lash for me ...
No more pint of salt for me ...
No more peck of corn for me ...
No more hundred lash for me ...
O Freedom
Anonymous
O freedom, O freedom,
O freedom after a while,
And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave,
And go home to my Lord and be free.
There'll be no more moaning, no more moaning,
No more moaning after a while ...
No more weeping, no more crying,
No more weeping after a while ...
There'll be no more kneeling, no more bowing,
No more kneeling after a while ...
There'll be shouting, there'll be shouting,
There'll be shouting after a while ...
He's Just the Same Today
Traditional Spiritual
When Moses and his soldiers from Egypt's land did flee,
His enemies were in behind him, and in front of him the sea.
God raised the water like a wall, And opened up the way,
And the God that lived in Moses' time is just the same today.
Is just the same today,
Just the same today,
And the God that lived in Moses' (Daniel's) time is just the same today.
When Daniel, faithful to his God, would not bow down to men,
And by God's enemy he was hurled into the lion's den,
God locked the lion's jaw, we read, and robbed him of his prey,
And the God that lived in Daniel's time is just the same today.
John Brown's Body
Anonymous
John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave,
John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave,
John Brown's body lies a mould'ring in the grave,
His soul goes marching on!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His soul is marching on.
The stars of heaven are looking kindly down (3x)
On the grave of old John Brown!
He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, (3x)
His soul goes marching on!
John Brown's knapsack is strapped upon his back, (3x)
His soul goes marching on!
Various sources also list the following verses:
John Brown died to put an end to slavery. (3x)
(or: that the slaves might be free)
His soul goes marching on!
He captured Harper's Ferry with his nineteen men so true.
He frightened Old Virginny till she trembled through and through.
They hung him for a traitor, they themselves the traitor crew,
But his soul goes marching on!
Old John Brown's body lies a-mould'ring in the grave,
While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save,
But though he lost his life in struggling for the slaves,
His soul is marching on.