Lucie Hlaváčková

Jeffrey Allan Vanderziel, B.A.

FF:AJL17051

26/04/2021

A Search for Family in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by
Himself

As a slave, Frederick Douglass led a life that was at times very solitary. He had no connection
with his parents – his father’s identity was unknown to him and his mother died as a stranger in
his eyes, because she was forcefully separated from him “before [he] knew her as [his] mother”
(Douglass 12). Also, he was frequently transferred from one master to another, having to abandon
his relationships and build new ones. The changes of his surroundings prevented him from building a
stable circle of friends and family and left him in the world all by himself, often without any
ties. And yet, in the novel we can see his determination to overcome the circumstances and create
new connections wherever he was sent, searching for a replacement of family, sometimes failing and
other times succeeding.

At first, Douglass encountered two mother figures in his boyhood, neither of them fully satisfying
his need for parental figure. The first was his grandmother, in whose care he was placed from his
infancy. She was tasked with raising little children separated from their mothers until they were
old enough to be placed on the plantation. Even though Douglass does not talk about his own
connection with his grandmother, he expresses his grief at her treatment when she was left alone in
the woods because she was of no use to her master: “My poor old grandmother, the devoted mother of
twelve children, is left all alone” (Douglass 33). This mother figure was only temporary for
Douglass, however, as she was only tasked with raising him for a couple of years, and therefore
could not keep an eye on him for long. Another mother figure was not only temporary like his
grandmother, but also unsuccessful in creating a positive relationship with him. His new mistress,
Mrs. Auld, seemed to him at the beginning “a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings”
(Douglass 26). Naturally, he looked up to her, because she was a woman that showed him kindness and
attended to his needs – even started teaching him how to read. Even though he was her property, in
some sense he was enjoying similar care as her own son. However, that started changing over time as
her nature hardened under the power of slavery. Douglass does not blame her for it, which shows his
persisting affection towards her, but he admits that he was rather glad to leave her house when the
time came. The second mother figure thus proved to be disappointing.

The other, more successful replacement of family proved to be friendships and a sense of community
among slaves. Curiously, the first friendships he felt strongly about were with the poor white boys
of Baltimore who taught him how to read and write. He said that “it was to those little Baltimore
boys that [he] felt the strongest attachment” (Douglass 34). It was not his master nor his mistress
he said he would miss – instead, it was the white children who became his friends and treated him
like their equal more than any other white person. After being forcefully taken from their company,
he mentions that the brotherhood with other slaves was one of his main driving forces. About the
slaves he met at the Freeland’s estate he said: “We were linked and interlinked with each other. I
loved them with a love stronger than any thing I have experienced since” (Douglass 49). His
connection to his fellow slaves on Freeland’s estate only deepened when he started a Sabbath school
for them and fed their hunger for knowledge. In their company, he finally felt a sense of belonging
and ties that could be equal to being linked by blood.

After he was transferred to Baltimore, he managed to escape, but sadness from leaving his friends
in Baltimore was gnawing at his heart, proving that he once again regretted that he had to leave
the people that were everything to him: “I had a number of warmhearted friends in Baltimore –
friends that I loved almost as I did my life – and the thought of being separated from them forever
was painful beyond expression” (Douglass 59). His friends were the only force strong enough to make
him hesitate with his escape plan. Once he escaped and found himself in new surroundings he
admitted how lonely he was without them: “There I was in the midst of thousands, and yet a perfect
stranger; without home and without friends” (Douglass 60). This proves how much his friends meant
to him and how difficult it was for him to leave this substitute family and plunge himself into the
unknown, this time from his own will. Luckily, he soon started making new friends in the North and
created a family of his own with his wife Anna. Anna was not previously mentioned in the novel, and
yet it is she who gave Douglass what he searched for his whole life: a stable family environment.
Only in his freedom, he fully achieved what he strived for his entire life and was finally able to
put down roots.

All in all, in the novel the reader can witness Douglass’ attempts at creating family bonds
wherever he went and see how it pained him to leave them behind. After encountering two mother
figures who did not succeed in replacing his own mother, he realized that his friends were the
closest thing he had to a family. Even though he seldom mentions their names in the novel, he
admits that his friends gave him a sense of brotherhood and community. Only after his escape was he
able to settle down and create a family of his own, but still missed his friends dearly as if they
were his second family.

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by
Himself. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845