Frederick Douglass's (1818-1895) Narrative (1843)

Why you should read this book.
For nearly I've struggled with how to teach this book because, quite simply, if you read it it will teach itself; unlike most everything else we cover in these classes, Douglass makes his purpose and argument completely clear, and his argument -- that he is a man and that slavery is evil -- is one that very, very few of us would now be willing to challenge.  Certainly some of my students are racists and come from racist homes, but even few if any of them would argue that blacks aren't fully human or that we should reinstate slavery.  So, why teach it?

Because it is good. It's inspiring and interesting.
Personally, I think this is one of the most inspiring books I've ever read.  It's not simply a testimony to Douglass's personal struggle, which would be impressive enough -- he overcomes obstacles that make The Hobbit seem like a family picnic -- or even a testimony to the hardship experienced by millions of Americans -- and slaves elsewhere, but really it's a testimony to how high a human being can ascend from even the lowest of social depths.  And what one person can do, any of us can do.

I also think it's an important book to read while you are in college and perhaps asking yourself what you are doing here or whether your education is worthwhile.  Sometimes it's good to remember what an education is worth to those people who have been or are currently denied one and to think about how privileged we are to even ask the question of whether or not we want to be here, learning.

Because it's nonfiction.
Part of what makes this book so interesting and so worthwhile, to me, at least, is that it is factually "true".  Certainly there is great value in fiction -- I wouldn't have this job if I didn't believe that -- but what makes Douglass Narrative so powerful is that these are things that actually occurred.  Like great music or art, fiction impresses us with the beautiful, brilliant, awe-inspiring creative capability of the human mind: of our ability to imagine new worlds.  But nonfiction often reminds us of the true capability of the human spirit and body.  Fiction shows us what humans are capable of creating, of thinking; non-fiction shows us what humans are capable of doing.

And, again, that's both inspiring and, for me, at least, interesting.  I mean, why watch sports if you're not interested in what human beings are capable of doing?  And which is more impressive, catching a ball or surviving and escaping slavery and living to change the course of human events?

Because it's unique.
One of the greatest weaknesses of literature especially, but some other forms of art as well, is that literature almost always only represents the experience of the privileged: those with enough food in their bellies and free time to sit around writing for hours upon hours each day, for years.  As Virginia Woolf argues in A Room Of One's Own, there were no great female writers -- no female Shakespeares -- down through history because women weren't taught or really allowed the type of education and leisure time necessary to cultivate a mind capable of producing Shakespearean writing.  Writing is like golf or tennis or racing formula one: you have to have access to a very large set of resources to do these well, or at all, and very, very few people on this planet have access to these resources.

Slaves don't have a lot free time to cultivate an education and then sit around writing books.  Nor do sweatshop workers.  Or farmworkers etc.

One of the reasons systems like slavery can exist is because you don't have to see them.  And you don't have to see them these people are denied the ability to tell their own stories.

Because it was important.
Finally, because of the previous reason, this book and the speeches Douglass made radically changed American history. It didn't simply expose the horrors of slavery that Southerners had been radically denying; it proved John Locke correct in ways that most Americans had been denying:  a black man, a slave, could write a book.  And not just any book: he could write a book of deep intelligence.  A black man could be smarter than most white men even if he was denied -- by law, by violence, by threat of death -- the kind of education those white men, and many of us, today, took and take granted.

A black man could be a genius.  A slave could be a genius.

This was the book that by many accounts finally turned the tide. And so this book truly played a major role in ending American slavery.