WLT2World Literature Today 2:

A Student Publication

Volume 3Autumn 2001

Editors: Nathan Brown and Diana PardoExecutive Director. Robert Con Davis-Undiano

Editorial Board: Erin Blue, Amber Clingenpeel, Sharon Guthrie,Lindsay R. Hall, Sean M. Lynch, Ashley McCallum, Andria

Parker, Erh K. Perng, Michelle L. Powell, Terrell J. Swanson,Jennifer Connelly Tharp, Tracy J. Waterman

Cover Photography: Channing Ross

Frederick Douglass: A Reinscriptive DiscourseNyla All Khan

The motivation to create empire brought major parts of theearth under the dominion of a few powers. These powers usedviolent, ideological, and cultural practices as the impetus fordisseminating the values that molded the racial and culturalidentity of the colonizer as well as the colonized. WesternImperialism and colonialism were violent acts of acquisition thatwere supported by ideological notions of the superiority of thedominant culture and the imbecility of the non-European culture,which beseeched domination (Said 8). This strategy created anunbridgeable gulf between the "center" and the "margin," whichsignified the alienation of the outsider.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: AnAmerican Slave Written by Himself destabilizes such dominantassumptions that are the foundation of binary structuration,which is the basis of the pattern of post-Enlightenment conquestand domination in human history. The narrator employs acounter-discourse to effect a displacement of oppositional terms.In order to achieve this, Frederick Douglass "negotiates" withEuropean cultural institutions, texts, values, and theoreticalpractices (Spivak 184). Although Douglass has no control overthe historical context that positions and objectifies him, thenarrator forges his subjectivity as created by the strategic use ofsubject positions that reconfigure the classification of discordantentities.' The pigeonholing of the African diaspora as atavistic

' Henry Louis Gates, Jr. observes that "... we must now insist upon therecognition and identification of the black autobiographical tradition asthe positing of fictive black selves in language, in a mode of discoursetraditionally defined by rather larger claims for the self. The self, in thissense does not exist as an entity but as a coded system of signs, arbitraryin reference" (123). Douglass 's self is not an ossified entity, but on thecontrary, is a tabula rasa on which he reconfigures multiple subject-

underscored the idea of oppositionality between various binarydivisions : black-white, primitive-civilized , silent-articulate,irrational ruled and rational ruler. The enslaved population thatwas imported from the African coast across the Atlantic "MiddlePassage" to the Americas, enabled the construction of Americanculture as diametrically opposite to the "native cannibal"(Ashcroft et al 213). The discourse formulated in the narrative ofDouglass invents a social space that is not reductive, but a"contact zone," where asymmetrical cultures and ideologiesgrapple with each other to conceptualize a space of identity:

Contact zones are social spaces where disparatecultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other,often in highly asymmetrical relations ofdominance and subordination -like colonialism,slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived outacross the globe today (Pratt 4).

I want to argue that although the narrator subverts binaries onwhich the dominant discourse and practices of Americanslaveholders rely to validate its power, he does not create aninverse valorization of colonized over colonizer. As a "Black"slave Douglass does not reductively internalize the tenets of"White" American culture but endeavors to give U.S. slaves avoice which is affiliated with American culture but is notimagined from within the interests of the American slaveholdingcommunity.

I would contend that Frederick Douglass breaks the shacklesof a traditional discourse that was used and disseminated by thecolonizer, and thereby articulates a submerged voice. Thenarrator's assertion of identity is motivated by the development ofa collective and individual subjectivity. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.discusses the usage of "Written by Himself" or "Herself' as slavenarratives ' subtitles as representing a condemnation of theinstitution of slavery by foregrounding the subjectivity of theslave narrator (23). As a condemnation of the practice of slavery,

the narrator voices a scathing critique of institutionalizedEuropean "savagery" by expressing his personal as well ascommunity histories through writing:

I did not, when a slave, understand the deepmeaning of those rude and apparently incoherentsongs. I was myself within the circle; so that Ineither saw nor heard as those without might seeand hear. They told a tale of woe which was thenaltogether beyond my feeble comprehension; theywere tones loud, long, and deep; they breathedthe prayer and complaint of souls boiling overwith the bitterest anguish. Every tone was atestimony against slavery, and a prayer to Godfor deliverance from chains. The hearing of thosewild notes always depressed my spirit, and filledme with ineffable sadness (29).

This explicit expression of Douglass's sense of communityenables him to render individual assertion as well as culturalresilience as acts of resistance to the dehumanizing aspects ofslavery, through which he achieves self-definition in an imperialworld order. The narrator's strategic employment of the collectiveresilience of the "Black" voice is an attempt to buttress his"negotiation" with entrenched ideological structures.

Although the narrator is aware of and carefully deploys thehistory of the repression of U.S. slaves in order to foreground hisattempts to renegotiate social structures, he distinguishes himselffrom the rest of the slave community. Douglass adopts thisstrategy in order to proclaim himself as the representative of theBlack community, which doesn't nurture nostalgia for an EdenicAfrica, but on the contrary, seeks to forge a space for itself withinthe available infrastructure. For instance, Douglass is given a voicenot at clandestine slave rallies but at fora organized by Whiteabolitionists. Americans were clearly divided between theabolitionists and the slaveholders. The slaveholders espoused the

institutionalization of commercial slavery, which provided alucrative source of trade for European and U.S. empires. Thisform of commercial exploitation and oppression was abolished inAmerica after the outbreak of the American Civil War. TheNorth issued a proclamation to free slaves in 1861, but thisproclamation was officially ratified only in 1865 (Ashcroft et al214). As an example of the political agency that Douglassexercises as an individual and as a member of the "Black"community, his condemnatory narrative is used as a vehicle toexpose the bestial atrocities that were inflicted on subjugatedpeoples by the dominant order. This dispels the self-aggrandizingassumptions of social and moral rectitude by the plantationowners:

I have said my master found religious sanctionfor his cruelty. As an example, I will state one ofmany facts going to prove the charge. I have seenhim tie up a lame young woman, and whip herwith a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders,causing the warm red blood to drip; and, injustification of the bloody deed, he would quotethis passage of Scripture-`He that knoweth hismaster's will, and doeth it not, shall be beatenwith many stripes' (66).

The ideology that was propounded by the American slaveholdersreflected and produced its interests. The slaveholder couched thedebased language of exploitation in the language of culture andreligion, which led to a relegation of the perspective, historicalsense, and traditions of the subjugated populace.

As Edward Said notes, "All human activity depends oncontrolling a radically unstable reality to which wordsapproximate only by will or convention" (29). Therepresentatives of Christianity in the Americas did not negate theexploitative methods of the colonial power. The narrator realizesthat the representatives of the privileged center of the discourse of

power silenced the voices that were on the fringes of society. Thedevice that was deployed to achieve this outcome was the creationof illusory structures, which catered to the dominant order. Thisimaginary ideal rationalized the theoretical and philosophicaltenets underlying the exploitation of Africans as objects ofEuropean and American exchange (Spivak 240).

In order to undermine the falsified representation of theworld, which the colonizer concocted to dominate theimaginations and lives of the colonized, the narrator shakes themoral fabric of "White" society by attributing "uncivilized" and"unchristian" behaviors to the representatives of the regime. As apowerful instance of "negotiation" with European structures,which Douglass cannot annul, the narrator dwells on certainabusive situations that abolitionist rhetoric would categorize asreprehensible. For example, the narrator categorically points outthat his condemnation of organized religion applies

to the slaveholding religion of this land, and withno possible reference to Christianity proper; for,between the Christianity of this land, and theChristianity of Christ, I recognize the widestpossible difference-so wide, that to receive theone as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity toreject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked

(I I8).

The narrator's delineation of corrupt and culpable practicesconcealed by the veneer of religiosity asserts his identity as apolitically and morally discerning, self-constructed individual. Iwould observe that, here, the narrator appropriates the discourseof the imperial power as a strategic move to subvert theconstructed barbarity of slaves.

Douglass's ability to wield the tools of the master enableshim to initiate shrewd negotiations with the dominant order. Hisevocation of the "Christianity of Christ" is an attempt toreinscribe chattel slavery, in which human rights and values were

rendered defunct. Slavery was a perversion of humanity, "I lookupon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds,and the grossest of all libels" (118). This insightfulness enablesthe narrator to wield political and religious discourse to evoke thesympathy of the abolitionists, the predominantly "White" readingpublic, and religious authority. An unequivocal indictment of theslaveholder would ostracize him in a society that claimed an"unblemished" moral and social ethos. The potency of thisartifice becomes apparent when slaveowners endeavor to discountthe claims of slaves by employing a similar discourse: "... theslaveholders not only like to see the slave drink of his own accord,but will adopt various plans to make him drunk.... Thus, whenthe slave asks for virtuous freedom, the cunning slaveholder,knowing his ignorance, cheats him with a dose of viciousdissipation, artfully labeled with the name of liberty" (Douglass83). Here, the plantocracy attempts to constrain reality byimposing its fabricated schema on it, which underpins itsauthority. Its ability to portray images and conjure boundariesrenders the plantocracy a force to reckon with.

But the narrative of Douglass re-etches the boundaries ofrepresentation created by the regime. For instance, the narrator'srealization that the leeway provided by slaveholders to their slaveson "holidays" was a method of recontainmg the legitimizedstructure of society enables him to interrogate the quasi-libertygranted to the "Black" subject by the master (83-4). Byincriminating the plantocracy, Douglass's assertion undercuts thepositional superiority of the dominant power, which wasvalidated by a political structure that affirmed the differencebetween the familiar American slaveholder "Us" and the strangeenslaved "Them." The narrator negates the subjectivity of theplantocracy by essentializing it as opposed to the perspicaciousstance of the abolitionists. He tactically separates the dogmaticofficialese in the Americas, which is used to assert its supremacyamong other verbal and ideological points of view from that ofthe Anti-Slavery Society:

I had not long been a reader of the "Liberator,"before I got a pretty correct idea of theprinciples, measures, and spirit of the anti-slaveryreform. I took right hold of the cause. I could dobut little; but what I could, I did with a joyfulheart, and never felt happier than when in ananti-slavery meeting. . .. I spoke but a fewminutes, when I felt a degree of freedom, andsaid what I desired with considerable ease. Fromthat time until now, I have been engaged inpleading the cause of my brethren ... (116-7).

This adoption of validated social authority, regardless of itsconstituents, created an opportunity for Douglass to be heard. Inthe U.S. abolitionism began in the 1830s. The movement waslaunched and authenticated by anti-slavery Americans. At thatpoint, abolitionism was not hegemonic, but did enjoy the supportof the representatives of those segments of "White" society thatabhorred slavery and opposed it tooth and nail. Such support hadthe potential to strengthen the resolve of U.S. slaves who covetedfreedom from bondage.

The narrative portrays the narrator's political affiliations assagacious choices that he made to expedite his negotiations withstructures of authority. These political fora provided FrederickDouglass with a podium and a credible persona to condemn thebrutality of slavery in order to seek its -eradication. His appeal tothe anti-slavery organizations and to his enslaved brethren is thenarrator's maneuver to evoke a "magnanimous" response from theabolitionists as well as the predominantly "White" readership.The narrator essays to discard his marginalized status by enablinghimself to acquire a position in the social and political hierarchyin the "civilized" world. He strives for an acknowledgement ofthe gruesome barbarity of the coercive tactics employed byslaveholders to subjugate the "Black" population. Douglassrecounts an incident in which his aunt was whipped by hermaster, "The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and

where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest. He wouldwhip her to make her scream, and whip her to make her hush; andnot until overcome by fatigue, would he cease to swing the blood-clotted cowskin" (23). These depictions of the atrocioustreatment that was meted out to enslaved peoples portrayed thevictims as passive recipients of violent and degrading forms ofpunishment and sought to "commission" them to serve particularinterests and social constituencies. Such examples of inhumanetreatment, which were not declarations of insurrection, wererendered to stimulate the abolitionists to erode the operativeassumptions that fortified the strength of American slaveholders.

Anti-Slavery rhetoric could make an even greater impact, if itcould convince its readers that the institution of slavery vitiatedthe dispositions of slaveholders. The metropolis labors under theillusion that the "civilizing" mission undertaken by it determinesthe periphery, but it negates the influence of the periphery on thecenter. The discourse of the dominant power created the enslavedpopulation as a non-individualized and unperspicacious collectivethat should be exterminated, if it refused to cooperate with theEuropean mission to bring "enlightenment" to the dark parts ofthe world. The narrative of Douglass depicts this process ofdomination and control as sullying "White" culture. For instance,Douglass's mistress in Baltimore, who is described as kind andgenerous, is unable to resist the imbrutation caused by the "fatalpoison of irresponsible power," that soon commences "itsinfernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery,soon became red with rage ... (46). As Peter Hulme notes:

The boundaries of civility proved extraordinarilypermeable in the other direction. Just as Othellowas a single, fictional counterexample to thethousands of Christians who "turned Turk" inthe ports of Southern Europe and North Africain the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, soPocahontas was a unique convert, uniquelyremembered (26).

The unbridled power of slaveholders reinforces their dominance,but it corrupts them as well. The only weapon that slaveholdersare capable of wielding in order to assert their power is impotentrage and violence.

This realization renders the evolution of Douglass'ssubjectivity as historically and concretely valid (22). The narrativepresents Douglass as a subject whose subjectivity has been shaped

by the construction of himself that he presented to theabolitionists in the North (Sundquist 89). This constructioninvalidates the values, which I alluded to in the introduction tothis paper, disseminated by imperial powers to mold the racialand cultural identity of enslaved peoples. This renegotiation ofboundaries and structures that enables Douglass's self-construction undercuts the Eurocentricity of Antonio Gramsci'snotion of hegemony (4). The narrator's social and politicalinsights emasculate the class of American slaveholders and renderit incapable of convincing the enslaved population that itsinterests are the interests of all. The internalization of dominantbeliefs and resistance is eroded by the frequent incidents ofviolence on plantations. In such cases violence and coercionsuperseded ideological indoctrination. The narrator chooses tofocus on creating a discourse of rehabilitation that is couched inthe utilitarian discourse of the greater good: "Sincerely andearnestly hoping that this book may do something towardthrowing light on the American slave system ... faithfully relyingupon the power of truth, love, and justice, for success in myhumble efforts . . ." (Douglass 124). The existence of the slavesongs on the plantation testifies to the spirit of resilience thatmotivates Douglass to launch political and cultural actions thatby being both "Black" and American would underpin the creationof the "contact zone."

Works Cited

Ashcroft, Bill, et al. Key Concepts in Post-Colonial Studies.London: Routledge, 1998.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass:An American Slave Written by Himself. New York: SignetClassic, 1997.

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. Figures in Black: Words, Signs, and the"Racial" Self. New York: Oxford UP, 1987.

Gramsci, Antonio. A Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916I935. Ed. David Forgacs. London: Lawrence and Wishart,1988.

Hulme, Peter. Colonial Encounters: Europe and the NativeCaribbean, 1492-1797. London: Methuen, 1986.

Pratt, M.L. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation.London: Roudedge, 1992.

Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. London: ChattoandWindus, 1993.

Spivak, Gayatri. Interview. "Criticism, Feminism, and theInstitution." By Elizabeth Gross. Thesis Eleven I0/I I(I984-5): I75-87.

Sundquist, Eric J. To -Wake the Nations: Race in the Makin ofAmerican Literature. Massachusetts: Belknap P of HarvardUP, 1993.