The Memoirs of Slaves: Who was the Audience? White Christian Northerners or Future Black Readers?

In the memoirs of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs, both authors weave narratives that expose the realities of slavery enacted on them by the white Christian southerners. Some argue that the two authors were writing for a primarily white audience, but evidence shows that there was an intention of writing to future Black readers in the memoirs. I will first address the realities that Douglass and Jacobs wanted their white northern audience to be aware of and then read deeper into the text to prove that both narratives kept future Black readers in mind.

As the primary audience, white Northerners had to have the realities of slavery illustrated by discussing the effects that slavery had on both the African slaves and their white slave owners. It was pertinent to Douglass that he first explains a common myth in the North; the singing slaves. When Douglass was in the North, he was surprised by how many white people believed that the slaves singing meant that they were content and happy. He dispelled this belief by explaining “the songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears” (Douglass, 343). Douglass dispelling this misinformation humanizes the slaves. The northerner's once happy image of slaves singing is filled with sorrowful hems.

Douglass continues in his story by informing the white reader that slavery does affect not only the slave’s mentality but also the slave owners. When Douglass was with Master Hugh’s family, he learned how to read and write from the Mistress of the house. The Mistress “was a pious, warm, and tender-hearted woman” but “slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tigerlike fierceness” (Douglass, 353). Douglass made a strategic move by appealing to the northerner’s sense of “higher” morality by mentioning “pious” and “heavenly qualities.” Painting the Mistress as holy before slavery and tainted afterward targets the religious movement growing in the North to abolish slavery.

As Douglass’s story continues, he moves away from the subtleties that slavery allots the northerners and depicts the violence and cruelty he witnessed on multiple plantations in the south. This cruelty is also touched on by Jacobs in her writing and will be covered in this section. Douglass describes an incident where a young slave boy named Demby was killed in cold blood for not complying with his slave master. Douglass writes, “Mr. Gore then, without consultation or deliberation with anyone, not even giving Demby an additional call, raised his musket to his face, taking deadly aim at his standing victim and in an instant poor Demby was no more” (Douglass, 347). Here Douglass shows that without hesitation a slave owner could kill a child and “not even” be “submitted to judicial investigation” (Douglass, 347). He wanted to highlight to the white reader that there was no justice for Black slaves and that nothing could be done by slaves because they “could neither institute a suit, nor testify against him” because of their slave status (Douglass, 347).

The cruelty that white Christian southerners placed on slaves manifested differently for male and female slaves at times. Jacobs documents in her memoir the advances that her owner, Dr. Flint, continues to make towards her. In her article, “Chronotopes in Harriet Jacobs's ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl,'” Troy speaks of the cyclical nature of sexual abuse for female slaves. Troy states, “The numerous examples of white male slaveholders’ sexual abuse of female slaves also take on a cyclical character. According to the narrative, by time a slave girl is about fifteen years old, she is likely to have been sexually exploited by white men” (Troy, 20). Jacobs's truthful telling of her sexual exploitation paints her as a girl taken advantage of by her slave master. This discredits the slave master’s ability to be trusted with young girls and calls into question their integrity.

Douglass and Jacobs were not only trying to expose the violence that white southern slaveholders enacted on slaves but to show the depravity of their cruelty and inhumane acts. When Douglass is on a plantation, he sees his grandmother, who is old and sickly, sent out to the forest to die in isolation. This act by the slave owners makes Douglass question the righteousness of God. Douglass writes, “She stands—she sits—she staggers—she falls—she groans—she dies—and there are none of her children or grandchildren present to wipe from her wrinkled brow the cold sweat of death, or to place beneath the sod her fallen remains. Will not a righteous God visit for these things?” (Douglass, 358). Any reader who has older parents or grandparents should understand Douglass’s anger and grief at the treatment of his grandmother. This allows the white audience to easily connect with his plight and imagine the struggles he had to endure.

Similarly, Jacobs had to suffer her Mistress’s cruelty when Jacobs was watching a mother and daughter embracing each other for the last time while still grieving over the birth of the daughter’s stillborn child. Because the mother was one of Dr. Flint's victims, the Mistress was especially cruel, telling the grandmother that the stillborn baby and her daughter that heaven has “no such place for the likes of her ‘daughter’ and her bastard’” (Jacobs, 230). The Mistress stood over the family and smiled about the death of two people. Jacobs inserted this jarring story to further alienate the southern whites from the northern white’s morality.

To further prove that the southern white Christians were morally bankrupt Douglass addresses religion and how it was weaponized against slaves. One of Douglass’s masters had attended a Methodist meeting and came back to the plantation even more cruel than he was before. Before Douglass’s master leaving “he relied upon his own depravity to shield and sustain him in his savage barbarity; but after his conversion, he found religious sanction and support for his slaveholding cruelty” (Douglass, 360). Douglass was “disappointed—it neither made him to be humane to his slaves, or to emancipate them” (Douglass, 360). Douglass allows his audience to see what the results of conversation look like in the south—cruelty and using God as a justifier for it—gives the northerners, who were building an abolitionist argument based on religion, a clear difference between what each side views as just. Douglass furthers this divide by adding an anecdote about how his slave master used religion to beat a helpless “lame” woman. Douglass recounts that he has, “seen him tie up a lame young woman, and whip her with a heavy cowskin upon her naked shoulders, causing the warm red blood to drip; and, in justification of the bloody deed, he would quote this passage of Scripture— “He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes” (Douglass, 361).

Douglass and Jacobs both appealed to the sensibilities of white northern readers to convince them that they should take action against the atrocities that were happening in the south. But as a Black reader, I felt W.E.B DuBois’s “two-ness” while reading these memoirs. Douglass and Jacobs wrote breadcrumbs into their pieces of literature, humanizing anecdotes of the Black condition for future Black readers to pick up on.

The trail of breadcrumbs begins when Douglass explains his epiphany about literacy and its importance. Douglass’s Mistress used to teach him how to read and write before her husband reprimanded her for doing so. He told her, “A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now, if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave—It would make him discontented and unhappy” (Douglass, 351). After Douglass heard this, he “understood the pathway from slavery to freedom” (Douglass, 351). Douglass’s choice to include a story about his epiphany was for Black readers who would live in the world that would come after publishing his book. Douglass was showing Black readers that at a young age, he struggled to understand racism and slavery. But, by hearing the explanation from his white slave owner, he saw that the only thing separating him as a slave and his owner as the master was literacy.

In Duran’s paper, “Writing as Self-Creation: Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass,” she supports Douglass’s notion that literacy was the only factor that separated a slave from a free man. Duran writes, “To read and to write was to transgress this nebulous realm of liminality” (Duran, 122). Douglass had ventured out into territory that was not meant for slaves, and later on in his novel, he would refuse to answer as one. He put this as the beginning of his story but let the future Black readers know that if they felt this way when they were younger or if they felt the inconsistencies of white men’s stories at any age, that this could be their beginning too.

The subtleties that Douglass writes into his story also include warnings for future Black readers. He warns of the systematic way in which America tries to disenfranchise them. Douglass points this out when recalling on his memory about teaching literacy to other slaves. He states, “It was necessary to keep our religious masters at St. Michael’s unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing and drinking whiskey, we were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral, and accountable beings” (Douglass, 372). He warns Blacks that it was “necessary” to keep white people in the dark about their actions because it would threaten them if they knew the slaves were learning how to read and write. His point rings true even in the current political climate of 2021. When the first Black president, Barack Obama, was elected into office, many Black creatives and ideas started to occur. The white backlash Douglass warns of was the presidency of 2016.

Not only did Douglass warn of white backlash, he encouraged Black readers not only to continue to read but to teach others. Douglass wanted to dispel the idea that Black people were lazy and shiftless by letting the Black reader see that he had many students when he was offering to teach literacy. Douglass penned, “I held my Sabbath school at the house of a free colored man—I had at one time over forty scholars and those of the right sort, ardently desired to learn.” (Douglass, 372). This message is twofold’ A freed Black man let Douglass teach at his home, and there were forty Black students who adamantly wanted to learn how to read and write. Douglass’s decision to write this into his novel is congruent with what Duran writes in their paper “Writing as Self-Creation: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” Duran writes that it is a common theme in Black literature that there is a “need to counteract a certain set of negative and racist images” (Duran, 119). Douglass pointing out a specific number of students and where he held his teachings counteracts the negative stereotypes of Black people as unintelligent and not hard workers.

Douglass’s last message touches on understanding the inner workings of the white slave master’s mind. He again warns of the systematic ways in which the white slaveholders keep Black people in bondage. Douglass wants the Black reader to be wary of being made to feel that what they are owed is something they should appreciate from the white slave owners. Douglass writes, “The holidays are part and parcel of the gross fraud, wrong, and inhumanity of slavery. They are professedly a custom established by the benevolence of the slaveholders; but I undertake to say, it is the result of selfishness, and one of the grossest fraud committed upon the down-trodden slave” (Douglass, 370). Douglass believes holidays to be, “among the most effective means in the hands of the slaveholder to keeping down the spirit of insurrection. Were the slaveholders at once to abandon the practice, I have not the slightest doubt it would lead to an immediate insurrection among the slaves” (Douglass, 369-370). To Douglass, these holidays were meant only as a release valve. A way for Black slaves to have a semblance of freedom. The white slave owners did not want their slaves to have time off from their duties but claimed the benevolence of “good Christians” and kind slave owners. This manipulative posturing can be gaslighting, so Douglass addressed the incongruences brought with holidays for slaves. Douglass wanted future readers to know that they deserved holidays and not from white slave owner’s benevolence but from the fact that they deserved free time to be around family and celebrate themselves.

Douglass explains further into this by addressing how the white slave owners made the slaves feel as if this time off was something to be ashamed of. The slave owners wanted the Black slaves to get sick of the idea of freedom by using manipulative tactics. Douglass gives this example, “The mode here adopted to disgust the slave with freedom, by allowing him to see only the abuse of it, is carried out in other things. For instance, a slave loves molasses; she steals some. His master, in many cases, goes off to town, and buys a large quantity; he returns, takes his whip and commands the slave to eat the molasses until the poor fellow is made sick at the very mention of it” (Douglass, 370). The slave owners wanted the slaves to overindulge on their holidays so that they would not want more. The importance of Douglass’s explanation becomes more apparent to Black readers once free from the bonds of slavery. He expressly points out that white people would try to take advantage of them and try to make Black people give up their rights for white people's wants and needs. Duran echoes this by addressing the outcome of slavery. Duran states, “The outcome of slavery consisted primarily of the institutional attempt on the part of the slaveholders to strip the slave of any past bond that would still link him/her to his/her already lost community” (Duran, 121). These bonds, during slavery, are born from spent time together and gatherings away from the master. The white slave owners want to limit this time and make slaves reliant on the approval of what white people thought. This can be seen in today’s society but on a larger scale. To entirely go into this subject would mean to analyze Marxism and capitalism. I will summarize my points instead. Douglass’s warnings would apply to the current wage system, hours worked, and vacation time here in America. All of these favors the employer and not the employee. Douglass wants his future Black readers to be aware of his current problems and leave documentation so future generations can compare their conditions and know if there need to be changes.

Lastly, I will touch on Jacobs and her approach to leaving breadcrumbs for her future Black readers. I had mentioned before in this analysis that the slaves faced different adversities during slavery because of their gender; this also holds true in how they address their writing for future Black audiences. Douglass was more direct in his writing, but Jacobs used characterization to humanize the Black slaves in her novel. In particular, Jacobs highlights her grandmother and the family ties that surround her. In Troy’s article “Chronotopes in Harriet Jacobs’s ‘Incidents in The Life of a Slave Girl,” Troy points to the many times that Harriet humanized her grandmother and spoke on her complexities. Troy writes, “I suggest that the grandmother’s work ethic— “perseverance” and “unwearied industry”—underlies the values that her house as Chronotope embodies and that it is significant to the Northern addressee, who would have recognized and treasured these traits” (Troy, 24). Troy attributes Jacobs writing about her grandmother as hardworking to appealing to a white Northern audience because of their values, but I argue that it was also to usurp the myth, a myth slave owners wanted to be internalized, that slaves were lazy and could not do anything without the oversight of their masters.

Troy states that Jacobs bolsters her grandmother even more by showing the complexity of her during a time when gender roles were stringent. Troy notes, “She combines the (male) public roles of home owner, money maker and provider with the (female) private role of domestic nurturer” (Troy, 25). Jacobs’s characterization of her grandmother allows her future Black readers to read this woman as hardworking and loving towards her family. Jacobs’s grandmother was a free woman and did not need oversight. She fed her family and neighboring white folks. The humanization told by Jacobs lets future Black readers identify with these traits and further drive home the humanity of the slaves that came before them.

Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs both appealed to the Northern white audiences to support the growing abolitionist movement, but there was another audience they wrote to; the future Black readers. The authors dispelled the myths and uncovered the realities of slavery to further their goals, but it was never lost that Black readers would read their work one day. They both humanized the slaves and warned of dangerous traps that could keep them from true freedom. Frederick and Harriet both knew that there were many Blacks who could not read or write, so they mainly addressed their white audience but had hope that Black people would read their essential work one day.

Works Cited

Douglass, Frederick. "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written

by Himself." The Norton Anthology of American Literature, edited by Henry Louis Gates and Valerie A. Smith, W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 2014, pp. 326-391.

Jacobs, Harriet. “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.” The Norton Anthology of African

American literature, 3rd ed., vol. 1, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Valerie Smith, W.W. Norton & Co., 2014, pp. 221-261.

Troy, Maria Holmgren. “Chronotopes in Harriet Jacobs's ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.’” African American Review, vol. 49, no. 1, 2016, pp. 19–34. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26443975. Accessed 30 Apr. 2021.

Del Mar Gallego Durán, María. “WRITING AS SELF-CREATION: ‘NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS.’” Atlantis, vol. 16, no. 1/2, 1994, pp. 119–132. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41054744. Accessed 30 Apr. 2021.

Freese, Peter. “The ‘Journey of Life’ in American Fiction.” Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies (HJEAS), vol. 19, no. 2, 2013, pp. 247–283. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44789678. Accessed 30 Apr. 2021.

DuBois, W.E.B. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, by Henry Louis Gates and Valerie A Smith, 3rd ed., vol. 1, Norton, 2014, pp. 692–694.