Slavery and Freedom in Frederick Douglass' "My Bondage My Freedom"

The book My Bondage and My Freedom focuses on the early life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass writes about how he, a former slave, finally walks the path towards freedom after enduring many hardships. The moment he regains freedom is the turning point in his life, and he hopes that through this autobiography can people truly embrace quality and diversity.

Throughout his autobiography, there are many deep concepts that he wants to demonstrate, but there are two theories that applied the most, which are Dubois’s theory of double consciousness, and Omi and Winant’s theory of hegemony. Dubois defines double consciousness as “an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ID” (Dubois 7). Dubois argued that there are two competing identities as a Black American - seeing one’s self as an American and seeing one’s self as a black person while living in a white dominated America. Living under the category of a non-dominant race “creates a fracture in your sense of identity within that society” (Dubois 5). When Douglass used his intellect and ability to argue with the white boys, he challenged the idea of inequality, saying “have I not as good a right to be free as you have?” (Douglass 332). This shows that he views himself just as equal as any other man. He stood up as a black man but also as an American. The feeling of double consciousness is present throughout his novel and influenced Douglass growing up.

Additionally, Omi and Winant’s theory of culture hegemony is an important concept in many ways, as the backbone of a lot of contemporary cultural theory and behavioral science which is usually associated with ideas about one group dominating and controlling another. Omi and Winant define hegemony as “the conditions necessary, in a given society, for the achievement and consolidation of rule” (Omi and Winant 67). It can be defined as an agreement where the person does not necessarily understand what they are agreeing about. For the continuation of hegemony, Omi and Winant notes “ruling groups must elaborate and maintain a popular system of beliefs and practices” (Omi and Winant 67). The better way of saying it is that people do not control ideas, but rather ideas control people. If the controlled group accepts the rules that the dominant group set up, an agreement exists, preserving the dominant group’s hegemony. In My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass said, “to my bondage I saw no end. It was a terrible reality… that thought chafed my young spirit” (Douglass chapter 11). Douglass knew the reason why hegemony existed was because slaves were comfortable with their position in life.

According to the book, it “was worth a half-cent to kill a nigger and half-cent to bury one” (chapter 4) In Douglass’s autobiography, as a slave, from birth until death only worth one cent total, which represents cultural hegemony, the group of whites dominating the group of blacks. As slaves, they can be sold or transferred to anyone anytime after their master’s agreement. Under the same sky, there are a such big differences between human lives, the only cause being the color of the skin. Same as the horse and the sheep, slaves were only considered free labor or working machines to gain profit from in the owner’s eyes, they were not even considered living. As slaves, they were not treated as humans and they have absolutely no freedom.

When Douglass met Hugh Auld, who was the brother of Thomas Auld, he met the person Sophia who hugely changed Douglass’s way of thinking. According to Douglass, “she is the most kind and tender-hearted woman…(Douglass chapter 10). Life in Baltimore was much better than life when Douglass was working in the plantation. He noted, “I had been treated as a pig on the plantation; I was treated as a child now” (Douglass chapter 10). Sophia had never had a slave, and she gave Douglass respect and dignity, which shows hegemony does not naturally happen, it is something that is created by the society. Since Sophia never had a slave before, she never had the idea or learned from others how to treat a slave. In her consciousness, she saw slaves just as other human beings. Douglass was fortunate enough that Sophia agreed to teach Douglass with easy words, and he felt comfortable and safe when he was around Miss Sophia. However, when Mr. Auld found out that his wife was teaching a slave how to read and write, he was angry and said “learning would spoil the best nigger in the world” (Douglass chapter 11). He is afraid that when the slaves gained enough knowledge, they would not be satisfy with the white people’s rules anymore, and they would escape from being a slave. In Mr. Auld’s consciousness, Douglass was nothing but a slave: within the same society, there were two consciousnesses existing. However, this incident alerted Douglass that becoming educated was the only way to break the hegemony, and escape from being a slave.

Double consciousness had also taught Douglass to see the world from multiple angles, people might be friends as an American, but slavery makes enemies out of different colors. Douglass notes “we were both victims to the same overshadowing evil - she, as mistress, I, as slave” (Douglass chapter 11), and Douglass is also a Christian who deeply believes in God, there were times when he prayed “God, save me! God, let me be free! Why am I born as a slave?” (Douglass chapter 15). He used his voice to show his indignant feeling after he had been unfairly treated, and he asked God, if humans should be created equal, and there is only one God, then why had we been treated differently due to skin color differences, when Douglass sees himself as an American or a Christian. Everyone around him were under the same kind as American or Christian, but when he saw himself as black, he saw this insurmountable gap between black people and the white dominated society.

One more example shows how the dominant group controls due to the ignorance of the subordinated group. Slaves were incapable of reading and writing, but “seized with determination to learn to read…to accomplish the desired end” (Douglass chapter 11). Slaves also did not know their birthday or who their mother was, even when parental care is a such important part of mental health, it fractured their family values. According to Douglass, “by far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (Douglass chapter 15). From this we know that slaves were treated or seen as animals, and the slave masters tried to keep their slaves as ignorant as possible so they can stay within the “comfort zone” of believing that this is what God wanted them to do. Douglass described his first master Anthony as a vicious man who enjoyed torturing his slaves: “a cruel man, hardened by a long life of slave holding. . . would at times seem to take great pleasure in whipping a slave” (Douglass chapter14).

Those slave owners used their slaves as tools of entertainment, because they know each one of them was only worth half-cent, just like our daily produce. There were times when even the wives of the slave masters were saying the slaves were regularly beaten after they had been raped by their male masters. When Douglass heard a slave named Denby was killed by his master Mr. Gore, but did not get any punishment because the only witnesses were black, (Douglass p, 93) he began to realize that as a black living in a white dominated society, a black is not qualified to be trusted to accuse whites of a crime. Douglass knew double consciousness existed throughout his life, and he knew that as a black and also an American, he will be viewed and treated differently. This also encouraged him to free the black slave community from their mental bondage.

In the end, in My Bondage and My Freedom, Frederick Douglass constantly applied Dubois’s theory of double consciousness, and Omi and Winant’s theory of hegemony. In his autobiography he showed how he grew up and transformed from a lighthearted, gleesome boy, full of mirth and play to an educated man that understood that as blacks they needed to stand up and change their destiny. In his speech at the end of the book, he shared his experiences of being a slave and how he escaped, wanting to use his voice to urge more people to continue their flight and bring true freedom and liberty to the country. He believed that anti-slavery sentiments were eventually going to be abolished. He wanted to spread his ideology out to the public and deliver the black slave community to an equal world, through describing the experiences he had when he was a slave. The only way “to advocate the great and primary work of the universal and unconditional emancipation of my entire race” (Douglass chapter 25) is to stand up and free one’s self mentally.