The Pattern Continues: 
A Look at the Slave Narrative and
Its Links  to Modern Music

by Jennie Kitch

        In  the "Narrative of the Life and of Frederick Douglass, an American
Slave," Frederick Douglass represents slavery from a personal 
experience. His voice is one of strength and disappointment illustrating 
the unthinkable reality of slavery in a country that was founded with 
the promise of freedom and the pursuit of happiness.  His determination 
and courage, despite the position of Black people in the time of 
slavery, is the epitome of the perseverance of the human spirit . 
        To look back upon the work of Frederick Douglass, a valuable piece of history,  one will find his work profound even in today's society. 
However to simply see his work as an archival evidence of the 
institution of slavery does not give Mr. Douglass' work the 
consideration it warrants. Douglass’ words are more than a voice from 
the past; they are the forefather of urban music in today’s world. By 
the careful review of "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" one 
can see a direct relationship between the treatment of slaves in the 
1800's and the institutionalized racism confronting Black people living 
in America today.  Frederick Douglass' work does much to alert readers 
of the inequality that existed in the past and provides a point of 
reference from which to compare the treatment of Black people in Urban 
America in the present day.  Douglass'  account of "the song of the 
slave" exemplifies urban music in the modern culture. Douglass says in 
"Narrative of the Life of an American Slave":

         While on their way, they would make the dense old woods, for miles around,    reverberate with their wild songs, revealing at once their highest joy and their   deepest sadness (Douglass, pp 1767). 

 Douglass shows how, much like modern urban music, song became an 
important outlet for the deep emotion of the enslaved people. It is 
then, through music, a clear link  can be made between the release of 
emotion of the Black  slave in the 17th and 18th centuries and the 
outcries of  black urban musicians of the twentieth century.
        At the age of seven, the young Frederick Douglass experienced for the first time the petty inequality between white children and black slave 
children, he was not permitted to know his birth date, though the white 
children were. As Douglass struggled to understand why he was being 
treated unfairly, he found that, "He (the master) deemed all such 
inquiries on the part of the slave improper and impertinent, and 
evidence of a restless spirit” (Douglass, pp 1762). As Douglass grew 
older he began to see what was happening to the black family  and the 
reasons for his poor situation became clear. 
        Often the biological mothers and fathers of slave children were 
separated from their children from the time of the child’s birth. 
Douglass describes his mother being forced to leave him:

        For what this separation is done, I do not know, unless it be to hinder the     development of the child's affection towards it's mother, and to blunt and destroy  the natural affection of the mother towards the child. This is the inevitable result    (Douglass, pp 1762).

        Similar to Douglass' observations,  today's "black father", through the 
misrepresentation of Hollywood and the media,  has been stereotyped as a 
man of abandon who is unable to fulfill the role of parent or spouse. 
This stereo type can be linked to the forceful separation of the slave 
male from their family and the intent of the white master to interrupt 
family bonds between black families and weaken the strength of the black 
community. The dismantling of the black family can be heard in the song 
"Keep Your Head Up", by the late 2 pAc:

        Some say the blacker the berry the sweeter the juice
        I say the darker the flesh and the deeper the roots
        I give my heart out to my sisters on welfare
        2pAc cares if don’t nobody else care
        I know they like to beat you down a lot
        when you come around the block brothers clown a  lot
        but please don't cry dry your eyes never let up
        forgive but don't forget girl, keep your head up 
              (2pAc, KeepYour Head Up).

        Another form of separating the black family was due in part to the rape of black slaves by their master and the enslavement of the offspring by 
way of law which stated the child of a slave must follow in their 
mothers condition. Douglass illustrates the disgust he felt for his 
white master who was said to be his biological father. He writes that 
the hardships of mulatto children experience from both fellow slaves and 
the mistress are "worth of remark.”  Douglass shows us his lack of 
compassion for the slave holder who:

        by law established, that the child of slave women shall in all  cases follow the      condition of their mothers; and this is done too obviously to administer to their own     lusts, and make gratification of their wicked desires profitable as well as    pleasurable; for by this cunning arrangement, the slaveholder, in cases not few,  sustains to the slave 
the double relationship of master and father" (Douglass, pp      1763).

        Douglass further outlines the separation of the black family by white 
slave owners and the gruesome control of the black population and their 
continued control by the compromise of their economic status in this 
excerpt concluding in the delivery of his wages to his master:

       " I could see no reason why I should, at the end of each week, pour the reward of my   toil into the purse of my master. He would, however, when I made him six dollars,        sometimes give me six cents to encourage me. It had the opposite effect."  (Douglass, pp 1806)

The same words can be heard sung by the voice of Marvin Gaye in the song "Inner City Blues": 

         Money, we make it, 
        before we see it, you take it. 
        Oh and it makes me want to holler 
        the way they do my money 
 

Astonishingly, Gaye's weighted lyrical voice has the same message as 
Frederick Douglass' written voice one hundred years before. This 
unfortunately says much for the lack progress in the relationship 
between the white people and direct descendants of enslaved Americans. 
Douglass' work specifies conditions that still exist today but in the 
form of low minimum wage, poorly funded educational facilities, and the 
marketing of drugs and alcohol to poor urban communities. This theory is 
highlighted by Douglass in his work when he describes how the abuse of 
alcohol by the slave during the holiday's pleased the master and 
furthermore:
 

        It was deemed a disgrace not to get drunk at Christmas; and he was regarded as   lazy indeed, who had not provided  himself with the necessary means, during the   year to get whisky enough to last him through Christmas (Douglass, pp 1794).

To further illustrate the demoralization of Black slaves, Douglass 
explains the Holidays as a means for the master to further dehumanize 
the slave:

        From what I know of the effects of these holidays upon the  slave, I believe them   to be among the most effective means in the hands of the slave holder in keeping  down the spirit of insurrection (Douglass, pp 1794).

        Douglass' observations are painfully revealing to me. Today the 
institutionalizing of alcohol and drugs has led to the escalating 
numbers of deaths among young black men who are involved in gang wars. 
Wyclef Jean, a young song writer emanates the sorrow and loss of family 
as a result of urban gang violence in his song "Gunpowder":

        I ask my mother, why do you cry
        She said your brother, he has died
        well I told him not to go outside
        he said he had to fight for his country's right
        but don't you know that mother
        we can't stop the violence no
        because the war is not over
        until you can feel love and peace in your silence 
 

        Similar to Wyclef's lyrics which convey street violence, Douglass
testifies his witness to horrifying murders and atrocities. The violence 
he witnessed, watching his brother being stomped upon the head until he 
bleed from the ears and the mouth, or seeing a fellow slave by the name 
of Demby being whipped, shot and killed in cold blood, led Douglass to 
an unusual empowerment which came in the form of a special root. The 
root was given to Douglass by an elder to protect him from the whippings 
of his master. 
        In the "Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass an American 
Slave," the root symbolizes the discovery of Douglass' manhood and, by 
this discovery, Douglass also finds the courage to defend himself 
against the brutality of his master. The receipt of this root became the 
turning point of Douglass' life. This passage conveys Douglass new found 
empowerment:

        This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It   rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom,  and revived within me a sense of    my own manhood (Douglass, pp 1793). 

The inner strength that Douglass finds in himself becomes a source of 
survival. His uprisal against Mr. Covey no doubt changed Mr. Coveys 
ability to inflict bodily harm on Douglass again. As a result Douglass 
felt, "a glorious resurrection from the tomb of slavery" (pp 1794). 
Douglass' newly found strength changed the way he thought of himself:

         I did not hesitate to let it be known of me, that the white man that expected to  succeed in whipping me, must also succeed in killing me (Douglass, pp 1794).

        Similar to Douglass' rise against Mr. Covey, in urban music there is an 
uprisal in violent lyrics and a portrayal of the black male as a violent 
gun toting "gangsta". This image is similar to Douglass' found strength, 
with the root, as an "untouchable" slave. The militant image of the band 
Public Enemy is an example of the zero tolerance for oppression in 
today's urban society. The following lyrics are from the Public Enemy 
song, "Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos":

        you have to realize- what its a form of slavery
        Organized under a swarm of devils
        Straight up- word 'em up on the level
        The reasons are several, most of them federal.

        The image of the band Public Enemy and their revealing songs about 
present conditions among urban Black people alert listeners to the 
inequality in the distribution of wealth in America and the attempt by 
the government to keep black people poor and powerless. 
        To further this point,  one of the most profound discoveries  Douglass 
made was the lack of wealth amongst white non-slaveholders in the North 
was in contrast to the slave-holders of the South. He saw that among the 
dock workers there was a quiet and pride and in the city of the New 
Bedford a "refined such as I had never seen in any part of my 
slaveholding in Maryland" (Douglass, pp 1811). It was with this exposure 
to the north that Douglass unveiled the secret to the wealth of the 
south in the following statement: 

        I had somehow imbibed that the opinion that, in the absence of slaves, there could   be no wealth and very little refinement. And upon coming to the north I expected to         meet with a rough, hard-handed, and uncultivated population... Such being my   conjectures, any one aquainted 
with the appearance of New Bedford may very  readily infer how palpably wrong I must have been mistaken (Douglass, pp 1822).

Douglass explains that the wealth of white America is due largely to the 
exploitation of Black America. This fact is largely true today by 
limiting resources for educational funding and employment discrimination 
as well as the underemployment of minorities.
        Frederick Douglass was one of the first advocates for freedom and 
equality for black people and later became an advocate for women's 
rights. His heroic work is both revealing of the horrible past and the 
unsettling present inequality among Americans. In "Narrative of the Life 
of an American Slave", Frederick Douglass provides a looking glass for 
which we can see the passion behind the lyrics of toady’s African 
American Artist. In the words of Douglass:

        I did not when I was a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and    apparently incoherent songs. I was within myself within the circle; so that I neither  saw nor heard as those without might see and hear. 
They told a tale of woe which   was then altogether beyond my feeble 
comprehension; they were songs neither  loud, long, and deep; they 
breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over  with the 
bitterest anguish (Douglass, pp 1767).

        His work is similar to that of Marvin Gaye, Wyclef Jean, Public Enemy, and many other artists who express their deep rooted feelings of racism through written and spoken word. Though their approaches are unique, the themes of these artists are astonishingly alike in the messages that they convey and the pain that they express. The similarities between 
Frederick Douglass and modern Artists echo a haunting tail of the past 
and present state of inhumanity in America. It is with careful examination of “The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”,  and its reference to the “song of the slave” that we can link the songs of the past with the lyrics of modern musicians and see the profound power of the words of Frederick Douglass.
 

           All references to Douglass' narrative are to the Heath Anthology of American Literature, 3rd edition, vol. one, ed. Lauter et al. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1998.

        This paper is the original work of Jennie Kitch and may not be copied, or reproduced in any form without written permission from the author.