Journal 33

Nika Bogoslovsky
11/23/07
Douglass

“I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs…”

Summary:

This is in the beginning of Fredrick Douglass’s narrative when he discusses his immediate family and where he’s from. Here he talks about his unknown birth date and how that made him feel as a child.

Response:

In popular culture, we watched a short clip on African American girls who have struggled with their unknown ancestry. It’s unknown because many of their ancestors were brought to America as slaves and didn’t have a name for their homeland at the time. I have been aware that there have been hardships with not knowing where you came from, your family or even your birth date, but I was never aware that such information, or lack of it, was used as a demoralizing too. Douglas does a great job of showing the psychology behind not knowing his and other slaves’ birthdates, especially when he compares them to horses because that’s what their masters viewed them as; just animals. Like someone said in class, slaves who were without the knowledge of their birthdays were empty, didn’t have a sense of self, without control and felt less human. Thinking about how awful it sounds to control someone that way, how did these slave owners come up with it all? What gave them that knowledge?