Frederick Douglass"s Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself shows the process of the formation of his self identity and social consciousness and the restoration of solidarity among the blacks which had been blotted out during the inhumane slavery of the South. The purpose of this essay is to clarify the process and its meaning. Douglass devoted his life to overcoming the inhumane feudal value system implanted in him by the Southern slavery and to acquiring modem consciousness. The Southern slavery systematically prevented blacks from having their own self identities and social consciousness by destroying their individual personality and pouring the distorted morality and religion of the whites into them. Furthermore, the whites maintained their social and economic system by degrading the blacks to "chattel", dissolving the families of the blacks and subordinating their sexuality to the desires of the white males. Douglass"s long process of emancipation―his acquisition of literacy, his struggle with his master Covey, the groping of solidarity among the blacks on Freeland’s farm, his life at the shipyard in Baltimore, and his final escape to the North-coincides with the process of the formation of his self identity and social consciousness.
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