The Private and Public Voice of Frederick Douglass

Jessica Harris

Febuary 12, 2015

EN 345

Dr. Shugars

Douglass Article

“The Private and Public Voice of Frederick Douglass”

Gibson, Donald. "Reconciling Public and Private in Frederick Douglass' Narrative." American Literature 57.4 (1985): 549-659. Duke University Press. Web. 27 Jan. 2015. .

In Donald B. Gibson’s article entitled, “Reconciling Public and Private in Frederick Douglass’ Narrative,” published by Duke University Press in American Literature in December of 1985, he points out the private and public of Frederick Douglass in the Narrative. The article is solely based on the private things that Douglass elaborated on and the public things that he mentioned.

Gibson begins by letting the reader know that there are two dual focuses in the narrative, “One public and social, setting forth to correct the moral and political ills arising from the fact of slavery, and the other, personal and private, expressing Douglass’ own thoughts, feeling, reactions, and emotions.” Gibson describes Douglass as a not “Everyman – not even Everyblackman,” a unique, unusually intelligent, and talented man who experience could not possibly be identical to anyone else’s. (pg. 550) Throughout Douglass’ Narrative, Gibson points out that Douglass uses very personal experiences of his slave life to make judgment and observations of the abstract slavery.

 The first example of Douglass’ private versus public in the Narrative is Gibson’s statement on the private of Douglass, throughout the narrative, we the readers, know very little of Douglass’s courtship of Anna Murray, his friendships, and nothing about his sexuality, we only learn of his psychological and emotional maturation. Gibson refers to the beginning of the narrative in Chapter One, where Douglass is explaining about his earlier life and the ignorance the slave masters wanted of the slave with not knowing their age. In making this claim, Gibson quotes Douglass saying, “No proper, just or moral system, the logic runs, deprives humans of the knowledge of the dates of their birth, I am human…” Gibson backs this claim by stating that this statement expresses the private perspective, but its logic expresses the public. The two are melded, though logically separable. (Pg. 552) He continues quoting from Chapter One in reference to Douglass’ separation from his mother. Gibson claims that this practice is from  a personal perspective about the slavery practices of his time and then returns back to personal vantage functioning as a fold as a balance between the public and personal focus of the narrative.