The Power of Slave Narratives Essay -- Analysis, Fredrick Douglass

The Power of Slave Narratives: The influence of Fredrick Douglass and his struggle for emancipation will always be a source of inspiration. Douglass’ history, as articulated in The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, has a remained an influential element on those seeking liberation from oppression and has maintained a tangible position in African-American popular culture. Douglass demonstrates the availability of counter hegemonic ideologies but also provides a guide to achieving corporeal and racial agency. For Douglass, one avenue of liberation was reading. While a close reading of his narrative also suggests music was a fundamental component of his circumstances. A source of inspiration for this paper is Douglass’ retelling of learning his ABCs. Douglass recalls the moment when Mr. Auld scolds his wife, Mrs. Auld, for teaching Douglass. The reason why Douglass should not be educated is harrowing, â€Å"If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world† (Douglass 45). Consequently, this assertion of spoiling is caused by reading and literacy. Education gives Douglass the tools to question his existence resulting in a realization of oppression. Thus with the ability to read and write, he could escape by both literally and figuratively writing his own pass to freedom. From here Douglass realizes that the â€Å"...pathway from slavery to freedom...† was via education and that â€Å"...the argument which [Mr. Auld] so warmly waged, against my learning to read, only seemed to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn..† (Douglass 46). Passion and perseverance force Douglass to exchange ... ... Word: The recuperation of power and corporeal, spiritual, and racial agency circumvents social and political modes of oppression. Frequently scholars point towards the power of the word or Nommo as a means to communicate power and penetrate subjugation. Halifu Osumare in The Africanist Aesthetic and Global Hip-Hop critically examines Nommo as an avenue toward emancipation. As Osumare argues, â€Å"allows us to try on our possible identities because it exists, at least during the performance, outside the realities of power, and therefore provides a brief foray into a realm of the possible beyond establish social boundaries† (Osumare 83). Through Nommo, a type of emancipation manifested even if the body was still held in bondage. Once the word was sung, and the sound traveled between ear, mind, and mouth, no slave owner could own and control the power of the word.