Captivity Narratives

Frederick Douglass, from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (465)

Harriet A Jacobs, from Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (473)

Connected Readings:
Frederick Dogulass, from "My Bondage and My Freedom" (479)
Spirituals: "Go Down, Moses"/"Follow the Drinking Gourd"/"Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (481)
Commonwealth and Freeman's Record, "The Most Remarkable Woman of This Age" (484)

• Read the excerpts from Douglass and Jacobs, as well as the Connected Readings listed above.
• Answer the following questions:

1. What assumptions about slavery did you infer from the narratives of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs?
2. Compare the forms of resistance to slavery that each of these readings describes. Which from of resistance do you think was the most effective? Explain your opinion.
3. Consider the readings in this Comparing Points of View feature and the genre in which each is written. What qualities do the autobiographies have that make them different from the newspaper articles and the spirituals? In which readings do you find the political message the most clear and powerful? Explain.
4. Do you think that reading and discussing these historical narratives and spirituals can have an effect on a contemporary understanding of slavery? Why or why not? (HAND IN)