Frederick Douglass on Women

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Frederick Douglass may have been a radical abolitionist, but he was not a radical advocate of different ways of conceptualizing women in literature. The author points out that, over and over again in the course of his work, Douglass states that slavery is particularly bad because it destroys the 'natural' gentleness of women. The paper relates that Douglass underscores the common notion of the time: a woman's place is in the private sphere because of her greater sensibility and sensitivity, which justifies her exclusion from the public sphere, and, under the marital unity doctrine, her husband retains the ultimate authority over her, even in the domestic domain.

From the Paper:

"Douglass hastens to make clear that although his mother was walking alone at night, she only did so because she striving to see her child even though walking alone required a tremendous amount of daring upon the woman's part, and her master refused to lend her a horse or mule. (Douglass 58) Although Douglass does not 'spell out' the risk, his implication is that a woman wandering unattended and alone can easily be raped. Again, rather than subverting conventional expectations about the strength of women even when in bondage, her willingness to risk all, despite feminine weakness, and the refusal of her master to extend masculine chivalry in the form of protection or even a horse to a woman alone is seen as an extension of the crime of slavery itself."

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