Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Quotes
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Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Author: Frederick Douglass
"I have observed this in my experience of slavery, that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom."
My pathway became much more smooth than before; my condition was now much more comfortable. When I could get no calking to do, I did nothing. During these leisure times, those old notions about freedom would steal over me again. When in Mr. Gardner's employment, I was kept in such a perpetual whirl of excitement, I could think of nothing, scarcely, but my life; and in thinking of my life, I almost forgot my liberty. I have observed this in my experience of slavery, that whenever my condition was improved, instead of its increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free, and set me to thinking of plans to gain my freedom. I have found that, to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery; he must be made to feel that slavery is right; and he can be brought to that only when he ceases to be a man.
Context
This line was written by Frederick Douglass in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845).
A content slave is a happy slave, right? Well, we'd be willing to bet that there's no such thing as a happy slave. And so would Frederick Douglass. In his autobiography, Douglass talks all about his days as a slave and how he really, really wanted to escape to freedom the first chance he got. After living with a pretty cruel master for a while, Douglass ends up with a guy who's not so bad and settles into a relatively easy stretch. Well, easy for a slave that is.
But does that mean that Douglass has decided that being a slave wasn't so bad? No way. Even though he was being regularly brutalized, the fact that he was getting a taste of what it meant to be treated like an actual human being—work, come home, relax—made him hungry to live that kind of life on his own terms. Douglass tells us he could never be happy as someone else's property. He's gotta be his own man. And gosh darnit, that's what he does. Talk about life goals.
Where you've heard it
You might hear this quote come up anytime folks try to talk about slaves being generally happy with their living conditions. Hint, hint: most folks probably wouldn't be happy being the property of another person even if they did have a roof over their heads and food at the end of the day. Just sayin'.
Pretentious Factor
If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.
Never give up on freedom! Frederick Douglass sure didn't and there's nothing pretentious about that.