Douglass

DouClose Reading Assignment 2

In the opening passage, Douglass describes how slaves are branded with an anonymous identity by being unaware of their birthday. Douglass first begins to tell the readers factual information like his place of birth and that he, like most slaves, is not aware of when he was born. He then builds on the factual information by inquiring why slave owners would deprive their slaves of their individuality. By questioning the motives of concealing a slave’s birthday, he is analyzing the slavery institution’s purpose of giving slaves a collective identity.

Douglass writes, “the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant” (241). Douglass makes the comparison between “slaves” and “horses” because he wants the reader to understand that slaves are treated as animals, because they are viewed as animals by their owners. Also, by revealing to his audience that slave owners did not want their slaves to know a simple fact like their birthday, he begins to explore the system of slavery. Withholding ones birthday builds on the oppressors dehumanizing their slaves, by stripping them of their personal identity and classifying them as interchangeable. Douglass further explains that this system helped distinguish black versus white, “the white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege” (241).

He sets the tone of subjection for the narrative with this opening paragraph. For example, he goes on to say, “I was not allowed to make any inquires of my master concerning it [birthday]” (241). He does this to show how slaves are powerless to even ask about their own past. They were not given the right to distinguish themselves, in order to keep them subordinate. This inferiority is caused by their collective and anonymous identity and lack of independence from one another. The...