Читать книгу Constructing the Self. Essays on Southern Life-Writing онлайн

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Douglass combined purpose and commitment to a larger community, that is, he embraced a political outcome for his writing. You may recall in his narrative that, in the foiled attempt to escape from Maryland, Douglass had formed a group with four fellow enslaved men to plot their departure. Criticisms about Douglass’s individualism to the contrary, there is no gainsaying that Douglass saw himself as a part of a community and that he hoped for freedom for himself as well as for those enslaved with him. He makes that even clearer at the end of his narrative when he writes in the “Appendix”:

Sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system, and hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds—faithfully relying upon the power of truth, love, and justice, for success in my humble efforts—and solemnly pledging myself anew to the sacred cause,—I subscribe myself, FREDERICK DOUGLASS. (Narrative 162-163)