Douglass’ writing as a whole serves as an antidote to the whitewashing of the history of slavery. High school classes often comment on the period of slavery in economic terms and water down the atrocities done to real life humans. Douglass’ narrative tells the history of slavery from the least heard and valued perspective: the enslaved themselves. I remember reading his narrative early in my high school career, but as I read it now, I am sure that I did not understand the importance of it at the time. At the same time, I was taking “Global History”, and we studied the unit of chattel slavery for only a week, and did not even touch the “real” history. 

In particular, I was struck by Douglass’ reflection on the culture of singing and music within the enslaved community. He muses that in the north, people believe that singing and music was “evidence of  [the enslaved’s] contentment and happiness” rather than an evidence of their pain. It made me realize that in my early years of education, I was taught that music was seen as a creative escape from the abuse rather than evidence of the extent of the brutality itself. I am not surprised that the north circulated the idea that singing showed that slaves found “contentment and happiness” despite their enslavement because I know that media at the time created an idea that slaves were happy to serve their masters. I can imagine that people living in the north formed their own realities about chattel slavery since they had less upfront experience and made their own assumptions from the media they were being fed. I understand how Douglass felt “utterly astonished” when he realized there was an entire part of the country that did not understand the truly depth of the cruelty and dehumanization of slavery. Especially considering that our country today still covers up the worst of that period from the white public.