How Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass drew on The Gospels
A documented line of influence: Frederick Douglass demonstrably engaged Matthew’s work. The commentary below is Gröblé’s, verbatim from each work’s page.
The source
The Gospels
Matthew · c. 85
BibleThe influenced
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass · 1845
RomanticismRelevance
8/10
On Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’s page
- The Appendix is where Douglass reaches for the Gospels and turns them on his enslavers
- He quotes Matthew 23 at length — "woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" — to indict the slaveholders who claimed Christ while wielding the lash
- His whole religious critique runs on a distinction drawn from the Gospel itself: "the Christianity of Christ" against "the slaveholding... Christianity of this land"
On The Gospels’s page
- Christ's denunciation of the Pharisees in Matthew 23 becomes Douglass's weapon against the slaveholders
- In his Appendix he quotes it at length — "woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" / "They bind heavy burdens... grievous to be borne" — to expose the men who whipped slaves on Sunday
- Douglass turns the Gospel's own words back on a Christian nation, splitting "the Christianity of Christ" from "the slaveholding... Christianity of this land"