Jacob Lawrence produced the Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman Series between 1938 and 1940. The paintings of each of these series forms a cumulative narrative history and each individual painting describes a specific event in the central character’s life, accompanied by a brief description of related events and information pertinent to the painting. The Frederick Douglass series is comprised of thirty-two paintings, while the Harriet Tubman series has thirty-one. For this curriculum unit I have chosen ten selections from each series to create a shortened version of the original narratives. However, with background readings from Douglass’s autobiography and Tubman’s biography, I am sure that our students will come away from this experience much richer in their understanding of their cultural heritage and with a greater appreciation for the heroic accomplishments of their ancestors.
The Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman series are unique in Lawrence’s work for several reasons. The artist pursued figures who were related by their history, social condition, and race. Additionally, both were determined to free their minds and their bodies from slavery. Each series depicts personal journeys. “Frederick Douglass cut a path from ignorance and learning to self-knowledge; he traveled from being a pawn of the circumstances of his birth to independence, responsibility, and action. Harriet Tubman journeyed from slavery to a freedom that transformed her into a mythical figure of a New World Moses acting out her role against the ancient and powerful symbolic resonance of the enslaved Jews of the Old Testament, their exile and wandering in the wilderness, and their eventual entry, after trials and privation, to a new homeland and the condition of freedom.
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The Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman series are among five historical narratives that Jacob Lawrence painted during the early years of his life. All are concerned with the history of Black Americans, their struggles against slavery, and their efforts to find a better life.
Douglass’s Birthplace
“In Talbot County, eastern shore, state of Maryland, in a thinly-populated district, inhabited by a white population of the lowest order, among slaves who in point of ignorance were fully in accord with their surroundings — it was here that Frederick Douglass was born and spent the first years of his childhood — February 1818.”
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This painting depicts the vast plantation owned by Colonel Edward Lloyd on which Frederick Douglass was born. The figures of the slaves who are busy at work and the plantation children at play offer a dramatic contrast, framed by the black tree limbs that create individual vignettes of life on a slave plantation.
A Mother’s Visit
In the barbarous South, a common practice was to separate slave children from their mothers during their infancy or shortly after birth. On Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, Frederick was brought up by his grandmother because his mother was hired out to a plantation miles away. The only times that his mother was able to visit and to be with Frederick were when she was able to steal away late at night, travel 24 miles to and from, and hasten back before dawn so that her absence would go undetected. Subsequently, Frederick saw little of his mother during her hasty and dangerous visits.
Slaves Living Quarters
In the slaves’ living quarters, large numbers of people, both young and old, lived in the same room. There were no separate arrangements for married couples and everyone slept on clay floors, with no beds and few blankets. Usually flour sacks were used for clothing material and the slaves’ work baskets doubled as the beds for the young children. In this painting Lawrence places a red flower in the middle bottom area which represents a symbol of hope. He repeats this symbol many times in other paintings.
Prohibited Education
In 1826, Frederick was sent to Baltimore to work as a house servant in the Auld home. Frederick’s major responsibility was to take care of the Auld’s son, Tommy. While in Mrs. Auld’s home, Frederick learned to read from both Tommy and his mother. In this painting we find Mr. Auld severely chastising his mistress for this discretion, with Frederick hiding behind her chair. Mr. Auld tells her that a slave must learn only one thing, and that is to obey. This incident became a turning point for Douglass as it rekindled his desire for freedom. In his autobiography, Douglass stated that reading opened his mind to truth and it was because of this truth that he was never again able to tolerate the condition of slavery.
Douglass Refuses A Flogging
The cruel and oppressive flick of the lash was often used to break both the body and the spirit of the slaves as well as to quiet a rebellious attitude. Often slaves were whipped for minor offenses or as a means of suppression. Douglass’s confrontation with Mr. Covey takes place in a stable as he resists being whipped. Douglass speaks in his autobiography of his body and spirit being crushed and his hopes were futile until he was inspired to fight off his cruel overseer, a man who was instructed to break Douglass. This was one of the most important incidents in Douglass’s life because he was never attacked by Covey again.
A Conspired Escape
In 1836, Douglass and a group of fellow slaves conspired to escape at night. From his readings of The Columbian Orator, a freedom newspaper, he influenced his co-conspirators to escape, only to find out that they had been betrayed. At mid-day, they were called off the fields, placed in chains, and taken away to be punished for their planned flight to liberty.
Learning A Slave Trade
After his unsuccessful escape In 1836, Douglass was again sent to the Auld home in Baltimore, Maryland, where he was assigned to work in Mr. Gardiner’s shipyards. This turn of events proved fortuitous for Douglass due to the proximity of Northern soil. Additionally, it was in these shipyards that Douglass learned a caulking trade that enabled him to earn monies, a portion of which he was allowed to keep. In his autobiography Douglass explained his feelings about giving up his weekly pay to a man to whom he owed nothing: “To make a contented slave, you must first make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. The man who takes his earnings must be able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so.”
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Subsequently, Douglass planned to escape again. This time he was much closer to Northern soil, to water and train transportation systems, and armed with some monies and a. greater ability to read. He was now ready!
The Fugitive
Douglass’s escape from slavery was facilitated by his ability to read, his knowledge of sailing, and his desire to become free. On his escape by train he traveled through Maryland, Wilmington, Philadelphia, and finally arrived in New York, a free man. On his journey, he disguised himself as a sailor because he knew the trade well after his shipyard experiences for Mr. Gardiner in Baltimore.
The Lecturer
Douglass’s first few years as a free man were spent in New York working various non-skill labor jobs such as shoveling coal and dock work. In New York City he lived with an abolitionist family. Soon after he married his fiancee from Baltimore and they moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where Douglass began to regularly attend antislavery meetings, especially those led by William Lloyd Garrison. Douglass’s career as an abolitionist began in 1841 when he was asked to speak of his experience as a slave. People were eager to hear his narrative of slavery horrors as he spoke about the cruelty and inhuman treatment of the slave system.
The Publisher
After the publishing In 1844 of his first autobiography, which revealed the names, places and dates of his slavery experience, Douglass moved to Britain in 1845 to avoid recapture. It was here that Douglass articulated the dangers and the evils of slavery. While he resided in England, two Quaker Englishwomen paid for Douglass’s freedom. In 1847, Douglass returned to America, establishing The North Star newspaper with $2,500 given to him by compassionate sympathizers. As editor, he wrote on many controversial topics such as the Fugitive Slave Law, the Dred Scott Decision and other issues that affected his enslaved and oppressed peoples. His many accomplishments as lecturer and publisher are quite significant considering that he was completely self-educated. Douglass also continued to help with the Underground Railroad as a stationmaster for Rochester, New York, a role that brought him great satisfaction. “I never did more congenial, attractive, fascinating and satisfactory work. . . . It was like an attempt to bail out the ocean with a teaspoon, but . . . (it) brought to my heart unspeakable joy.”
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