THE NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Biblical Allusions

Mercy

In chapter 11, Douglass speaks of his friend, Mr. Nathan Johnson, “of whom I can say with a grateful heart, ‘I was hungry, and he gave me meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger, and he took me in.’” Douglass alludes to Jesus’ words in MATTHEW 25:35.

John Greenleaf Whittier’s Poems

Douglass twice refers to significant excerpts of the poetry of John Greenleaf Whittier, which themselves allude to the Bible. First, in chapter eight, the reader finds Douglass referring to Whittier as “the slave’s poet” and applying The Farewell of a Virginia Slave Mother (see “The Ark of the Covenant“) to his grandmother’s own experience. Then, […]