The fact that Christianity and slavery in the south seem completely at odds is present in other cases throughout the text aside from the turning of Sophia. For instance,     Of Thomas Auld Douglass says that after going to a religious camp he turned, “more cruel and hateful in all his ways, for I believe him to have been a much worse man after his conversion than before” (67). Despite the teachings of goodwill and other Christian values, slavery seemed to be exempt from these guidelines, which is certainly quite hypocritical. As if to reveal how far separated the true values of Christianity are with those espoused by the Southern church, Douglass revels an instance involving a brutal display of how Christianity could be used to justify ultimate violence. As Auld whipped a crippled woman he used the bible, saying, in one of the important quotes from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass : An American Slave,   “He that knoweth his master’s will and doeth it not shall be beaten with many stripes” (68). This event comes to mind again later in the text when Douglass says, “I asset most unhesitatingly, that the religion of the South is a mere covering for the most horrid crimes—a justifier of the most appalling barbarity…a shelter under…which the darkest, foulest, grossest, and most infernal deeds of slaveholders find the strongest protection” (86). In many ways, by relating this false form of religion to the institution of slavery,Douglass is showing how the subversion of ideals (in this case Christian concepts of good will and charity) can take place at any level. Although he has already defined his belief in what Christianity is about and should mean, he is demonstrating how any ideal can be twisted to serve the personal and even economic and political needs of a group of people. After this scene it is almost difficult to understand how Douglass can go on believing in the same tenants of Christianity these people use without cringing or giving pause to question his own thoughts.

 

Aside from the above event involving the bible being used to justify and even form the background for brutality, the most extreme form of the “false” version of Christianity represented in the autobiography is personified by the slave-owning, bible-touting, and wholly hypocritical Mr. Covey. While Sophia Auld may have been swayed away from her essential Christian angelic nature by the presence of slavery and Mr. Auld the “victim” of religious rhetoric, Covey is completely immersed in the culture of slavery and is thus the most flagrant violator of the true Christian ideals that are expressed by Douglass. Again, it is necessary to go back to the idea stated earlier that the very existence of slavery tends to breed anti-Christian actions and thoughts (at least according to Douglass). The case of Covey points to the fact that this really is the case since he is an overseer and is thus more in the thick of slavery than some of the other characters. When discussing Covey, Douglass makes certain to point out how his version of Christianity versus that of Mr. Covey differs completely. For instance, Douglass’ ideals (and the antithesis of them) are expressed in the Appendix when Douglass states, “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land” (95). By his cruel, cowardly, and hypocritical actions the other version of Christianity as it existed in the slaveholding South is represented. Because of this consistent juxtaposition of the two types of Christianity represented in the autobiography, the true and pure versus the hypocritical and self-serving, “by the end, Douglass is teacher, leader, protector, and now, authenticator” (Lee 51) since he has finally affirmed himself after the fight and because he has been able to uphold the ideals and values white men and women were unable to with the influence of slavery.

 

In sum, the two versions of Christianity represented in the autobiography serve several different purposes. First and foremost, however, is the fact that Douglass goes out of his way to define his own sense of Christian righteousness and morality and to place himself within it somehow, despite the rampant hypocrisy. In other words, “Douglass’ Narrative is his call to testify and demonstrate his claim to divine authority and religious sanctification for not only his opposition to slavery, but more important, for his own life, for his self-definition over and against any other definitions proffered to him by white society”(Wohlpart 181). He has created his own view of true Christianity based on what he knows it is not—that it is not that which is practiced by white church leaders such as Reverends Weeden and Hopkins and Covey and he uses this knowledge along with his learned eloquence to deliver an anti-slavery message that is infused with a very strong sense of Christian ideals and what they should be. While the Appendix of the text might be an addition in order to clarify the negative representations of Christianity in the South, it nonetheless drives home the point that the two versions in the autobiography must remain at odds and that one of them, as most would likely agree, is far more correct and morally righteous. As this thesis statement for The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass suggests in terms of religion, Christianity, and hypocrisy, he fact that Douglass chooses to end the piece on a note about religion, however, should signify that the issues discussed in this analysis are of vital importance to the work in general and are a testament to the potential for wrong simple belief in a moral system can carry.

 Other articles in our Literature Archives related to this topic include :   Analysis and Summary of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass  • Freedom, Liberty, and Meaning in the Slave Narrative: Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington and Olaudah Equiano  •  The Incompatibility of Education and Slavery in The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass   • Analysis of “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes   •   Comparison of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and the Autobiography of Malcolm X   •  The Role of Education and Literacy in Slave Narratives (Douglass, Washington, Equiano)   •    Slavery in America’s South : Implications and Effects

Works Cited

Carter, J. Kameron. “Race, religion, and the contradictions of identity: A theological engagement with douglass’s 1845 Narrative.”Modern Theology 21.1 (2005): 37.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Dover Publications, 1995.

Lee, Lisa Yun. “The politics of language in Frederick Douglass’s Narrative…” MELUS 17.2 (1991): 51.

Wohlpart, A. James. “Privatized Sentiment and the Institution of Christianity: Douglass’s Ethical Stance in the Narrative.”American Transcendental Quarterly 9.3 (1995): 181.