Agency, Resistance, and Victimization in Slavery Narratives

Berlin argues that the memory of slavery promotes a dual message; one of “the dehumanizing force of slavery and the slaves’ refusal to be dehumanized” (Berlin, 1265). The transatlantic slavery trade and chattel slavery violated the freedom and robbed Africans of their basic human rights, but it did not “define the society and culture that slaves produced” (Berlin 1264). Both sources this essay looks at will touch on Berlin’s argument and consequently whether we should see the enslaves as pitiful victims or unwavering heroes. With this in mind, this essay will argue that despite both the narrative and film addressing both themes, agency and resistance is the dominant theme in Douglass’s narrative whereas victimization is the dominant theme in the film. The next section of the essay will aim to define the terms agency, resistance and victimization. Following on from this the role of slave agency and resistance will be discussed in ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ and then victimization in the film ‘12 Years A Slave’.

Understanding the definition of agency is vital in order to understand enslaved narratives since every aspect of a slave’s life revolves around the lack of it. Agency in sociology is defined as an individual’s capacity to act freely in their choices and make decisions independently (Barker). The social structure refers to factor of influences that limit an agent’s choices. Johnson is critical of this definition because an overemphasis on the word agency undermines the cruelty that dictated the lives of the enslaved and its scholarly meaning has lumped together various actions, making it harder to distinguish between the cultural and political framings ‘agency’ took place in. Instead, we should imagine “the lives of the enslaved people as powerfully conditioned by, though not reducible to, their slavery” (Johnson, 115). Seeing agency based on this definition allows us to link certain actions of agency with resistant whilst keeping the two separates because as Johnson argues using the two synonymously prevents us from shedding light on the daily experiences of the enslaved. Orlando Patterson’s concept of ‘social death’ sheds light on the restrictions placed on the enslaved by slavery. “The slave was usually powerless in relation to another individual” (Patterson, 4) because the threat of violence was used to dominate them. Therefore, the only way to gain their agency back was through rebellion, even if that meant being punished. Fighting against their masters would eliminate the domination they had over the enslaved even if just for a brief period. The OED defines resistance as “the refusal to accept or comply with something”. There are physical and psychological forms of resistant present in relation to slavery. It also defines victimization as the action of singling someone out for cruel or unjust treatment (Oxford English Dictionary). Both sources take each concept into consideration but as mentioned each has a dominate theme running through them.

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‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ is a story of rebellion and a strong-willed individual who did not let his status as a fugitive state stop him from speaking about his experience, his life as slave. Its popularity surged during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement because of how it resonated with ties of resistance and agency, yet the purpose of the narrative when it was published was to try and convince white Americans, especially those in the north that slavery was wrong. Paradoxically Douglass needed to help of white men in William Garrison and Wendell Philips to attest that his work was entirely his and truthful. In this sense his agency is not his own but that provided for with the help of these white men. Patterson defines slavery as “the permanent, violent, and personal domination of naturally alienated and generally dishonored persons” (‘Slavery and Social Death’, 13). This book, despite its need for the support of white abolitionist is a direct challenge to Patterson’s statement. Douglass sees himself as a representative of a whole group of people rather than an alienated individual. By drawing on his own experiences and the experiences of other enslaved people he showed that he did not lack in agency. Instead, he used his agency to highlight how slavery was in no way humane and that the enslaved were aware of the injustices occurring to them.

The enslaved were stripped of their agency during slavery by being kept ignorant of knowing things like their date of birth and being separated from their family. Douglass recalls at the start of the narrative that he was confused as to why the white children knew their age, but he was not even allowed to ask his own. He was also separated from his mother, a practice aimed at breaking the natural bond between a mother and her child which is successful in the case of Douglass: “I received the tidings of her death with much the same emotions I should have…felt at the death of a stranger” (Douglass, 3). This situation removes the connection Douglass has to his ancestry, his individual identity and the support network that a family provides in one’s life. He points out that he shares this with all enslaved people, highlighting the systematic abuse that was taking place. Their agency is removed because they are being deprived a part of their identity. The lack of agency can also be seen in Douglass’s vivid description of the victimization of female slaves, starting with that of his Aunt Hester. She was stripped naked and “now stood fair for his infernal purpose” (7). The gruesome description of the violent inflicted upon female slaves was meant to fuel anger in the reader. Even Douglass’s ethnicity highlights to his lack of agency. He didn’t know who his father was but from what he had heard it could have been his master, who would have raped his mother. If this were true Douglass’s own existence was as a result of his mother’s agency being taken from her.

Despite the clear examples of agency being stripped away in ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ the quote, “slaves ‘naturally’ resisted their enslavement because slavery was fundamentally unnatural” (Knight) highlights why resistance was so strongly connected with slavery. The unnatural state of oppression slavery caused was bound to cause the enslaved to react because they were only human. It is because of slavery being fundamentally unnatural that allows the theme of resistance to play such a presiding rule in the narrative. Douglass presented learning to read and write as the greatest form of resistance for an enslaved person. Chapter VI represents a minor climax, but plays a crucial role in Douglass becoming aware of his agency and how he can regain it despite the awful conditions he found himself in. The chapter sees Mr. Auld banning his wife from teaching Douglass how to write stating that “learning would spoil the best nigger in the world…he would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master” (33). Mr. Auld’s words had confirmed to Douglass that slavery was not natural but fabricated through a power strategy to keep the enslaved ignorant. Learning to write would provide them with self-sufficiency, it would allow them to start questioning the morals of slavery and even tell their stories to the rest of the country who had “no conception of the depth of degradation involved” (Jacobs, 14) in slavery. In short, it would give them agency.

By losing value to his master as a commodity, an enslaved person would automatically gain agency because they would be able to define who they were rather than being told by someone else their worth. Douglass now realizes that he was not born a slave, but made into one, his deemed inferior to white people was not a preexisting quality but a result of slavery. This chapter is therefore key because despite efforts to stop Douglass from continuing to read and write, “the first step had been taken. Mistress, in teaching me the alphabet, had given me an inch, and no precaution could prevent me from taking the ell” (38). He had been given his agency in the form of realization and in turn resistance would organically follow.

A content slave is a thoughtless one Douglass argues, (98) if he is constantly trying to survive then he has no time to think about freedom. When Douglass becomes aware of the strategy his consciousness began to suffer. As Auld predicts, a learned slave is able to understand the injustice of slavery but can’t act upon it physically by escaping or fighting back. Chapter X is Douglass’s low point where the “dark night of slavery closed” in on him (63) and the psychological brutality of slavery cause him to lose his ambition to become educated and free. The ships that travel past Covey’s farm represent the agency that Douglass sees himself lack. One day however Douglass “resolved to fight” (71) Covey, which he described as a turning point because it “rekindled the few expiring emblems of freedom and revived within me a sense of manhood” (72). Douglass regained his agency by physically fighting his oppressor and wins since Covey does not touch him again.

As discussed, the theme of agency and resistance play a central theme in ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ because it is a story of rebellion and his fight for freedom. Steve McQueen’s ‘12 Years A Slave’ (2013) has a different degree of agency because the film focuses on emphasizing the victimization of the characters and dwells strongly on the violence within the narrative in order to evoke and relate to the completely different audience to what ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ was aimed at.

One of the main critiques of the film was that there was constant suffering, it was “torture porn”, but this is the aim of the film, “the only conservation it should inspire” is one of discomfort (White). It should leave the viewer exhausted and broken and it does so because the theme of victimization rather than agency and resistance is so prevalent throughout. Throughout the film we see times where Solomon uses his agency when he chooses to beat the overseer, chooses to attempt to run away, chooses to trust a white man with sending a message up North. However, in all these cases he is almost killed or gets punished in some way and despite his choices he is still an observer. Noah Millman argued that all enslaved people were observers because although despite being victims of a crime, each suffering unfairly, they did not was intervene in stopping the crimes because it would put them in danger- the narrative of the story is “fundamentally a relation of his experience - what he saw and felt-in a way that doesn’t implicate him” (Millman).

The theme of victimization is seen most clearly through the character of Patsey as she clearly suffers the most throughout the film. She is the object of Epp’s lust and subsequently the rage of his wife who lashes out at her because she is jealous of her husband’s affection, despite Patsey not wanting it. Northup in his narrative stated “the enslaved victim of lust and hate, Patsey had no comfort of her life” (124). In the film we see Patsey ask Northup to kill her since she has no comfort in life, he refuses to and becomes an observer as Millman argued. After Mrs. Epp beats Patsey for using soak to clean herself, the camera captures a glance between her and Northup. They both knew if he had granted her request, he would have saved her from the beating. In this sense they are both victims, although Patsey suffers more physically but Northup has to deal with his inability to ease her suffering. When he is freed, it is with Patsey in the backdrop of the scene, who collapses and despite the happiness we may feel for Northup we cannot help but feel despair at the whole situation, at the fates of the slaves he leaves behind. Again, the film emphasizes Northup’s incapacity to do anything about those who remain in bondage. Despite being a free man with agency he is still a victim because he has been an observer. McQueen stated that he chooses Ejiofor for the part of Northup because of the intensity of the actors’ eyes, with many shots in the film homing in on this. “Both McQueen and his cinematic protagonist are observers to the horrors of slavery” (Li).

Epps can also be seen as a victim of slavery because “he cannot control his love for what he hates, or his hatred for what he loves” (Millman). The depravity of slavery is the depravity of humanity, since it was damaging to the slaves as well as to the slave owners. Douglass supports his claim that slavery is unnatural by showing how it has corrupted the moral health of slaveowners. We see this in the film in the scene where Patsey is whipped by Northup who if forced to and then by Epp. Epp is completely obsessed with her but can’t express his feelings in a loving manner but instead in the brutal violence that the practice of slavery promotes. The scene is 10-minutes long, “a gruesome beauty” (Tillet) with the sounds of birds, the lash and Patsey’s piercing screams filling an otherwise eerie silence. Kara Walker observed that he “didn’t find [Northup] particularly heroic, in that Frederick Douglass sense” (Walker). Patsey’s role in the film makes Northup’s situation more complicated because it’s not just his freedom or suffering we care about but also Patsey’s. In Northup’s inability to help her is also what makes this a film of victimhood rather than agency and resistance.

McQueen uses Northup’s story because unlike Douglass’s one it is a story of victimhood, one that doesn’t have a happy ending. In this sense the film is not seeking to make peace with the past but to confront it. Audiences watching the film can and will “identify more with a free man who is captured and held against his will” (McQueen) than a person born a slave. Douglass’s narrative is in a way more inspiring because he is actively resisting; whereas Northup’s seems more hopeless despite his immense bravery. The book was unknown to McQueen or many people he knew before his partner uncovered it, and the narrative fit perfectly into the story he was trying to tell. The film won three out of nine Academy Awards at the Oscars, and its success allowed the narrative it was based on Solomon Northup’s ‘Twelve Years A Slave’ (1853) to follow suit. By choosing a relatively unknown slave narrative, McQueen allowed the uncomfortable topic of slavery to be confronted as well as introduce people to a narrative they may have not been aware of.

In conclusion, this essay has attempted to argue that agency and resistance play a dominant role in ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ primary through his realization that slaves are being kept ignorant which allows slavery to continue. His story to freedom presents itself with various examples of resistance. On the other hand, the McQueen’s ‘12 Years A Slave’ is a story of victimhood because of the Northup’s position as an observer of slavery and his inability to help others despite what freedom he may achieve.