WEBVTT

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- [David] Hey, readers.

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This video is about historical context.

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Let's get into what that is.

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Have you ever heard a joke from a friend

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and you didn't find it very
funny and your friend goes,

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"Ah, you had to be there."?

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That's historical context.

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We can't be there, right?

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It's over.

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You can't get there from here, pilgrim.

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Studying historical context

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allows us to get the joke,

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as it were.

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It allows us to understand the environment

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that a writer was operating in.

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The political, social, cultural,

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geographical factors that
all play into how or why

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someone might be writing
at a particular period.

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It's like asking your
friend to explain the joke.

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Historical context helps you
better understand the text.

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So, with that in mind,

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I'm going to read you an excerpt from

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the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass

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before giving you any historical context.

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"I have never approved
the very public manner

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in which some of our Western friends

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have conducted what they call
the Underground Railroad,

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but which, I think,

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by their open declarations has
been made most emphatically

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the upperground railroad.

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I honor those good men and
women for their noble daring.

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Upon the other hand,

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I see and feel assured that
those open declarations

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are a positive evil to
the slaves remaining

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who are seeking to escape.

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They do nothing towards
enlightening the slave,

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whilst they do much towards
enlightening the master.

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They stimulate him to greater watchfulness

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and enhance his power
to capture his slave."

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So, let's get into this.

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If you are unfamiliar
with Frederick Douglass,

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it is my privilege to present him to you,

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and to give you a little
context on his life.

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One of America's premier
orators and writers

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was the honorable Mr. Douglass.

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The excerpt I just read
came from his 1845 memoir,

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"Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass,

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an American Slave".

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Here's some context on Frederick Douglass.

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He grew up enslaved in Maryland.

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In 1838, he escaped and
traveled first to New York,

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and then to Massachusetts,
where slavery was illegal.

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This helps me understand
where Douglass is coming from.

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He escaped slavery himself.

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The network of people, free Black folks,

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white abolitionists, Quakers,

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and others who helped
ferry enslaved people

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along secret routes to freedom,

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were known collectively as
the Underground Railroad,

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and it's important to know
that Douglass did not himself

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use this network to escape slavery.

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with only a handful of friends,

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courage and unbelievable good luck,

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Douglass escaped enslavement.

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So, what is he getting at in this passage?

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What's he saying with all this
upperground railroad stuff,

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and how does the context of his life,

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how does that context help
us answer these questions?

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Because it kind of sounds like he's saying

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he doesn't like the
Underground Railroad, right?

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He has never approved of it,

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which if we know anything about Douglass,

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sounds like it doesn't make sense.

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Why would a man who slavery himself

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dislike the Underground Railroad?

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It's not that he doesn't
like the route to freedom,

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how could he not?

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And he says as much,

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quote, "I honor those good men and women

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for their noble daring",

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but he doesn't like
their open declarations

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of what they're doing.

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He wants it to remain secret.

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Douglass is approaching this
from a position of empathy

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with those people who are still enslaved.

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"The open discussion of
the Underground Railroad

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endangers everyone", he argues.

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"Rather than enlightening the slave,

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it enlightens the master", he says here.

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It educates him and makes him aware.

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If the enslaver is aware

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that there is a network of abolitionists

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ferrying people out of bondage,

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that's valuable information
to the enslaver.

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That's information that Douglass

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doesn't want that person to have.

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He himself doesn't give details

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about how he escaped in his autobiography.

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He wouldn't come clean
about how he did that

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until well after the end of the Civil War,

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when slavery was illegal everywhere,

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and he was out of danger.

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Knowing that Douglass was also wary

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about giving away too many
details of his own escape,

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because legally, in 1845,

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the family that enslaved him
could have just hired somebody

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to kidnap him back into slavery.

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Knowing that gives us the context

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to better understand his discomfort

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with what he calls the
upperground railroad,

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the open and advertised effort
to liberate enslaved people.

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He wants to maximize the
number of people freed,

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which means keeping the
Underground Railroad a secret.

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So, I hope the context I provided

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informed your understanding
of the passage.

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Remember, when reading
a historical text, ask,

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who was writing, what was
happening while they were writing,

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and why might they have said
or written what they did?

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Those details can help
grow your understanding,

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not just of historical texts,
but of contemporary ones too.

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Thanks for watching.

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You can learn anything.

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David out.