The value of historical context | Reading | Khan Academy

- [David] Hey, readers.

This video is about historical context.

Let's get into what that is.

Have you ever heard a joke from a friend

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

"Ah, you had to be there."?

That's historical context.

We can't be there, right?

It's over.

You can't get there from here, pilgrim.

Studying historical context

allows us to get the joke,

as it were.

It allows us to understand the environment

that a writer was operating in.

The political, social, cultural,

geographical factors that
all play into how or why

someone might be writing
at a particular period.

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

Historical context helps you
better understand the text.

So, with that in mind,

I'm going to read you an excerpt from

the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass

before giving you any historical context.

"I have never approved
the very public manner

in which some of our Western friends

have conducted what they call
the Underground Railroad,

but which, I think,

by their open declarations has
been made most emphatically

the upperground railroad.

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

Upon the other hand,

I see and feel assured that
those open declarations

are a positive evil to
the slaves remaining

who are seeking to escape.

They do nothing towards
enlightening the slave,

whilst they do much towards
enlightening the master.

They stimulate him to greater watchfulness

and enhance his power
to capture his slave."

So, let's get into this.

If you are unfamiliar
with Frederick Douglass,

it is my privilege to present him to you,

and to give you a little
context on his life.

One of America's premier
orators and writers

was the honorable Mr. Douglass.

The excerpt I just read
came from his 1845 memoir,

"Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass,

an American Slave".

Here's some context on Frederick Douglass.

He grew up enslaved in Maryland.

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

and then to Massachusetts,
where slavery was illegal.

This helps me understand
where Douglass is coming from.

He escaped slavery himself.

The network of people, free Black folks,

white abolitionists, Quakers,

and others who helped
ferry enslaved people

along secret routes to freedom,

were known collectively as
the Underground Railroad,

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

use this network to escape slavery.

with only a handful of friends,

courage and unbelievable good luck,

Douglass escaped enslavement.

So, what is he getting at in this passage?

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

and how does the context of his life,

how does that context help
us answer these questions?

Because it kind of sounds like he's saying

he doesn't like the
Underground Railroad, right?

He has never approved of it,

which if we know anything about Douglass,

sounds like it doesn't make sense.

Why would a man who slavery himself

dislike the Underground Railroad?

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

how could he not?

And he says as much,

quote, "I honor those good men and women

for their noble daring",

but he doesn't like
their open declarations

of what they're doing.

He wants it to remain secret.

Douglass is approaching this
from a position of empathy

with those people who are still enslaved.

"The open discussion of
the Underground Railroad

endangers everyone", he argues.

"Rather than enlightening the slave,

it enlightens the master", he says here.

It educates him and makes him aware.

If the enslaver is aware

that there is a network of abolitionists

ferrying people out of bondage,

that's valuable information
to the enslaver.

That's information that Douglass

doesn't want that person to have.

He himself doesn't give details

about how he escaped in his autobiography.

He wouldn't come clean
about how he did that

until well after the end of the Civil War,

when slavery was illegal everywhere,

and he was out of danger.

Knowing that Douglass was also wary

about giving away too many
details of his own escape,

because legally, in 1845,

the family that enslaved him
could have just hired somebody

to kidnap him back into slavery.

Knowing that gives us the context

to better understand his discomfort

with what he calls the
upperground railroad,

the open and advertised effort
to liberate enslaved people.

He wants to maximize the
number of people freed,

which means keeping the
Underground Railroad a secret.

So, I hope the context I provided

informed your understanding
of the passage.

Remember, when reading
a historical text, ask,

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

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

Those details can help
grow your understanding,

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

Thanks for watching.

You can learn anything.

David out.