FINAL: The Evolution of a Concept: Freedom

Darcy Smittenaar

EN203-1

Final Exam

The Evolution of a Concept: Freedom

The concepts of freedom and independence are very old, but no two people really agree on a single definition for each term. Such is also the case with early American authors such as Herman Melville, Harriet Ann Jacobs and Frederick Douglass. Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” shows the consequences of taking the concept of freedom to an extreme, while the stories told by Jacobs’s and Douglass’s accounts of their escapes from slavery starts at the other end of the spectrum—a complete and total lack of freedom. Melville’s, Jacobs’s and Douglass’s works, when taken together, show—by not actually showing—how true freedom is somewhere in the middle of absolute “freedom” and abject slavery.

In Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener,” the title character, Bartleby, is hired to be a copyist. His employer believes that Bartleby will be a good balance for the other employees, and that his business will thrive with the addition of Bartleby. The employer is dismayed, however, to find that Bartleby has an independent streak. Frequently, Bartleby answers instructions with “I would prefer not to,” and gets away with not doing the tasks put to him. As such, his employer’s business does not thrive as he thought it would, and Bartleby is fired. When asked to leave, he repeats, “I would prefer not to,” and again when the narrator—his former employer—offers Bartleby a place to stay. As Bartleby exercises his “freedom” by only doing those tasks that he would prefer to do, he disrupts the lives and livelihoods of those around him, and therefore impinges on their freedom as well.

Harriet Jacobs, on the other hand, was born a slave. While she did not know it for the first six years of her life, the fact remains: she is not free to live as she wished. Jacobs spends decades of her life trying to get away from the sexual harassment of her master, and to keep her children safe. She has no legal rights as a slave, but manages to make choices which help her to stay true to herself as much as possible, such as becoming lovers with a man not her master and having children with him, instead of giving in to Dr. Flint’s depravity. Furthermore, Jacobs strives for a more balanced freedom—one in which the way that she lives is her choice, and no one is master over her unless she chooses to let them be so. She does not plan to get her way all the time, as Bartleby, but only to have the choices which others have taken from her during her entire life.

Frederick Douglass’s idea of freedom includes the right to an education, as well as Harriet Jacobs’s need for choice. Like Jacobs, Douglass spends many years escaping from the slavery of his masters, but more than having choices, Douglass also wants the slaveholders to
realize that what they do is wrong—they impede the freedoms of others, and no one should have the freedom to do that. In order to receive the freedom to make his own choices, Douglass believes that education is a key factor, and pursues this goal single-mindedly. Ultimately, he is able to escape, marry the woman he wants to marry, and live and work where he wishes. He does not attempt to enslave those who enslaved him, nor does he attempt to only get his way, as Bartleby does.

The foil between Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” and the first-hand accounts of both Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs shows that true freedom is not getting—or taking—everything a person wants, be it property, food, leisure time, or ideas. Rather, Douglass
and Jacobs show, true freedom is having the same choices and options available as everyone else, while not curtailing others’ ability to choose.

NOTE: BECAUSE THIS ESSAY WAS PART OF A TEST, THERE IS NO WORKS CITED LIST; IT WAS ASSUMED THAT ALL REFERENCES WERE TO THE TITLED WORKS WITHIN TEXTBOOK FOR THE CLASS.