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servants,let me put to you a question.Douglass's skill at rearrangingandWhence these differences? "It is thereorientingthe boundariesof self-andLord's doing and marvelous in oursociety is the engine that drives someeyes." (Applause and laughter.)Thus,of his most humorous and violentthen, you see that you are most able todo the work, to labor and toil. Yourhetoric.have superior strength to your masFromthe well-wornjest aboutslavesters. But, oh! servants,as a ministerofwho will not work,Douglassturnstothe Gospel, let me exhort you not toanotherlikelyaudienceprejudiceboast of your strength-boast not ofyour strength, for thatthe primitive state ofwas given to you in lieuAfrica:Like his sermonof something else. AndLet us take a view ofrecollect your relationsatires,Douglass'sAfrica.Africa,degradto your masters doesed, lost, and ruinedjokes are supposednot place you in light ofAfrica. There are nobenefactors, for whileto sting.sanctuaries there; noyou are dispensingGospelprivilegesblessings on them, theythere. Men are groping their way inare returning blessing on you. Youthe blindness of heathenism, withouthave not so much intellect as yourGod, and without hope; and the Lordmasters.You could not think whetherseeing you in this wretchedstate,put itsuch things are a benefit to you or not.into the heartsof good men-of piousYou could not take care of yourselves.men, to leave their homes and theirYour mastershave the best reason andfamilies,that they might snatchyou asintellect. They can provide and takebrands from the burning, and bringcareof you. Oh!blessed is God, in proyou into this Christiancountry.(1:471)viding one class of men to do thework, and the other to think (1:471-72)Douglass's achievementin this passageis to transformthe exaggerateddeficiencies of Africanlife into an illustration of the moral deficienciesof theslaves' purportedrescuers,the "pious"slavetraders.Although Douglass doeslittle to diminish his audience'sprejudices against Africa,he places most ofthe moralblame on those men whoclaim to know better.In the same waythat the slavecatcherssteal Africans,Douglass, in turn, poaches from theirrhetoric- "degradedAfrica"-for theinstrumentsto highlight their crimes.The genius of Douglass's comic strategy is that he redirectsthe slaveholders'logic, inverting their sense of social status and entitlement.At the conclusionof the sermon,Douglass's final move is an explicitattempt to transformhis white audience's sense of itself. Makinga distinction between mental and physicallabor,Douglass addresses audiencemembersas if they were slaves with anundeveloped intellect:You have hard hands, strong frames,robust constitutions, and black skins.Your masters and mistresseshave softhands, long slender fingers, delicateconstitutions, and white skins. Now,538Douglass's burlesquemanifests thehypocrisy of slavery in the characterofthe ministerhe is impersonating.Hedeliberatelylists the cliches of blackracialinferiority,speaking to whiteaudience membersas if they were ablack congregation.Douglass asksthem to measurethe virtue of theslaveholder'ssermon for themselves,looking at their own hands, bodies,and sense of agency. Fromtheir newperspectiveas a slave congregation,Douglass's audience is obliged to recognize the ministerhimself as a sourceof oppression.Even further,Douglasshere attemptsto dismantle the distinction between mental and manual labor,exploiting assumptions about the differencebetween the ignorantand theeducated by implicitly suggesting thatthe thought of the working classes ismeaningfulknowledge.Partof the success of Douglass'ssermon was based on a claim ofverisimilitude.Douglass often framedhis parody by telling his audiences thathe modeled his text on an actual edition of sermons for slaveholders written by ThomasBaconin the eighteenthcentury(and edited in 1836 by BishopAFRICANAMERICANREVIEWThis content downloaded from 149.68.13.33 on Fri, 2 May 2014 11:42:22 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

William Meade) (Papers1:97).Although the sermons in Bacon'stextare accompaniedby anti-slaverysongs,and Bacon'ssermons themselves donot wholly condone slavery in the wayDouglass alleges, Douglass wouldflaunt the text before the crowd as if itwere the devil's own book.Apparently,it was a hilarious performance. Even fifty years later,in herobituaryon Douglass's death,ElizabethCady Stantonwould memorialize Douglass's sermon satire as oneof the unforgettablemoments of hergeneration'santi-slaveryexperience(Andrews and McFeely130).Douglass's satire is importantinseveral ways. First,it illustrateshisrelationshipto a black comic traditionvexed by contraryimpulses of assimilation and resistance.As DicksonPrestondiscovered,Douglass was distinguished for his intelligenceandhumor while a young slave at St.Michael's.His masters'belief that hecould easily adapt to the complexitiesof city life was one of the reasonshewas chosen to go to Baltimoreto servethe Aulds. He learnedto successfullymimic white speech patternsfromclose contactwith Daniel Lloyd andothers (Preston54-56).These imitationsformed the beginning of his literarytraining.FredericHolland reportsthat,when Douglass was very young, hepracticedhis clericalsatiresby addressing the pigs as "DearBrethren"in imitation of local ministers(26). In theparadoxicaleconomy of slave virtue,Douglass's skill at mocking the mastercaste earned him a marginallygreaterdegree of freedom than his peers.In terms of its subversive potential,Douglass's comic talent has equivocalsignificance.On one hand, it suggestsDouglass's inheritanceof Africantraditions of tricksterismand double-voicednarrative.Henry Louis Gates'sworkon the trope of signifyin' has attuned agenerationof scholarsto the importance of reading for irony and ambiguity in apparentlystraightforwardAfricanAmericantexts. Douglass'smimicry clearlymocks the words andconduct of his oppressors,an ironicappropriationof the master'sdiscourseand power. In other respects however,mimicry,produced either for the entertainmentof parentsor for a masterclass, is a mode of conduct with oftensubordinatevalences. Even when fairlysympatheticsocial critics,such asHarrietBeecherStowe, acknowledgedthat blackshad a naturaltalent for imitation and mimicry,it was a poisonedtribute,denying them the capacityfororiginalthought and creativegenius.Laterin his career,Douglass became avocal opponent of minstrelhumor, performed eitherby blacks or whites. Aseditor of the NorthStarin the late1840s,Douglass consciously sought todistancehimself from the plantationburlesqueshe had practicedin hisyouth.The success of Douglass's satirealso needs to be understood in terms ofcommercialcompetitionfor audiences.The sermon parody was a very populargenre of Americanhumor. Satiresofthe ignoranceand greed of Americanrevivalist preacherswere a popularjestamong Americanhumorists andEuropeantravel writers in JacksonianAmerica.Following CharlesMathews,Sr.'s Trip to America in 1824, andMathews' laterspeaking tours in theearly 1830s,a road show with sermonburlesquescould make very goodmoney in the United States (Mahar6063;Rourke,Humor101-14).In an urbanarea,Garrisonianlecturerscompetedwith such public events as melodramas, lectures,musical performances,and burlesques.Although Garrisonwas hesitant to acknowledge the realities of commercialcompetition in hismoral campaign against slavery,Douglass's sermon satires drew numbers and made a stir. The participationof Douglass, as a recentlyescapedslave, in this type of parodicperformance made his jest even more marketable-he was a lively commodity.2At the same time that Douglass'sperformancedrew on sideshow appeal,it was nonetheless a powerful criticismDOUGLASS'SHUMOR'HE MADEUS LAUGHSOME":FREDERICKThis content downloaded from 149.68.13.33 on Fri, 2 May 2014 11:42:22 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions539

of slaveholding consciousness. His sermon satire worked on behalf of theabolitionist cause by orientingDouglass's audiences to laugh at theSouthern minister's Christianhypocrisy, not just at Douglass's highjinx as a "darky" humorist. Such crossfertilization, however, was unavoidable, despite the fact that Douglassused his strong personal charisma as alively refutation of racist theories of theinferiority of blacks. On the stage hespoke as an authority, not a supplicant.In the February 16, 1844, edition of theanti-slavery paper TheHeraldofFreedom,Nathaniel P. Rogers describedDouglass as a "storm of insurrection,"pacing the stage like a "Numidianlion" (Papers 1:26). Douglass rejectedJohn Collins's advice that he speakwith a slight plantation dialect becauseit interfered with his poise (Bonidage362). When he put on the mask of abuffoon, as in his preacher routines, itwas so unlike the intelligence of hischaracter that it made the performanceeven funnier. At the conclusion of hismock sermon, Douglass would clearlystep away from his gospel burlesque,quipping his regret that such "miserable twaddle should be palmed off onthe poor slave" (Papers1:361).Douglass's verbal expertise thusallowed him to move in and out of theroles cast for black speakers. In addition to the slave sermon, one ofDouglass's favorite set-piece speechesin the late 1840s was an excerpt fromJohn Philpot Curran's defense of JamesSomerset, a Jamaican slave whodeclared his freedom in the early 1770swhen he arrived in England with hismaster. The speech was so well knownin the early nineteenth century that,when James McCune Smith wrote thepreface to Douglass's My BondageandMy Freedom,he referred to it by onlyquoting a few words and "etc." (xxxi).(Stowe also included a fragment fromit as the epigraph to Chapter 37 ofUncle Tom's Cabin).During his stageperformances in the 1840s, Douglasswould often move into a dramatic quo-540tation from Curran's ode to Britishemancipation:I speak in the spirit of the British lawwhich makes liberty commensuratewith, and inseparable from, Britishsoil; which proclaims even to thethestranger and the sojourner,moment he sets his foot on Britishearth, that the ground upon which hetreads is holy, and consecrated by thespirit of universalemancipation.No matter in what language his doom mayhave been pronounced;-no matter inwhat complexion incompatible withfreedom an Indian or an African sunmay have burnt upon him;-no matterin what disastrous battle his libertymay have been cloven down-no matter with what solemnities he may havebeen devoted upon the altar of slavery;the first moment he touches the sacredsoil of Britain, the altar and the Godsink together in the dust; his soulwalks abroad in her own majesty-hisbody swells beyond the measure of hischains that burst from around him,and he stands redeemed, regenerated,and disenthralled by the irresistiblegenius of universal emancipation.(Papers1:85)Douglass performs here what he claimsto describe. He is not arguing, nor is hemerely rehearsing, the benefits ofBritish law. His apostrophe to emancipation is a spectacle of that liberty, ause of language to demonstrate whathis countrymen refuse to legislate.Douglass's performance of emancipation has two consequences. First,contrasted against the burlesque of thesermon satire, it appears in stark reliefagainst the counsel of slaveholdingministers and magnifies Douglass'sillustration of their deceit. Second,Douglass's adoption of a dramaticmode, in this case heroic apostrophe, isa melodramatic convention whosepopular association with sacredauthority Douglass shrewdly invokes.As Lawrence Levine has observed inHighbrow/Lowbrow,such heroic postures were well recognized topoi ofcreative artistry and expression duringthe antebellum period -the springboards of highbrow literary acrobatics(36-53). If Douglass's sermon burlesquecomically inverted the power relationsbetween white slavemasters and blackAFRICAN AMERICAN REVWEWThis content downloaded from 149.68.13.33 on Fri, 2 May 2014 11:42:22 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

slaves, Douglass's epic postures established his authorityto make such boldcriticismsof the slave power.Douglass's formidableperformance skills also licensed bittersatiresof the nation's leaders.During the 1842debates over the returnof the slaveship Creole,whose rebelliousslavecargo the Britishintended to free, oneof Douglass's successful stage techniques was imitatingthe personal idiosyncrasiesof U.S. Congressmenas theyargued that the Britishshould surrender the vessel and its mutineers.Accordingto one reporter,Douglassperfectlycapturedthe ponderous logicof Webster,the dark concentrationofCalhoun,and the active compass ofClay. For Douglass, the patrioticdebates over the returnof MadisonWashingtonand the Creolesidesteppeda more importantdiscussion over thebarbaricnature of the ship's mission.To illustratethis problem,Douglassdrew himself up into an impersonationof the stuffed eagle of Americanliberty,and he lamentedthat its refrainwas notthat "allmen are free and equal . . ., notthe dreadfulbattle cry-Free Tradeand Sailor's Rights-. . but-but-Iwant my niggers" (Papers1:xxxii).Onbehalf of his Garrisonianemployers,Douglass emphasized that the U.S. hadcome to stand for slavery.Using this method of juxtaposinghis intellectualgifts against the objectsof his satire,Douglass would even parody fellow AfricanAmericans,anattemptto hamess the popularityofminstrelstereotypes for an abolitionistcause. Although Douglass had published an editorialin the October27,1848,edition of the NorthStarthat washighly criticalof black-faceminstrelactors ("thefilthy scum of white society, who have stolen from us a complexion denied to them by nature,inwhich to make money, and pander tothe corrupttaste of their white fellowcitizens" [qtd. in Mahar7]), he alsoindulged in satires of black charactertypes. A strong opponent of the plan tore-colonizeblack Americansto Liberiaduring the late 1840s,Douglass ironi-cally employed minstrel techniques topillory black pro-Colonizationministers for their lack of education.Takingup a backwoods dialect, Douglass onceimitated a standardset-piece of a minstrel show, the black sermon:"Itakemy text from de Rebelationob St. John.Johnyou know was cast away on deisland of Patmos"(Papers2:167).Afterhe finished with his parody of a blackpro-Colonizationpreacher,Douglassshifted back to his own voice with thecomment that, if these were the kindsof ministersbeing sent to Africa,theyhad betterbe "instructedandimproved"before they were sent.Although Douglass clearly perpetuatedthe convention of an ignorantblackpreacher,he dared to use this genre ofentertainmentto disarm the racistexpectationsthat endorsed the popularityof the character-typein the firstplace.Even toward the end of his career,the subjectof black emigrationoftenbrought out some of Douglass'sstrongestemotions and strainedhumor. One of the vocal opponents ofthe Exodusterplan in the late 1870s,amovement among Southem ex-slavesto resettlein Kansas,Douglass spokecriticallyof previous plans to moveAfricanAmericansto remote locations.Speakingto a mixed crowd of blacksand whites at the AmericanMethodistEpiscopalchurchin Baltimore,Douglass even punned that Nicaragua"would have been a Nigger-agua"hadthe emigrationmovement succeeded(Papers4:501).Although one may betempted to indict Douglass for badtaste, his forcefulinversion of popularconventionscomposes the rhetoricalcore of his literaryand political sensibility. In contrastto many of hisReconstructionErapeers, such asElizabethCady Stanton,who infamously denigratedother ethnic groupsto advance white women's suffrage,Douglass's use of ethnic slurs was performed in the service of a universallyegalitarianpolitical philosophy.3Whenhe joked about drunken Irishmen,henpecking wives, and uneducated blacks,"HEMADEUS LAUGHSOME":FREDERICKDOUGLASS'SHUMORThis content downloaded from 149.68.13.33 on Fri, 2 May 2014 11:42:22 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions541

he also enthusiasticallyadvocated theirright to the franchise.But perhapsrationalizationof Douglass's niggerjokes is beside the point:Likehis sermon satires,Douglass's jokes are supposed to sting.Violence and LaughterIn his study of AmericanhumorPunchlines,WilliamKeoughremarksthat Americanhumor, stretching from the Westerntall-taleto thevulgarity of Lenny Bruce,often thrivesupon rough-edged violence. Keoughnotes that several Britishnineteenthcenturyreviewers commentedon the"touchof brutality"in U.S. humor (25). As the success of NathanielWest'sand MarkTwain's work suggests, thereis little Americansfind more funnythanjokes featuringpain, death, anddisfigurement.When HuckleberryFinn'saunt asks him if anyone washurt in a steamboatexplosion, hedeclares," 'No'm. Killed a nigger'"(249).The pathos of Huck's commentcomes from the juxtapositionof Huck'sprivate friendshipwith Jimand hispublic disavowal of that bond. Theremarkgeneratesnervous humor fromtwo directions:First,it is based on therealitythat to pull off a charadeinantebellumArkansas,Huck's got to fitinto a slaveholding culture,and hiscommenthas perfectpitch. The secondelement of humor, Twain's compoundtrademark,comes from the emotionaltension between moralityand the pragmatism that Huck's commentmanifests. Although this is not the kneeslapping comedy of JamesRussellLowell's BiglowPapers,whereBirdofredumSawin's campaignforPresidentis founded on a ludicrouscelebrationof his own dismembermentwhile killing Mexicansduring the warof 1846,Huck's comment on the violence of Americanrace relationsis bothfunny and serious for similarlymacabrereasons.4542As these examples from Twain andLowell suggest, Americanethnichumor is often bound up in a violentsociologicalstruggle for minorityrecognitionand survival. In a contextof racialstrife,jokes can be used asmethods of attackand exploitation,and also of defense. In their review ofethnic humor in the United States,JosephDorinson and JosephBoskinhave argued that, in response tooppression,AfricanAmericanshaveoften used humor in ways that mirrorthe stages of postcolonial identity formation:first,as a means of subculturalbonding, communication,and socialinsulation;second, as a means ofbecoming accepted into the dominantculture,sometimes through parodyand self-caricature,and sometimesthroughassimilation;and, finally, as ameans of aggression and defiant selfassertion(180).5In the same way that,in a given historicalmoment, all threeof these strategiese

fragment of Douglass's literary career. Douglass's use of humor turns many recent criticisms upside down and reveals a much more complicated fig- ure than current descriptions of him as a representative man of Jacksonian individualism. Douglass's humor is evident throughout his 1845 Narrative, although this text is seldom noted for its comic .