In addition, the narrative is also considered as a typical American autobiography in that it: 1/ stands as a life of an individual who also 2/embodies guide to life for others and 3/ reports discovery of the self (we shall comeback to this last point later I mean the making of the self) but first one may wonder why Frederic Douglas felt compelled to tell his life story in the Narrative. .
An autobiography usually offers a carefully selected and highly constructed version of a person's life story. So we can say that the story is always motivated. In fact, at the beginning of his career Douglas' oration and writing were so practiced and professional that many doubted his claim that he was a former slave. In an effort to convince his audiences that he was telling the truth, Douglass decided to publish the Narrative in 1845 that's to say less than seven years after he escaped from slavery. This motif inevitably takes us back to his statement of authorship i.e.: The phrase "Written by Himself" which persuasively made the entire text seems more authentic. In reality, his autobiography was again so well written that some continued to accuse him of being an impostor. However, in it Douglass revealed details that could endanger his freedom and which only proved that he was utterly trustworthy. Concerning this issue he declared I quote "In a little less than four years, therefore, after becoming a public lecturer, I was induced to write out the leading facts connected with my experience in slavery, giving the names of persons, places, and dates, thus putting it in the power of any who doubted, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of my story." .
In addition, the narrative was also divided into twelve chapters, which lucidly relate Douglass' experiences as a slave through the beginnings of his career as an abolitionist. Thus, we can say that the autobiography was also a kind of introspection in which Douglass tried to make sense of some significant experience.
