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Frederick Douglass's impact of slavery on slaveholders
Frederick douglass impact on slavery
Frederick Douglass effect on slavery
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Frederick Douglass: His Fight for the People When spiraling down the road of lost but remembered history, you can discover several activists who fought for the equality our nation should’ve always had. One of these righteous figures was Frederick Douglass. While many others tried to achieve this dream world, myriads of them failed. Frederick Douglass, however, succeeded with his multiple acts. These acts varied in form such as recruiting people, speaking, and explaining his own experience of slavery, but went on to create equality in ‘Merica.. The first and strongest point that Frederick Douglass made was recruiting several African Americans to fight in the war. During the civil war, he gathered over 2,000 men, who during their time fought bravely against the south. While and after the fight, many people around them started actually appreciated the people. It really ultimately helped with making people understand that they were just like anyone else. Another motive that Frederick Douglass had was doing multiple public speeches and writing his own newspaper. …show more content…
Ever since the day he was born, Douglass had constantly been in slavery. He was often treated terribly and remained held until the age of 20. When he started doing is successful speeches, he told multiple stories of what happened during those times. One example of this was when he saw a cousin and an aunt get beaten by their masters or overseers. Douglass and his family also were constantly hungry and were mistreated severely. The way that Douglass was even able to write down and speak of these horrible days is because of the fact that is mistress taught him to read from the age of twelve. She continued doing this, until her husband believed that it would spoil him and told her to stop. It eventually went on to create the powerful speaker many have known of, and was a very important part of Douglass’s
Based on data, Frederick Douglass accomplished most of his life goals. One of the goals he accomplished was for him to escape slavery and become a free man he decided to become an abolitionist movement leader. Then he would start his own newspaper and create inspiring quotes about his life problems or causes inside of the United States of America. Frederick Douglass also accomplished in life by having a good family and by raising his children well.
Douglass was not aware of what slaves were and why they were treated in a bad condition before he learns how to read. He was deeply saddened upon discovering the fact that slaves were not given the rights every human being should have. In an effort to clarify Douglass’s feelings of anguish, he states: “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow slaves for their stupidity” (Douglass 146). The fact that other slaves are content with their lives is what brings awareness to him because he knows that he is stripped of basic human rights. He envies his fellow slaves due to the reason that they are pleased with the life he cannot live to like anymore. Also, he is often wishing he never learned how to read because he doesn’t want to burden about his life. Douglass knows more about the disturbing conditions than most of the slaves around him, but he greatly regrets it. Before he started reading, he lived very much in contentment and now he cannot stand the fact of being
Literacy plays an important part in helping Douglass achieve his freedom. Learning to read and write enlightened his mind to the injustice of slavery; it kindled in his heart longings for liberty. Douglass’s skills proved instrumental in his attempts of escape and afterwards in his mission as a spokesman against slavery.
As an abolitionist and previous slave, Frederick Douglass comprehended that the way to opportunity and full citizenship for African American men walked strai...
Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist who altered America's views of slavery through his writings and actions. Frederick's life as a slave had the greatest impact on his writings. Through his experience as a slave, he developed emotion and experience for him to become a successful abolitionist writer. He experienced harsh treatment and his hate for slavery and desire to be free caused him to write Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In his Narrative, he wrote the story of his miserable life as a slave and his fight to be free. His motivation behind the character (himself) was to make it through another day so that maybe one day he might be free. By speaking out, fighting as an abolitionist and finally becoming an author, Douglass's transformation from a slave into a man.
During Frederick Douglass lifetime he had a big impact on the society, which still can be understood today by looking at how the society developed during his lifetime, and even after his death. The main significance that Douglass did was through his great oral skills, which he used both as a politician, and as a lecturer. Already when Douglass was thirty-three years old he was a part of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (MASS). Up till 1847, which was, the year when he turned twenty-nine he was one of the most well known persons in the organization. (Fanuzzi, pg. 55) The Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society was an organization that was started by William Lloyd Garrison, as can be understood through the name the organization was against slavery.
When first introduced to Douglass and his story, we find him to be a young slave boy filled with information about those around him. Not only does he speak from the view point of an observer, but he speaks of many typical stereotypes in the slave life. At this point in his life, Frederick is inexperienced and knows nothing of the pleasures of things such as reading, writing, or even the rights everyone should be entitled to. Douglass knowing hardly anything of his family, their whereabouts, or his background, seems to be equivalent to the many other slaves at the time. As a child Frederick Douglass sees the injustices around him and observes them, yet as the story continues we begin to see a change.
In conclusion, Frederick used these key points in his narrative to attack the institution of slavery. The speeches he made using these points to white abolitionist astonished them because they did not imagine a slave had the mind capacity to speak this well. By doing so, Frederick Douglass became the outspoken leader for slaves in the abolitionist movement.
With a few short words he could conjure powerful emotions and images that would better help his readers understand his life and experiences. The bible was a touchstone between white and black audiences. The reading public, and certainly the paying reading public, was largely white. The people who could effect change based on reading Douglass' book were white. Lisa Margaret Zeitz, in her essay, “Biblical Allusion and Imagery in Frederick Douglass' Narrative” wrote “the white abolition audience for whom Douglass wrote...would certainly have responded to a language of religious reference, but Douglass was probably not consciously catering to their tastes” (56). This may be taking it too far. Douglass was almost certainly aware of the effect his
Garrison recognized his oratory skill and hired him as a speaker for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Since he was a young boy, he knew that his ability to read would always play a key role in his success. He wrote an autobiography titled “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself”, and despite many people telling him the narrative might jeopardize his freedom, he published it in
... work, he was able to become a successful free man. He was the prime example of how upward mobility could be achieved by any slave, and many African Americans became motivated from his writings about his success. Being a self-made man pushed many African Americans to pursue in their own self destiny. According to history.com, Douglass used his speeches and writing to stand up against slavery and racism, and also gave African Americans confidence to rise with him (Brewer). The motivation Douglass gave slaves influenced them to rebel against society. More slaves were touched by his writing and they started to come together, as many dreamt of achieving the same goal of upward mobility. Overall, Douglass was a phenomenal source of motivation and inspiration for African American slaves all over America to stand up against the horrendous practice known as slavery.
Douglass used descriptive and powerful words when describing the harsh life of slavery. Phrases such as “Am I wrong to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, End without wages, to keep him ignorant of their relations to their fellow-men, to beat them with sticks, to Flay the flesh with the last, to load their lives with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to send you their families, to knock out their teeth, to bring their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters?” Here Douglass used repetition of gruesome and powerful actions taken. This makes people disgusted and upset about slavery, and this was what he was trying to
Douglass who was of course a slave, not only represents an individual who was able to overcome the horrors of slavery, but also preconceived societal notions, individual pain, and tribulations. Whether it be his drive to learn by paying local boys with bread to teach him, or that when he lived with Mr. Covey he seemed to have lost his drive for personal growth; which he later regains. A sentence that strikes me in a profound manner is “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man”(Douglass, 39). Soon after this Douglass for his own well being travels into the woods against the will of Covey. Throughout the rest of the autobiography we see the growth of Douglass, who states at the end “From that time until now, I have been engaged in pleading the cause of my brethren-with what success, and with what devotion, I leave those acquainted with my labors to decide”(Douglass, 69). We see that even Douglass contemplates the fruits of his own labor and the degree of his success. Which in hindsight, I, as do many, view as being a key to the abolition of slavery, and progress of African Americans in this nation. What made him successful, though was most definitely not the situation he was born into, but the strive he had to make a better world, to better himself, and his insatiable thirst for
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is written to have people place their feet in the shoes of Frederick Douglass and try to understand the experience he went through as a slave. Douglass writes this piece of literature with strong wording to get his point across. He is not trying to point out the unpleasant parts of history, but to make people face the truth. He wants readers to realize that slavery is brutalizing and dehumanizing, that a slave is able to become a man, and that some slaves, like himself, have intellectual ability. These points are commonly presented through the words of Douglass because of his diction.
His main argument in the speech is that it 's unjust and hypocritical for a country to celebrate its freedom while it still has slaves. Now that in itself is a morally viable argument, and it has never been more relevant than today in our racially hate fueled world where every situation is turned into a hate crime. However, back in those days majority of slaves were sold into slavery by their own people. Most slaves were sold by rival tribes as prisoners of war, or trouble makers of the tribe, thus giving us the “bottom of the barrel” of the groups. Another counter to Douglass was that even though slaves were people, they were still considered property. A hard working farmer could have used his last penny in order to purchase that slave because he was unable to tend his farm and provide for his family. One common misconception was that all slaves were beaten and treated lower than swine, while to the contrary some were treated well being given a bed and meals every day in exchange for their hard work. While Douglass may have had a bad time under the ownership of Auld, most northern states did not treat their slaves in this manner. This is one of the main reasons Douglass learned how to read, yet no credit is given to his former owner. Most slaves developed a relationship with their owners, in which their owners taught them useful skills such as reading, writing, simple math and farming skills. Another argument brought into Douglass’ speech was that most churches were segregated, and in turn perpetuated the racism that helped keep slavery alive in well. He proposed that a God that wouldn’t allow such evil and disservice in this world would contradict everything the bible proposes and teaches. He praises the writers of the constitution, considering them his equal and thanking the signers of the Declaration of Independence, calling