Frederick Douglass Desire For Freedom

Frederick Douglass’ source, “The Desire for Freedom” was written in 1845. He was born into slavery in 1818 and became an important figure in the fight for abolition. Douglass was also involved in other reform movements such as the women’s rights movement. He “experienced slavery in all its variety, from work as a house servant and as a skilled craftsman in Baltimore shipyard to labor as a plantation field hand” (Pg.207¬). “The Desire for Freedom” was meant to document how his life was within slavery and how his education could someday help him escape it. Douglass meant to speak to American slaves and those who did not really understand slavery in order to help persuade everyone that life was meant to be lived freely. In order to obtain this future, Douglass wrote about his own personal experience and how he believed that enslavers were “in no other light than a band of successful robbers, who had left their homes, and gone to Africa, and stolen us from our homes, and in a strange land reduced us to slavery” (Pg. 208). This source brings on the idea that slaves were willing to fight back, wanted to be educated, and, most importantly, wanted the chance to live life freely. Slavery was abolished in 1865, just twenty years after Frederick Douglass released “The Desire for Freedom”. Douglass said in his source, “I have often wished myself a beast. I

At the time of the 19th century, the 1800s had brought rapid social, economic, and technological changes, which laid out the format for the reformation. The Second Great Awakening brought forth individual responsibility and perfection. Temperance was made to abstain from alcohol. Antebellum America, though, was characterized by the rise of abolition and the gradual polarization of the country between abolitionists and supporters of slavery. Douglass helped put an end to slavery by reaching out to his fellow slaves and encouraging them to fight for