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Humans take freedom for granted until we encounter events that restrain our freedom. This is when we understand the importance of freedom and how little we value it. This section of the ongoing research paper will discuss the path Frederick Douglass took in attaining freedom and his involvement in the movement to abolish slavery in the United States.
Fredrick Douglass journey to freedom was an arduous and tortuous one. The first step he took in achieving freedom is relocating from the South to Baltimore. It is imperative to point out that his relocation to Baltimore was not his doing but a mere coincidence. According to him, his journey to Baltimore was solely based on fate and destiny as he believed that it was part of God’s plan for his
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After arriving at Baltimore, his mistress, Mrs. Auld, was a kind-hearted woman who treated him well. She thought him how to pronounce alphabets of English language helped him with spelling of words. However, his learning was cut short when Mrs. Auld’s husband discovered that she has been teaching him how to read and chastised her. He also lectured her on the importance of not educating slaves. “Now," said he, "if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master” (17). Even though Fredrick knew slavery is evil, he however could not explain nor understand the logic of how it …show more content…
This, of course, motivates him to exercise all options in order to achieve his goal. In quest to learn how to read, he traded food for reading materials. His ingenious plan to use what he has to get what he want was propitious. He traded foods, especially bread, with White boys in came across in the street in order to procure reading materials from them. “I used also to carry bread with me, enough of which was always in the house, and to which I was always welcome; for I was much better off in this regard than many of the poor white children in our neighborhood. This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge” (19). His action denotes how resilient he was to learn how to read and write and also depicts his unwavering determination to become a free man. His plan was fruitful as he finally learned how to
After suffering the overwhelming ferociousness and inhumanity of being a slave for over two decades, a black man by the name of Fredrick Douglass fled from enslavement and began to make a concerted effort to advance himself as a human being. Combating many obstacles and resisting numerous temptations, Douglass worked assiduously to develop into a knowledgeable gentleman rather than the involuntary alternative of being an unenlightened slave. In doing so, Douglass successfully emerged as one of the Civil War era’s most prominent antislavery orators. From his first major public speech at the age of 23, Douglass became widely renowned as a premier spokesperson for Black slaves and the movement for the abolition of slavery. In one of Douglass’ most distinguished speeches, “The Meaning of July 4th for the Negro,” he uses the intermittent occasion of speaking on behalf of African Americans to a multitude of White Americans to outline arguments against slavery.
There are a number of key arguments in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. A few of which include inequality, education, and Christianity as the keys to freedom in terms of its true values within the institution of slavery. While Frederick Douglass made some key arguments, he also made common ground to make his appeal for the abolition of slavery.
As an abolitionist and previous slave, Frederick Douglass comprehended that the way to opportunity and full citizenship for African American men walked strai...
Born into slavery and oppression in the early 1800’s, famed statesman and abolitionist Fredrick Douglass dedicated his life’s work to freeing the oppressed while fighting for “freedom and justice for all.” Born into an age when teaching slaves to learn to read and write was against the law, Douglass displayed inconceivable courage and incredible literary prowess by penning and publishing his memoir in 1845, The Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass: an American Slave. If Douglass purpose was to expose the cruel atrocities of slavery from the slave’s point of view, then he was successful. Through the narrative Douglass makes several important points over and over. He made major points on the hypocritical use of Christianity and how
Douglass was motivated to learn how to read by hearing his master condemn the education of slaves. Mr. Auld declared that an education would “spoil” him and “forever unfit him to be a slave” (2054). He believed that the ability to read makes a slave “unmanageable” and “discontented” (2054). Douglass discovered that the “white man’s power to enslave the black man” (2054) was in his literacy and education. As long as the slaves are ignorant, they would be resigned to their fate. However, if the slaves are educated, they would understand that they are as fully human as the white men and realize the unfairness of their treatment. Education is like a forbidden fruit to the slave; therefore, the slave owners guard against this knowledge of good and evil. Nevertheless, D...
His journey to freedom and redemption was one that could only have been made alone. To get where Fredrick finds himself he must have been able to think deeply, consciously, and with a full heart. This is because one false move could have gotten him beaten or even killed. On his journey Fredrick does show us that his better understanding of Christianity helps him with his fight for freedom. Fredrick wrote: “I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs” (“Category Archives: B. R. Ambedkar Quotes.”). Douglass is telling us that until we go out and get our own understanding, we will always be blind to what’s right in front of us. He is saying we can do all the praying we want for change, but until you help ourselves God won’t help you.
Battling for liberty through physical, mental, and spiritual crises in slavery, Frederick Douglass serves as one of the most significant and influential abolitionists in America’s history. His personal narrative provides an insightful and convincing argument against slavery and its fraudulent religious justifications. The narrative is captivating as it invokes the need to abolish slavery by telling of his struggles from infancy until young adulthood in slavery without directly calling for an abrupt end to the inhumane practice of bondage. Although Douglass did not give exact details of his self-liberation and his narrative contained grammatical and syntax errors, he achieved his purpose of exposing the American slave system and encouraging
The title of the book for my report is Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, by himself. Its genre is autobiography, and it was first published in 1881 and later revised in 1893. The tone of the novel is contemplative and reflective. He talks about his thoughts on his circumstances and the actions of others constantly and often explains why things were as they were, such as the white children he was friends with as a child not agreeing with slavery. The book tells about his life, including his first realizations of slavery, his experiences and hardships growing up as a slave, his religious enlightenment, his escape from slavery, and his rise to the top as an influential voice for blacks in America. His style includes formal language and going into detail on his reflections.
Freedom is defined as “the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action.” Freedom is something that millions take for granted everyday and billions have died throughout history fighting for it. One group whose freedom was unjustly stripped from them were African Americans who were kidnapped from their homes in Africa and shipped to throughout the world to serve as Slaves. Two men who understood what it is like to have their freedom stripped away from them were Nat Turner and Fredrick Douglass. These two men grew up as slaves on southern plantations in the 1800’s, and spent their adulthood fighting for freedom through very different methods. This paper will examine the tactics, effectiveness, and impact of Turner and Douglass
Mr. Auld believed that teaching a slave was not only a bad idea, but also against the law. Douglass said, “Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world.” At this point, Douglass mentioned that he had a completely new realization, a new thought that black men are slaves because of their lack of knowledge. Douglass understands the main function that literacy plays in a white-dominated society during that time. Teaching a few things to a young slave will make him "unmanageable" and "unfit" to perform his job as a slave. Education will raise a slave’s self-conscious mind and help him to understand the value of a free life. Douglass thought without education the slave would never learn what he should have, and what he is missing. He was in a dark place where the rest of the slaves knew nothing about a free life. He believed only education could give them their desired life. If he learned to read, then he wouldn't have to be a slave anymore. T...
Frederick Douglass is known through the eyes of many as a passionate abolitionist, who worked to gain rights for the African American population. In reality, he was much more than this. As an adult he was a prized author, an editor of a newspaper, a lecturer, and a salesman (Schmitt, 1). Such accomplishments were not gained overnight, though, his journey was a long one riddled with pain and challenges. He began his life as a slave, raised by his grandparents (3). As he grew older and more useful he was moved around to other plantations, at one of with he learned to read under the watchful eye of his master’s wife (5). After a few years here, it was observed by his masters that he had become “softened” by the relaxed life of a city slave, so he was sent to a renowned slave beater to be straightened out. To their dismay, by this point in his life Douglass was strong and courageous, and after six months at the hands of the slave beater he began fighting back (6). Scared of what Douglass would do to his reputation, the slave beater sent the boy back to his previous owner. It was at this time Douglass planned his escape to New York. At the age of 20 he made his move (7). Once free, Douglass lived
Douglass’s oratorical style, rhetorical abilities and rational arguments challenged his audiences to reflect on the cruelty of slavery, and ultimately the support of abolition (Prioleau, 2003). An undeniable force for Douglass was his status as a self-freed slave and literate black man, which made credible evidence of his ability to lead the abolition movement. Equal Rights of 18th Century The abolitionist movement called for the immediate emancipation of all slaves and an end to racial discrimination. The Second Great Awakening was fueled by religious fervor and a party of radical abolitionists who prompted many people to emancipate slavery based on religious beliefs.
So he sought new teacher, teacher whom he found in the form of the poor white boys of the neighbourhood, whom he would encounter on his errands. On page 119 he states, “I used also to carry bread with me… This bread I used to bestow upon the hungry little urchins, who, in return, would give me that more valuable bread of knowledge.” Both Frederick Douglass and the little white boys were hungry, they just had an appetite for different things. However, all that glitters is not gold. Douglass, after becoming educated, soon wished he had not as he was no longer able to swim in the ocean of ignorance, now, he was left to tread the long, rocky road of knowledge. As stated on page 121, “I would at times feel that learning to read was a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy… I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity… Anything, no matter what, to get rid of thinking! It was this everlasting thinking of my condition that tormented me.” Now fully aware of the injustice of his circumstances, and also his inability to take actions to counteract it, he was left feeling as though it would have been better to never have taken a bite of the forbidden fruit of
Frederick Douglass’ journey from slave to freed man is infamous for its influence in the abolition movement during the 1800’s. In his narrative, Douglass uses the appeal of ethos in order to establish his stance on the issue of slavery. In addition to that, he uses many of his own personal experiences to not only reveal the hard life of a slave, but to also show that at the time, he had his own thoughts and beliefs about the injustices around him. This shows the audience that slaves are capable of thinking for themselves, having feelings and even have the potential to become educated and live as equals among the whites. Despite his obvious support for the abolition of slavery, Douglass keeps an objective stance and does not only discuss the wrongs of slavery in favor of the blacks; he simply tells the story of his life.
He passionately urged the audience to act and fight to end slavery, calling for the ideals of the U.S. Constitution to be upheld in practice( History.com editor, 2023). His speech was a stirring call to action that inspired many to join the fight against slavery and become active advocates for human rights and social justice. In summary, this essay chronicles the life and times of Frederick Douglass, a highly respected abolitionist, writer, and orator who made significant contributions to the United States abolitionist cause from 1841 to