Frederick Douglas: The Founding Father

The life and works of Henry David Thoreau and Frederick Douglass’ has had a lasting impact in the literary field since there work is studied now in most colleges. Although, the writers travelled in the same circle and were both friends of Ralph Waldo Emerson the pair were not friends. In looking at the life and works of the two dynamic literary giants analyzing their common goals, work, and their place in Transcendentalist history will bring more understanding of these authors.

During the time of Reconstruction, which was from 1865-1877, president Abraham Lincoln and abolitionist Frederick Douglass had many goals that they wanted to achieve during the Reconstruction period. They shared a common goal of trying to abolish slavery, however, Douglass and Lincoln did have different goals as well that they believed were priorities. Douglass’s goal was to have equality and equal rights among the races and Lincoln’s main goal was to unify the Union after the destruction caused by the Civil War. The nation did achieve Douglass and Lincoln’s shared goal of abolishing slavery and Lincoln did manage to unify the Union after a lot of hard work but did not achieve Douglass’s dream for

     In conclusion the question “why...can we not withdraw this vexed question [of slavery in the US] from politics”posed by Stephen Douglas can be answered in this way. The reason why the US could not just forget about the slavery issue and let people decide for themselves if they wanted slaves

Fredrick Douglas, was a man who was born into the cruel act of slavery, around 1818 in Talbot, his original, well per se birth name was Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey, Fredrick Douglas was not a soldier, but he was a man who was known as one, he changed the history of America for time to come.

So in basic sense what Douglas was forced to say, Reconstruction failed. It did not permanently guaranteed the basic rights of the former slaves. Writing in the 1930s, W.E.B Du Bois in “Black Reconstruction In America” used an interesting phrase, “a splendid failure”. Why splendid? He said it failed, but not for the reason most white people expected to fail, the incapacity of the former slaves. It actually demonstrated their capacity for freedom, for citizenship, for participation in democracy, things widely denied in 1865, and in fact still denied when Du Boise was writing in the

In today’s day and age education is one of the most overlooked concept of our generation. Education is underestimated because it’s easily accessed through public or at home schooling, so the majority of our generation can at least read or write. In the narrative The Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass the concept of education can differentiate whether a black man free or enslaved. During this time period, education is crucial for the road of freedom but extremely difficult to achieve. In this narrative Douglas uses paradox to show how education can be an african american’s ‘saving grace’ but on the other hand, it could also be his worst nightmare. This is shown through the process Frederick Douglas needed to go through to become education and free. Douglas utilizes irony and character development to display this duality of education.

Having been a slave, Douglass already knew firsthand what it was like to be considered “property” and the struggle of having to work for white men who treated them like animals. Lincoln knew that slavery was immoral and sought to abolish it even though he was not an abolitionist and was a Republican white man. In Douglass’s speech “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July” he says, “Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans?” (Douglass 291). Douglass was giving this speech to the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Society and is saying in this quote that he should not have to explain why slavery is wrong and why it should be abolished. President Lincoln was one of the few who did believe slavery was a terrible thing and in

         When Douglas was born into slavery, grew up in the South engaged in heavy slave labor, torture, several times nearly lost his life. However, his strong will in difficult circumstances, assiduous self-culture struggle. Slaveholders see good discipline, he handed him over to a special tame slaves and whites - Covey discipline. Douglas decided to revolt after being repeatedly beaten severely beaten discipline who scared the other no longer afraid to fight him.

Douglas stated that people living in the new territory should be able to “introduce it [slavery] or exclude it as they please” [Document 5]. In his point of view, Douglas thought that the people should have the right to decide whether or not to include slavery in their communities. This encouraged the United States westward expansion because settlers constantly had fights over if it was moral to keep slaves, so people could have continued moving westward to meet their slave and farming needs. Eventually, the slavery conflict in the newly settled lands and in the Union led to the Civil War causing the States to almost

Douglas accepted that he had would have to buy them (Congress) off, and inquired as to a price… the South was again hankering for a symbolic assertion of its equal rights within Union. To get a bill through Congress all Douglas needed to do was include a provision applying the principles of the 1850 Compromise to the Nebraska Territory. This would theoretically permit slavery in the area; but popular sovereignty and the facts of physical geography and population movement would ensure that in practice

"Douglas basically explained in the Freeport Doctrine his belief that the people in a new territory be able to decide whether or not they would allow slavery."(What Were the Results of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates?) The Freeport Doctrine was the subject Douglas spoke about. It made people uneasy."Lincoln argued that while he wanted to end the extension of slavery into US territories"(What Were the Results of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates?) It was important, and a historical debate time. As Lincoln spoke his famous quotes a nation cannot stand as a divided nation, and everyone had rights through the Declaration Of Independence.The problem also was extension to the different territories for slavery. The Debates were not to fix slavery, but to talk about what would make it better. What laws could change it, or stopping slavery from happening in many other

Prompt: Douglass maintains that slavery dehumanized both the slave and the slaveholder. Quoting specific passages in the Narrative support this thesis with examples.

Archaeologists have traditionally viewed the list of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas through the 1858 Illinois state voting campaign as amongst the most important declarations in American imperial history. Those concerns they addressed were not only of crucial significance to the regional dispute over states’ rights and slavery but also covered deeper into issues that would proceed to change political dialogue. What is usually neglected is that these contests were a component of the comprehensive campaign, that they were intended to achieve some main policy objectives, and that they showed the features of mid-nineteenth-century political speech . Douglas, being part of Congress as from 1843 and a famous nationwide spokesperson for the Democratic body, was contesting for another election for a third season in the Senate, whereas Lincoln was vying for the same seat as a Republican1. Due to Douglas’s political development, the campaign captivated nationwide attention.

During the 1850s, Douglas was in the fore front in abolishing slavery, which was threatening, to tear the country apart. In the beginning, Douglas felt that John Brown’s anti- slavery ideas and plans were suicidal and he refused to engage in a raid on Harper Ferry. Brown’s activities saw him captured and hanged, an act which

of living a slave life and he feared he would walk that path for the remainder of his life. Despite