Frederick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin

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.

Douglass and President Lincoln agreed that slavery needed to be abolished and the Nation needed to be united as one. Lincoln realized that he needed to bring in Frederick Douglass; the combination of a strong and influential black leader and the President of the United States could now create a cohesive group of abolitionists and the Union. Frederick Douglass realized that President Lincoln’s own personality and political judgment would help him free slaves across the country. Realizing each other’s strengths, both men were able to be effective through the use strong actions and powerful words of one another; their relationship played a key role in changing the nations views on slavery and race.

Benjamin Franklin and Olaudah Equiano lived during the same time period. Franklin was one of the founding fathers of the Untied States, and his commitment to making his country better was remarkable. Benjamin Franklin wrote his autobiography from 1771- 1791. Franklin passed away before he was able to see his autobiography published in 1791. Olaudah Equiano was a young boy when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. He was forced to work on naval vessels and on plantations in Virginia. Equiano published his interesting narrative in 1789. Franklin writes about his life as a key figure of American civilization. Equiano writes about his life as a slave and abolitionist against slavery. The autobiographies of Ben Franklin and Olaudah

On the surface one would find it difficult to believe that Frederick Douglass and Hester Prynne could be anything alike. For starters, Frederick Douglass was a real person. A true historical figure in the Antebellum period of The United States. This was a man who was born a slave, escaped to his freedom and became one of the louder voices calling to abolish slavery. Then we have Hester Prynne, who is a fictional character from the mind of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Her time period was years before that of Douglass, as she lived Puritan New England. Looking at these two comparatively from the outside, it is hard to believe that the two would represent any of the same ideas. However, delving deeper into what they stood for, the hardships they endured, and how the came out better on the other end it is clear that the two of them are one in the same. Douglas and Prynne represent everything that America is supposed to be moving forward out of the Antebellum time period.

In 1619, when the first Africans were brought into Jamestown, Virginia to aid in the production of crops on the farms of Caucasian landowners, a period in our country’s dark history began, and with it a struggle for equality and freedom. For over 200 years, slavery consumed the United States, compelling blacks to long and later fight for the freedom their fair skinned counterparts had stripped from them. Decades later, the oppression of black rights marked the beginning of another struggle; one for basic rights that the black population had been denied. During these struggles, several names would come to mind for their achievements and efforts against racism and slavery, names like Frederick Douglass and Anne Moody. Frederick Douglass paved his own road to freedom while Anne Moody put her life on the line fighting for the rights that she knew she deserved. Although time frames apart, both Frederick Douglass and Anne Moody were able to resist and fight racism due to their thirst for knowledge, the help they extended towards other blacks, and their faith in succeeding despite previous failures.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, or better known, Frederick Douglass was born in February 1818 to Harriet Bailey in Talbot County, Maryland. For a long time, Frederick did not know his birthdate or his family lineage and it haunted him till the day he died. Frederick Douglas family lineage reach as far back into the beginnings of America and maybe even further into American prehistory. Douglass was believed to have Native American blood in him. Just from the description of him, “his broad forehead, heavy cheekbones, and yellow-brown skin” (Preston, pg.9) and his childhood master calling him “little Indian boy” (Preston, pg.9) made a lot of people assume that he was. Douglass once recalled about the time when a stranger on a Hudson River steamer “‘who took me for one of the noble red men of the far West.’…Douglas replied that he was not an Indian but a Negro, he said the man turned away in disgust.” (Preston, pg.9) Frederick Douglass was proud that he was a Negro even though he had no problems with Native Americans.

Fredrick Douglas lectured thousands for many causes, he did not only change black history, but he stood for women’s rights, and even Irish Home Rule. Fredrick wrote many autobiographies describing his experiences in slavery and his life, even after the civil war, including, “Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas, an American Slave” No-one knows the exact date of Fredrick’s Birth, But we know his life came to an abrupt end, February 20, 1895. Even though he did not know when he was born, he still celebrated it, February 14th. Douglass started off living with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. When young, Douglass was selected to live in the personal establishment of the plantation owners, one of the owners, may have actually been his dad. His mother though, died when he was only (around) ten.

Abolitionism is a movement that deals with racial inequalities in early America and slavery. This movement impacted the economy, because people wanted to keep slaves around to use them in the south, which has an agriculturally based economy. Leaders like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and William Lloyd Garrison were instrumental in freeing the black slaves and helping draw attention to the grave inequalities between the races in the United States. Through Harriet Tubman’s growth from a slave to a “criminal” who helped free over 300 hundred slaves in her lifetime, and Frederick Douglass’s amazing literary works which were inspired by his life, such as, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, which truly showed

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

Africans have long faced racism in their long history in America. They have had their identities and rights lost under centuries of slavery. Even after the Civil War, the inequalities between African Americans and Caucasians did not cease to exist. From these troubles, many strong people have risen and been able to tell their stories. Among these include a former slave who traveled north and gained freedom, Frederick Douglass and civil rights activist, Malcolm X who both wrote their own autobiographies about their journeys against racism. While Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass lived about a century apart, they share similarities in how they faced and combated racism through education, inspiration by other people, and their eventually finding of freedom.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in February of 1818 in Maryland to a slave woman and a white man. 1 He was separated from his mother as an infant and the only thing that he knew for sure about his father was that he was white, although he thought it was a possibility that his father could have been his master. 2 He stayed with his aunt and grandparents

Douglas was a slave when he was at the age of 6 and when he was at the age of 16 he began plotting to escape slavery. In 1836 Douglas and two of his friends created a plot to escape slavery. Douglas got caught and arrested and put in jail. When he had finished doing his time, he was promised freedom if he behaved and was surprised that he was not sold as a slave. He was 25 when he was released from jail. After working in the shipyard for a while, he moved to England, changed his name, and started a newspaper. The newspaper was called The North Star, and supported

Franklin, himself climbed the ranks society “having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which [he] was born and bred to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world” (Franklin 27). He had been raised by a humble middle class family, not being promised much wealth or land, forcing him to make a name for himself. Franklin, a man of the enlightenment,

Thus, Fredrick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin both share similar values in common, but yet their values can be different. The similarities between Douglass and Franklin is that they both started out as uneducated men but towards the middle and the they became educated. They both became writers and they both traveled different places so they can accomplish their goals. Also Franklin and Douglass both accomplished their goals in orderly manner. Benjamin Franklin was a scientist and an inventor, but Douglass was not a scientist or an inventor. Fredrick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin both have similar values that relates to mainstream values of America in their time. These two successful men both shared the same American values which are individuality

Both authors Frederick Douglass and Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels focus on the topic of freedom. Both authors argue that they are being oppressed. However, this is where the similarities end. Engels and Marx believed that capitalism was a social system used by the proletariats to oppress the bourgeoisie, and that the only way to be free was to fight back against the system. On the other hand, Frederick Douglass focuses more on his individual story and his struggle for freedom, while he tries to appeal to his audience from an ethical point of view.