Fredrick Douglass : The Problem Of Discrimination In America

But first, it will be helpful to define more terms that will be used in this chapter and elsewhere in this book.

Examining Prevalent Attitudes on Racism and the Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” This famous quote is from a speech given by one of America’s most influential abolitionist speakers, Frederick Douglass. Born into slavery, this great American leader led a life many of us would find impossible to bear. After gaining his freedom from slavery, Douglass shared his stories through impressive speeches and vivid autobiographies, which helped America move forward as a country liberated from racial inequality. Although Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave allows readers to understand what life was like for slaves in antebellum America, the most important and relevant lesson to take away from this narrative today is the importance of perseverance. Douglass’s courage to resist and learn paired with his determination to keep his faith and ultimately find himself, is something to which people from every culture and time period can relate.

“What I told you is what your grandparents tried to tell me: that this is your country, that this is your world, that this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it.” (Coates). This powerful quote exemplifies the mistreatment of blacks in America as something that has been prevalent throughout our nation’s history and is still present in our contemporary world. Our national founding document promised that “All men are created equal”. As a nation we have never achieved the goal of equality largely because of the institution of slavery and its continuing repercussions on American society.

The purpose behind Fredrick Douglass’s Narrative was to appeal to the other abolitionists who he wanted to convince that slave owners were wrong for their treatment of other human beings. His goal was to appeal to the middle-class people of that time and persuade them to get on board with the abolitionist movement. Douglass had a great writing style that was descriptive as well as convincing. He stayed away from the horrific details of the time, which helped him grasp the attention of the women who in turn would convince their husbands to help by donating money and eventually ending slavery. He used his words effectively in convincing the readers that the slave owners were inhuman and showed how they had no feelings for other human

Frederick Douglass, social reformer of an African American descent, was an orator, writer, statesman, abolitionist movement leader. He was born in 1818 in Talbot County in the United States in the area of Maryland. He gained prominence because of his extraordinary oratory skills. His antislavery writings were appreciated across America, particularly when he pointed out that the slaves lacked the basic intellectual rights to perform as the independent American citizens. Northern citizens of America, even had the hardest time to believe that such a good orator was once the victim of slavery tradition in the American continent (Frederick, 2009). He had a strong believer in relation to equality of people, be it of any class, color, sect or religion and dedicated his entire life for this cause. He had once said that he would unite with anybody to do the right thing and said that he would not unite with anybody to the wrong thing.

Boxill, Bernard. "Frederick Douglass’s Patriotism." Journal of Ethics 13.4 (2009): 301-317. EBSCO. Web. 19 Oct 2015. Bernard argues that Frederick Douglass always was a patriot even throughout slavery. He states that most Americans are patriots even if they do not agree with the politics, but rather just a love for their country. It talks about Americans who give selfless amounts of time toward the improvement of America.

“ Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!” ( Huggins,180). These are the words of Fredrick Douglass that could represent the way he lived his life. Not willing to accept his life as a slave, he rose to become a great and honorable man that held a voice of influence over the reform movement’s throughout the 19th century. He is one of the American leaders who provided a powerful voice for human rights and racial injustice during this period of American history.

During the 19th century, slavery was a common place commodity. While many western countries made the progressive decision to abolish slavery, such as Britain in 1834 and France in 1848, the American South clung to slavery due to its dependence on slave labor to sustain economy. Many slave owners deprived their slaves of any tuition, however, a few were taught the basic skills of reading and managed to expand past the normal stature for them at the time. Frederick Douglass, one of the few educated slave children, managed to climb out of slavery into a respectable standing as a public figure and great orator. Because of his experiences in social inequality, Douglass focused on the subject of inequality in both race and gender within his speeches, extremely radical ideas at the time.

The way the structure of family’s among slaves were effected, were by the sexploitation of slave women. Slave Owners, purposely impregnated slaves for financial reasons. These interracial children were being born into slavery, because of their mother being an African American slave and the laws saying that if you have any ounce of black in you, you were labeled as black. Slave owners created this practice to produce more slaves for their plantation. Fredrick Douglass, being an interracial kid and rumors that his father was white and may have been Captain Anthony, he was treated differently from all the other slaves on the plantation. Growing up, Douglass worked in the house instead of the fields. He had developed a relationship with the slave

Author: Fredrick Douglass is a well know African American abolitionist. He was born in Talbot County Maryland in 1818. At the age of 12, he learned to read and write this happened while he was enslaved. When Douglass turned 16, he ran away from his slave owner and headed for New York. Douglass ends up settling in Massachusetts this where he starts to gain his fame for pushing the anti-slavery movement. Douglass played a big role in the Civil War he used his status to help recruit other African Americans. His role in the civil war also help him to gain political status in the US. Douglass was the first African American to ever be named on a presidential ballot this happened in 1872. Fredrick Douglass is one of the most influential abolitionist in American history.

In this short -yet well written- autobiography, Fredrick Douglas exposes the dehumanization and the brutality of slavery, while sharing his own story of defiance and escape. His great use of repetition is powerful and effective in conveying the underlying themes and meanings of the novel. Fredrick Douglas was a voice and an inspiration for all that suffered through slavery. He has impacte and influenced Fredrick Douglass’ own accounts as a slave, and deep insight reminds us of the cruelty and inhumane nature of slavery. He saw slavery as an evil force, creating havoc amongst the slaves and slaves holders.

Frederick Douglass wants Congress to know that if they are going to rebuild the South, they need to do it right. Congress cannot afford to be anything but strong and strict with its plans for reconstruction, because what Congress plans to do would determine success or failure. He stresses the need for a strong central government that can control the states. Although, states have the right to govern themselves to an extent, issues regarding human rights and liberties cannot be put into the hands of the state. The government must have the power to enforce its laws across all states. Also, Douglass points out that the effects of slavery will last beyond them, since it is so incorporated into not only Southern culture, but American culture as a

Differently to Stowe, Douglass’ version of the racial ‘other’ is the white American’s. However, as the power of the society deems which is dominant, he uses the American stereotypes they use against him to represent their version of the racial ‘other’ and call it moot. As I have previously said, the whites did not let the negroes learn to read or write. According to Douglass, “wit [was] the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (Douglass, p. 93). Therefore, he proves himself and salvages his human nature by showing his education and self-determination.

The controversy of racism scorches Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass written by Frederick Douglass himself. Douglass unveils the atrocious truth about slavery that was hidden for so many years. Every beating, every death, every malicious act was all recorded for the people of the U.S. to finally see the error of our ways. The short essay, Slavery as a Mythologized Institution, explains how people in that time period justified the disgusting behavior that was demonstrated regularly. Religion and intellectual inferiority were concepts that were used to manipulate the minds of everyone around into believing that practicing slavery was acceptable. However a very courageous man, Frederick Douglass challenges those beliefs. Douglass debunks the mythology of slavery in his narrative by rebuking the romantic image of slavery with very disturbing imagery, promotes his own views on the intellectual belief of slaves, and exposes the “system” for promoting the disloyalty among slaves.