preview

Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Rousseau

Decent Essays

Frederick Douglass is known for being a free black man in America during the strictest rules against freedom for black men. Douglass explains in his narrative how he came across the idea of freedom, and how he worked to achieve it. He starts out with how he was able to learn how to read, but before he could even come close to mastering his education, the opportunity had been snatched from him. However, Douglass was not going to give up without a fight, and throughout his slavery career he found several different ways to master reading. Throughout his life, Douglass began speaking out against the cruelty of slavery and joined the political abolitionists to help put a stop to the torture. Frederick used his skill with writing to help spread the …show more content…

Douglass and Rousseau may have been different in their age difference, but they both talked about how slavery breaks down a human being. Douglass was a different too because of the fact that he could give his own personal stories to help his audience see the pain slaves go through their whole life. Plantation owners are the most reluctant people for changing their attitude through slavery, they would definitely agree with the works of Machiavelli. This group of people would have been identified as Machiavellism, “Consistent Machiavellism is unconstrained by custom, ideal, or conscience and aims only at the expedient means, lawful or not, to gain desired political ends. War is thought not only often expedient but also necessary to maintain a people's vigor. The absence of moral restraint is reinforced by the fixed opinion that human beings are by nature weak, inconstant, selfish, and inclined to evil.” (Scharfstein) The people in favor of slavery were cruel in their actions and thoughts, Douglass points this out several times during his narrative. He points out the cruelty because he wants others to see how slaves were not considered to even be a

Get Access