The most important African American leader of the nineteenth century is the abolitionist, writer, and orator Frederick Douglass. Douglass was born into slavery sometime around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. (“Frederick Douglass Biography,’’ 2017.). Douglass did not know his birthday which is very common for slaves, and later in life he chose to celebrate it on February 14th because his mom used to call him as her little valentine. (“Shmoop Editorial Team,’’ 2008.). Douglass was separated from his mother after his birth. His mother was a slave, and she died when he was around 10 years old. Douglass’s father was a white man, perhaps even his master. Douglass never wanted to know who his father was because he knew that there was no way to find …show more content…
Douglass was lucky because it was the highest honor that slaves could achieve. Douglass was sent to work for a new master in Baltimore. He was taught to read and write by Baltimore slaveholder Hugh Auld’s wife Sophia and later on, Sophia gets in big trouble so she can not offer him a lesson. According to a ban of teaching slaves, her husband forbade her to offer Douglass a lesson. Douglass did not give up on his career, he continued to learn from white children in his neighborhood who did not know that colored people were not treated like a human being. When Douglass found a way to educate himself, he started to share his knowledge to other slaves in Baltimore, and that is where he learned of the power of education. (“Frederick Douglass Biography,’’ …show more content…
After he found a way to educate himself in Baltimore, he tried to fight back by using whatever knowledge that he had learned. Douglass finally succeeded after his first failed attempt. Later on, Douglass fell in love with Anna Murray who assisted him in his final attempt to escape slavery in Baltimore and they ended up married on September 15, 1838. Frederick and Anna Douglass had five children together: Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., Charles Redmon and Annie. After Anna’s death, Douglass married to Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye New York. (“Frederick Douglass Biography,’’ 2017.). According to his escape at the age of twenty Douglass continued to work upon slavery because he promised to himself that he would not rest until he achieved his goals. (“History.com Staff,’’ 2009). The name ‘’Frederick Douglass’’ reminds people of a person with a mindful personality and courage. Douglass has left a great contribution. According to all the struggle and pain in his life, he understood how it felt like to be a slave and that is why he started sharing his story to help all those African American people. Douglas wanted to abolish slavery because he had seen his family sold, bought and beaten. According to his experience he did not want any innocent people to be harmed. His childhood kept reminding him that freedom is not easily
His father was his and his mother’s slave master. His mother died roughly around the age of 10. After the tragedy he was moved on to Baltimore, in Hugh Auld’s home. Do to the ban of giving African Americans education Frederick Douglass was taught by Auld’s wife to read write and gave knowledge to other African America at the age of 12 .
Douglass became representative for many slaves because after Emancipation Proclamation he was more involved in fight for the right of black to vote and inequality in public place. “if the negro knows enough to fight for his country he knows enough to vote; if he knows enough to pay taxes for the support of the government, he knows enough to vote; if he knows as much when sober, as an Irishman knows when drunk, he knows enough to vote.” (Frederick Douglass) Also, Douglass contributed on helping fugitive slaves reach safely to further north for their freedom. The narrative stated that Douglass life and thought was speaking profoundly to the meaning of black in America, as well as the calling to resist oppression.
Douglass’s biological father is unknown, but there is a suspicion the father was his slave master. (Douglass Narrative 15)
In America in the 1800’s slaves were not allowed to be educated and were broken so that they wouldn’t have hope to escape to the north. Slaves were separated from their mothers at birth and would be taken to another plantation to be put into slavery. They would also be sent to cruel masters who would break them and make them hopeless and more compliant. But Douglass was different; his intelligence, observation, and motivation defined and impacted him. Douglass’s experiences and attributes allowed for him to escape from slavery.
Douglass was born a slave, but escaped in 1838, becoming a key spokesman for many free and enslaved blacks during the abolitionist movement. Douglas conducted himself
Thus, despite the fact that Mr. Hugh did not allow him to access education, he continued to study by himself with the assistance of other local boys in the neighborhood. Douglass, consequently, was able to use self-education as a great method to fight against the ignorance of his white master. In addition, he taught other slaves in the Sabbath school, explained them the ignorance of their white masters, and told them about the importance of education. These slaves were greatly influenced by Douglass, so although they had to face whipping and beating, they tried to come to school and met Douglass. Since Douglass understood the power of education, he was able to help not only himself but also his fellow slaves to mentally resist the ignorance of their master and find freedom in the mind.
Frederick Douglass, a historic civil rights activist, was born into slavery and fortunately lived long enough to see it end. He may have outlived the enslavement however, equality and direct freedom was not a result of Americanized slavery’s extinction. Douglass lived his post slavery life during the time of Jim Crow laws, enforced segregation laws. He wrote a letter to an unknown recipient, briefing describing the negative impact these laws had on blacks. Although slavery was abolished, it was believed that the act on dominance still played a big part on how whites treated blacks and still does today.
Slaves obtaining knowledge or an education were then viewed as unmanageable. One can see that through Frederick Douglass’s gain of education; Slavery began to look more than an imprisonment and his mind would not cease to think. With this depressing state of mind, Douglass would begin to plot for ways to obtain his education. Despite living in a country were teaching slaves was unpardonable, Frederick Douglass began to incorporate various ways for his education. He would hide in a separate room and would be suspected by his mistress that he could be reading a book.
Douglass managed to overcome the maltreatment of his wretched slave owners through the eventual attainment of freedom. The injustice imposed upon the African-American slaves by their owners was the crux of Douglass’s motivation to escape this inhumane life. Adolescents in today’s society could use Frederick’s determination as an example of moving forward to better oneself or one’s situation regardless of
Douglass asked to find his own work and was turned down by Thomas Auld as he assumes he would escape. A couple months later Douglass asks Hugh Auld who agrees that he should indeed find his own work and would have to pay Thomas 3 dollars each week for supplies and clothing. Douglass resolves to escape on the third of September. He decides to work carefully until the 3rd of September to keep Auld from growing any suspicions He grew anxiety about leaving his Baltimore friends and the thought he would fail to escape but then proceeds to his plan and moves smoothly to New York. Anna Douglass’s soon to be wife joins him in New York where they got married.
He was born to a woman slave and a white man. He was raised primarily by his relatives and only occasionally met his mother, who died when he was a young boy. He never met his father, but knew only that he was a white man. During this time, he witnessed the first-hand horrors and mistreatment of slaves and spent many days hungry and cold. Shortly after the death of his mother, Douglass was sent to live with a man in Baltimore and his life became relatively normal for several years.
Frederick Douglass, born a slave and later the most influential African American leader of the 1800s, addresses the hypocrisy of the US of maintaining slavery with its upheld ideals being freedom and independence on July 4th, 1852. Douglass builds his argument by using surprising contrasts, plain facts, and provocative antithesis. Introducing his subject, Douglass reminds his audience about the dark side of America for slaves, in sharp, surprising contrasts with the apparent progressivity within the nation. He first notices “the disparity,” that “the sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and deaths to me,” as an African-American former slave. It is surprising for the audience to hear that the Sun does not bring him any prosperity, that the Sun, the source of life on earth, brings him destruction.
Fredrick Douglass was born enslaved,but he escaped to freedom. He became an outspoken opponent of slavery and a civil rights advocate. He lectured widely and even published his own newspapers. In this excerpt, I have learned the most important event that occurred in his life and why its important, the reason why he compared the enslavers to criminals, and the reason why he wished to be an animal. First of all, Fredrick mentioned in the excerpt the most important event in his life and why it matters.
Annotated bibliography Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. New York: Dover Publications, 1995. Print.
With all the knowledge he was gaining, he began to comprehend everything around him. The things he was learning fascinated him, but the “more [he] read, the more [he] was led to abhor and detest [his] enslavers”(Douglass 35); however, that should not be viewed as a negative affect but a positive one. No one should want to be deceived for their entire life. This hatred that he built up motivated him to continue to further educate himself. As a result, he later motivated other slaves to earn an education by having “[availed] themselves to [an] opportunity to learn to read” (Douglass 69) by Douglass teaching them every Sunday.