Frederick Douglass Thesis

E. Problems on the way to Peace

The Gettysburg Address was a thanks you to all Union soldiers who died in the Gettysburg battle, but it was also, “ clarified the meaning of the war and redefined what it meant to be an American” (George E. Condon.). In Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself, by reading the title you can see Douglass is being straightforward, but there is more to the title then it seems (Life of Frederick Douglass). By saying, written by himself, he was stating himself as a black person wrote this book (Life of Frederick). “Most white Americans in the mid-1880s had a hard time believing that a black person could even learn to read, much less write a book” (Life of Frederick).

F. Ku Klux Klan

The Ku Klux Klan, also known as the KKK was founded by Confederate veterans in Pulaski, Tennessee, in 1866 (“Ku Klux Klan.”). The KKK dedicated themselves to violence against almost any person who taught he didn’t believe in white supremacy or was just black (“Ku Klux Klan.”).
A famous attack by the KKK was in South Carolina on January 1871 “500 masked men attacked the Union County jail and lynched eight black prisoners.” (“Ku Klux Klan.”). Soon the president sent federal forces to shut down the KKK activity since the local police were either apart of the Klan or didn’t take action against it (“Ku Klux Klan.”).

E. Lynching

Lynching was an act that was supposed to inspire fear in someone, a group, or even a race; lynching could involve kidnapping, terrorism, torture, threats, robberies, and even killing (Berman). “‘Lynchings were violent and public acts of torture that traumatized black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials’” (Berman). Almost four thousand black people were killed between 1877 and 1950