Similarities Between Martin Luther King Jr And Frederick Douglass

Connor Smith

Mrs. DiCiaula

2nd period

Fredrick Douglas Essay

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope" (Martin Luther King Junior). A man before Martin Luther King’s time, Fredrick Douglas, exemplifies this quote immensely; through many trials Douglas faced in slavery, he overcame them and sought out his freedom. In the narrative of Fredrick Douglas and “What is Your Fourth of July to Me? ,” the two texts share commonalities and differences. Both texts share the same purpose in which to inform and persuade the audience while maintaining the same subject of freedom. The two texts differentiate by the form of text he uses; in his speech he talks in a speech form while in his narrative he speaks in the form of the memories of his

Douglas says in his speech, “They succeeded; and to-day you reap the fruits of their success. The freedom gained is yours; and you, therefore, may properly celebrate this anniversary” (Paragraph 17). In his speech he presents a constant idea of freedom, and he explains the greatness it holds while moving his audience to be joyful of obtaining it. Much like the speech, in the narrative of Fredrick Douglas, it states; “At times I would rise up, a flash of energetic freedom would dart through my soul, accompanied with a faint beam of hope, that flickered for a moment, and then vanished” (page 63). Fredrick Douglas holds on to the thought of freedom and illustrates how influenced he is by achieving his ambition of being free. He speaks to the audience about how important it is to have freedom and influences them to believe such, in both

Douglas spoke to the audience and considered them in his speech, to make it more relatable; “but, your fathers, who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day...” (paragraph 4). While in his narrative he spoke on his personal life/accounts to give the audience more knowledge of the life of a slave. For instance, he states, “My sufferings on this plantation seem now like a dream rather than a stern reality” (page 64). He maintains the idea of freedom in both texts while informing/persuading them at on that topic. He illustrates the importance of freedom in the two texts, and in his narrative, he illustrates why such freedom is important through his