“Where slavery is, there liberty cannot be; and where liberty is, there slavery cannot be.” President Lincoln. The two novels being compared are “Up from Slavery” by Booker T. Washington and “The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass” by Fredrick Douglass. Both men were born into slavery in the North-Eastern part of the United States in the 1800’s, but many years apart. While both Washington and Douglass experienced slavery and hardship, and were eventually freed so that they could speak publicly and teach others, they were different in how they experienced slavery, taught others, and shared their opinion on slavery. Washington and Douglass both experienced slavery, but Washington’s life of slavery was much shorter. Washington was …show more content…
After the hotel season ended, Booker moved back home to Malden. He was elected to teach at a colored school. He taught them more than just books, he taught them about cleanliness, pride, and even taught them how to build. The demand for education was so great that he opened a night school to serve students who had to work during the day. Washington also established a reading room, started a debating society, taught two Sunday schools, and gave private lessons to a few young men that he wanted to prepare for Hampton. Douglass had a strong desire to help others. He improved the lives of fellow slaves, and he ran a sabbath school while under the ownership of William Freeland. Douglass wrote and lectured against slavery and also devoted attention to the women’s rights movement. He became involved in politics, and when the Civil War broke out in 1861, he fought to allow black men to fight for the Union. Not long after that Lincoln established the Emancipation Proclamation.
Washington and Douglass shared their opinion on slavery, but in very different ways. Washingtons outlook on slavery was that “it happened and it shouldn’t have, but instead of complaining about it let’s work together and build trust.” Douglass also shared his opinion on slavery, but in a way that more straight forward than Washington. In his speeches on slavery he talks about how Covey treated him as a slave and even referred to Covey as a
Rhetorical and literary devices has been utilized to persuade an audience throughout history. In Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and Frederick Douglass’ “Address to the Massachusetts Anti-slavery society” speech, they articulate the injustices the black man has experienced over the years by exercising allusion and anaphora. King and Douglass, both civil rights activist, desire action from society; they seek true equality for their black brethren. King and Douglass use allusion to create a recollection in the minds of their audience in order to reinforce their intents. King states, “five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation” referring to Abraham Lincoln.
Free Men If you were forced to work hard and diligently to make yourself a life out of nothing, would you try? Booker T. Washington, a former slave, entered his freedom penniless, jobless, and homeless. In 1782, he traveled to Virginia off a very small supply of money. There he hoped to find jobs to sustain his basic needs and raise enough money to enroll in Hampton Institute.
Abraham Lincoln, Frederic Douglass, were one of the most appealing well-known speakers, people who did believe that slavery was morally wrong and devote their lives to fight for freedom. However, there are several differences between the view of the Constitution’s position differences between Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Kansas-Nebraska Act indicated that the recognition of slavery should be determined by the decision of these residents (popular or squatter sovereignty). This act itself conflicted heavily with the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional, which was essentially seen as the admittance of slavery anywhere in the country. This act made a political issue of confrontation between North and South.
He also struggled for stopping the racial violation and helped the fleeing slaves to escape. One of the main point of Douglass’s speech was slavery should be stopped. And he also argued that what’s the point of celebrating Fourth July if the term liberty doesn’t apply equally for all? He also exhibited that a slave is also a human being like others. If white people have the right to utilize all the rights and facilities as a citizen, on the whole as a human, why will the black people lead a life as sub human?
Frederick Douglas never had a formal education. He spoke of his time as a slave in order to rally the antislavery movement. Booker T. Washington was able acquire an education at Hampton institute by working many jobs to pay for it. He became a teacher; he spoke as a way to raise money and support for the education of African-Americans.
Lincoln and Douglass were self-made, self-educated, and ambitious, and each rose to success from humble backgrounds. Douglass, of course, was an escaped slave. Douglass certainly and Lincoln most likely detested slavery from his youngest days. But Lincoln from his young manhood was a consummate politician devoted to compromise, consensus-building, moderation and indirection. Douglass was a reformer who spoke and wrote eloquently and with passion for the abolition of slavery
Both King and Douglass were advocating for the same thing: their constitutional sanction of freedom. Both men, in their respective letters touch upon parallel thoughts and beliefs that revolve around the much bigger topic of racial inequality and discrimination. Both men were discriminated against and they talk about their experiences and plight in their very distinctive yet special styles. Born in the year 1817, in an era of open and unashamed slave trade, Frederick Douglass’s story begins as a serf to Mrs. Hugh in the city of Maryland.
Douglass encountered multiple harsh realities of being enslaved. For example, the ex-slave was practically starved to death by his masters on multiple occasions. In fact, “[He was] allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else... It was not enough for [him] to subsist upon... A great many times [he had] been nearly perishing with hunger” (pg 31).
In “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, Douglass narrates in detail the oppressions he went through as a slave before winning his freedom. In the narrative, Douglass gives a picture about the humiliation, brutality, and pain that slaves go through. We can evidently see that Douglass does not want to describe only his life, but he uses his personal experiences and life story as a tool to rise against slavery. He uses his personal life story to argue against common myths that were used to justify the act of slavery. Douglass invalidated common justification for slavery like religion, economic argument and color with his life story through his experiences torture, separation, and illiteracy, and he urged for the end of slavery.
He also saw someone else?s slave named Demby get shot through his skull, he also witnessed his brother getting stepped on till the blood gushed out of his nose and ears. Frederick Douglass was a slave for 20 years and saw many acts of violence and cruelty. Although Washington and Douglass had different experiences as slaves, they each were influenced by that time in their lives to make a difference. Education was very important to both men. Booker T Washington was formally educated at the Hampton institute.
Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass both have interesting ways of writing. There are similarities and differences in their writing. They each have their own personal preference toward their style, tone, and perspective. Each story was a remembrance of boyhood written in first person. As evident, Twain’s story takes place as a boy in a town on the Mississippi River.
Washington and Frederick Douglass established goals which they diligently pursued. Booker made it his goal to provide all black people with the ability and opportunity to receive an education. When he reached a suitable age and scrounged up enough money, Booker attended Hampton University, where he received a much-desired education, and learned many valuable life lessons. From his experience at the University and his longing for black people to have equal opportunities, Booker decided to establish his own school. When offered to open one in Tuskegee, Alabama, Booker jumped at the chance and eventually transformed the small-town school into a massive institution for black people of all ages.
“I look to the day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” said Martin Luther King jr. Frederick Douglass and Jackie Robinson helped make Martin Luther King jr’s dream possible. Jackie Robinson and Frederick Douglass both fought for racial equality by speaking and participating against racial inequality. Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and fought for racial equality by speaking at abolitionist meetings. For example, the text “Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to Freedom” Steven mintz states, “ As a traveling lecturer, Douglass electrified audiences with his first‐hand accounts of slavery.
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.
Douglass points to the vast unwillingness from the group of whites that refuses to fully perceive and accept African-Americans as deserving and equal citizens of the nation. Based on his personal experiences as a slave, Douglass is abundantly aware that the battle to abolish slavery is not an easy task. For the first twenty years of his life, he witnessed firsthand the abject cruelty of that institution in our country. Tactfully, Douglass seizes this opportunity to publicly highlight the unmerited and coarse differences in the treatment between the whites as opposed to the blacks living in the United States during this time period. He makes a “powerful testaments to the hypocrisy, bigotry and inhumanity of slavery” (Bunch 1).