Born a Slave
Born a slave, Frederick Douglas "lifted himself up from bondage by his own efforts, developed, later, a great talent as an abolitionist lecturer, a newspaper editor, a recruiter for Union troops in the Civil War, became a noted figure in American life, and gained World-wide recognition as the foremost spokesman for his oppressed people and courageous champion of many other progressive causes of his time." However, could Frederick Douglass ever have been able to accomplish all this with out being literate? The answer is no. Frederick, despite all efforts to stop him, taught himself how to read and write while living under harsh quarters as a slave. This ultimately led to his knowledge of freedom and the learning of how unjust slavery really was. Although Frederick was inspired by a few of the documents; "What is an American?" the Declaration of Independence, Prince Hall's Petition, and The Constitution, there were a few that also discouraged him in his hope for abolishing slavery and fighting for equal rights as an African American. According to the Declaration of Independence, written in 1776, God has given each human equal rights to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." The declaration begins with the discussio
Another unjustly document that Frederick would have thought discouraging was Creveceour's "What is an American?" This document was written between 1770-1781, around the time the Constitution, and the Declaration of Independence were written. Throughout this document, it redundantly states how great it is to be an American and how much better this country is than England. It directly states "Can a wretch who wanders about, who works and starves, whose life is a continual scene of sore affliction or pinching penury-can that man call England or any other Kingdom his country?" Obviously not for the slaves. Reading this, Frederick along with any other slave, would have to consider them anything less than an American. They, according to this document, wouldn't even be able to call America their own country. This is subtly saying that like the immigrants from England that were treated miserably and worked and starved to death, slaves too, being treated the same way, wouldn't be able to call their place of misery their own. This particular document does not even mention the race of African Americans, which makes it worse when being read by a slave, because it proves how irrelevant slaves were considered. The document goes on to say that "A country that had no bread for him, whose fields procured him no harvest, who met with nothing but the frowns of the rich," (or their masters) "the severity of the laws, with jails and punishment, who owned not a single foot of the extensive surface of this planet? No!" No, obviously a person's lifestyle as so described would never want to be associated with a country like that. This passage is enough to discourage any slave that life is how they see it, and there is no use trying to change it because if this is how everyone thinks of Americans, then blacks are subsequently not considered to be one. Another relations to slaves using Europeans comes from another passage stating "Ye poor Europeans-ye who sweat and work for the great; ye who are obliged to give so many sheaves to the church, so many to your lord, so many to your government, and have hardly any left for yourselves; ye who are held in less estimation than favorite hunters or useless lap-dogs; ye who only breath the air of nature because it can not be with holden from you." This indirectly refers to the slaves; for the slaves sweat and work for their masters and give all their earnings, if any, to them. They are considered equivalent to a piece of meat, and if had the opportunity would be withheld from their own oxygen they breath. If Frederick read but a little of this document, I think he would be so discouraged with America and their in
Some common words found in the essay are:
African Americans, Earth Jefferson, United States-inaugurated, Frederick Douglas, Forth July, Prince Hall, Reading Frederick, Frederick Douglas's, Declaration Independence, Frederick Douglass, african american, equal rights, declaration independence, frederick douglas, wouldn't able call, american according, independence written, reading frederick, life slave, own government, declaration independence written, able call,
Approximate Word count = 1795
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
