Oppression in early days
In many ways, our founding father's idea of oppression differed greatly from Frederick Douglass' thought of oppression during his lifetime. Thomas Jefferson, a highly influential leader during our nation's birth, claimed that Great Britain, led by King George III, was infringing on the fundamental laws that colonists were entitled to. In many ways, Frederick Douglass uses fundamental laws to try and define his oppression by slave holders of the United States. In both cases, oppressed people were fighting for freedom. Although each view, Thomas Jefferson's and Frederick Douglass', had the idea of oppression, these ideas were no closer to each other in definition. One oppression that was clear in both cases was the ability of the upper social classes to infringe on economic profit and economic freedom to their respective oppressed classes. In Douglass' case, the upper class constituted of wealthy land owners who owned enslaved Africans. This bridge in social standing created a status quo of white slaveholders to keep their slaves to work in a field or a trade which generated income solely for the slaveholder. One might create an argument by stating the slave could buy his way to freedom, which some slaves did. The decision to le
t slaves create or maintain a steady income was solely up to the slaveholder, in most cases, restricted the slave to mere pennies if any at all (Douglass, p. 319-320). Mere pennies could not buy freedom, and in most cases slaves worked for very little food let alone money, as stated in Douglass' case (Douglass, p. 100). Slaves were not able to go out and live a free life not even for one day. Frederick Douglass was bound to a master and even though he persevered and took in a substantial amount of money per week for Master Hugh during his life as a tradesman, if he were to leave on a given Saturday night to partake in any activity at all, he should expect harsh treatment on his return home, which did happen to Douglass at least once (Douglass, p. 329). This idea of oppression regarding economic gain and freedom was in a sense greatly varied in respect to Jefferson's case. Thomas Jefferson and other colonists did have the right to obtain a wealth, or to create a steady weekly or monthly income. Oppression to the colonists in form of monetary value came about against them in the form of heavy taxes and outside trading. Stamp tax, paper tax, sugar tax and tea tax were among the many that the colonists were faced with every growing day. Trading among nations is a central part of any economic growth, to specialize and sell in mass quantity of goods, such as fishing, farming and manufacturing goods coming out of a country adds to the money already present in the colonies. King George restricted this fundamental right restricted to trading within English borders, hampering their economic freedom in which they could only sell when England demanded (Dec. Of Independence, p. 46). Oppression, in this case, limited every individual in some sense to meager or sub-standard living conditions for many of whom were affected. In another sense of oppression, Douglass establishes that a slave cannot hold land in any context of the word. If a person is owned by a white land owner, the possibility of gaining land is impossible. A piece of land can only be acquired with the freedom of the slave, which stated above is next to impossible. Even if a slave could gain freedom, owning land was a huge boundary to cross over, because of the status quo circulating in the turbulent forces construed by the social makings of southern whites. Land was purchased through land owners, thus making a white person, in most cases, the final determining factor in all purchases. If a white was to sell land to a forme
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Approximate Word count = 1680
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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