Differences Between Frederick Douglass And Benjamin Franklin

Despite differences between Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass, such as ethnicity, social class, and upbringing etc., both gentlemen embody qualities that have become associated with an iconic American Identity. These qualities can be broken down into core values, characteristics, traits, and virtues.
Holding in high importance, worth, or usefulness, Literacy is something that both Franklin and Douglass values, and plays quite a crucial role in the livelihood of both young men: learning literacy helps pave their way to success. Even when education was not available, they each found ways to learn beyond the classroom, be it through borrowing books, or using old workbooks to practice writing. Both men are motivated by self-improvement and

Both men had some affiliation with Christianity: praise and thank God for their good fortune in life. Franklin wanted to attain Moral Perfection, given that he enumerated 13 virtues: Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chasity, Humility. Franklin even contends to follow the actions of Jesus, The Son of God. He believed that the only religion that matters to him is the religion of hard work and material success. He values rationality and reasonableness above all. He knows that he can achieve moral perfection without the help of religion, but notes that many of the things he identifies as virtues are the same things as religions would similarly identify. Although growing up in Boston, which was a Puritan hotbed, Franklin was not swayed by any one religion. Given, he subscribed to Deism; the idea that God created the world, set it in motion, but does not intervene. He still relied on hard work, material gains, and rationality to achieve moral perfection. Douglass believed in God and was proud of his faith. But he was critical when slave owners would use Religion to justify slavery and oppression. "I may be deemed superstitious, and even egotistical, in regarding this event as a special interposition of divine Providence in my favor. But I should be false to the earliest sentiments of my soul, if I suppressed the opinion. I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence. From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace; and in the darkest hours of my career in slavery, this living word of faith and spirit of hope departed not from me, but remained like ministering angels to cheer me through the gloom." --