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Discuss The Differences And Similarities Between Frederick Douglass And Solomon North Up

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Solomon Northup was born a free man. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery. Northup had his freedom taken away from him. Douglass has never experienced freedom. Many African Americans have experienced slavery and or racism. Both, Northup and Douglass, were put into slavery and both have resisted it in certain ways. Similarities between the resistance of slavery and racism such as, attempting to escape, being literate and keeping cultures and traditions, are shown through the enslavement of Frederick Douglass and Solomon Northup.
A way of resistance that both, Solomon Northup and Frederick Douglass, used was making an attempt to escape slavery. Frederick Douglass was born a slave, so he was desperate to escape. He said, “I was fast approaching …show more content…

Mr. WILLIAM PERRY or Mr.CEPHAS PARKER:
Gentlemen---It having been a long time since I have seen or heard from you, and not knowing that you are living, it is with uncertainty that I write to you, but the necessity of the case must be my excuse. Having been born free, just across the across the river from, I am certain you must know me and I am certain you must know me, and I am here now slave. I wish you to obtain free papers for me, and forward them to me at Marksville, Louisiana, Parish of Avoyelles, and oblige
Yours, SOLOMON NORTHUP (Northup …show more content…

Solomon Northup was a literate freeman. By already being able to write, he attempted to write a letter to the North,“When all were asleep in the cabin, by the light of the coals, lying upon my plank couch, I managed to complete a somewhat lengthy epistle” (Northup 112). This attempt later failed as his master found out. Frederick Douglass at first did not know how to read or write. After getting a couple lessons from Mrs, Auld and after he taught himself, he was able to learn to read and write and start teaching others to also,“These dear souls came not to Sabbath school because it was popular to do so, nor did I teach them because it was reputable to be thus engaged. Every moment they spent in that school, they were liable to be taken up, and given thirty-nine lashes. They came because they wished to learn. Their minds had been starved by their cruel masters. They had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass 60). Both, Douglass and Northup, showed resistance. Being literate was a way of resistance because as Mr. Auld says,“If you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master” (Douglass

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