Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist Movement And The North

Every group of people needs a good leader, and that good leader to fight for the freedom of slaves was Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was the most influential African American abolitionist who pushed forward the movement to abolish slavery and fighting for women's rights. Overall, Douglass is a man who believes in equality and the everyone should be free. Douglass was able to speak out on these problems and his views by creating his own movement from telling his life story in the book “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”, working and communicating with other abolitionists, describing the ideology of freedom in america, and travelling to other countries to gain support and have a larger audience.In his own narrative, Frederick

Going up to the north, they describe it as it not being what it lives up to. Kimberly Drake describes the north writing “For Douglass and Jacobs, the North is not the fabled land of freedom mythologized by most slave narratives and abolitionist writings. Racism pervades their “free” lives, causing them to experience poverty and periods of intense alienation, at least initially. The achievement of autonomy and individuality, dependent as it is upon society's affirmation, is impossible for Douglass and Jacobs without support from both their slave communities and from whites”(Drake). This shows the reader that even though slaves are now free towards the north, they still have to go through poverty and segregation so not everything is fully equal and represented therefore which urges Douglass to continue the abolitionist movement. Also in his first abolitionist meeting, Douglass describes his voice as a “Whisper in private” (Drake). and saying that “and for black community is continuously in tension with the image of the “self-made man,” preventing his attainment of a strong voice”(Drake). Since Douglass is still a black man, others at the meeting will not fully listen to him still because some abolitionist only want to push for freedom but not for equality. Overall, if Douglass wants to push his own movement forward, he has to persuade people

James Sellman summarizes the beginning of a new opportunity for Douglass by writing “In 1841 William C. Coffin, a New Bedford Quaker, invited the young speaker to an antislavery gathering on Nantucket that included prominent abolitionists such as …. and in the years that followed it was his impassioned speech that listeners remembered most. At the close of the meeting, the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society offered to employ him as an antislavery speaker”(Sellman). This shows that if Douglass wasn't given the opportunity and the abolitionist did not give him a chance, his word would not have spread as fast throughout the north but when there is people that are on your side, there are people who will not be on your side as well. Since the northern parts were racially segregated still and not fully equal, Douglass has been prone to attacks and is still witnessing racism although he is free. Sellman writes “In Pendleton, Indiana, he was attacked by a mob wielding stones and rotten eggs, and his hand was broken in the melee. His biographer William McFeely recounted that more than once Douglass was physically removed from railroad cars for sitting among whites. On one occasion, he held the armrests with such an iron grip that when he was ejected from the train, “he still had his seat.” Not surprisingly, Douglass began