Essay On Frederick Douglass

In 1818, Frederick Douglass, an individual born into slavery who would become an important abolitionist leader, was born. Throughout his adolescence and young adulthood as a slave, he was taught and taught other slaves to read and write, which was illegal at the time. In 1838, Douglass disguised himself as a sailor and boarded a northbound train, with the help of a free black woman named Anna Murray, who he later married. Douglass continued to fight for black suffrage for the duration of his life, since he first hand experienced the oppressions and inequalities of the social system. Frederick Douglass was an important influential abolitionist leader by publishing "The North Star" and publicly speaking out against slavery, describing his oppression

Douglass was inspired by William Lloyd Garrison's paper, "The Liberator", which was one of the first abolitionist papers published at the time. Douglass stressed the importance of having an African American written paper, with no offense to other white authors of abolitionist papers, but he explained that those who suffer injustices are the ones who will demand reform. He encouraged other black authors and advocates for reform to submit writings to his paper. In this paper, Douglass described the gap he witnessed in America's strong Christian beliefs and the inhumanity and discrimination that he witnessed. In addition, he promoted women's rights and education for African Americans. The paper was subscribed to by more than 4,000 people in America, Europe, and the West Indes. It was published on a weekly basis, and was influential at the time, for it directly opened people's eyes to the prejudice and inhumanity that was faced by slaves. "The North Star" rallied supporters and convinced many people to fight in favor of abolition. The paper was extremely popular in the North, for the majority of citizens had already been pushing for abolition. Nonetheless, "The North Star" sparked a flame for social justice. Douglass was able to publish this paper because he had earlier

Douglass first publicly spoke out against slavery at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket, MA. In 1863, Douglass spoke to President Abraham Lincoln about the treatment of black soldiers, and he later spoke to President Andrew Johnson about black suffrage. Although President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Douglass spoke about his disappointment because Lincoln did not publicly support suffrage for black freedman. Since Douglass had already formed a strong reputation for himself, he pushed even harder for change within the nation, using his success as his platform. After this, Douglass was appointed to serve in several government positions. He was president of the Freedman's Saving Bank, as chargé d'affaires for the Dominican Republic, and minister-resident and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti. Douglass ultimately ended up disagreeing with many of the government's policies during this time, and did not stop pushing for equality for African Americans, because although they were free, they continued to face prejudice and racism. Douglass passed away a few years after leaving his government positions. However, his legacy lives on and he is continuously studied as one of the most important leaders during the abolitionist