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Frederick Douglass: An African-American Hero

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Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass, An African-American hero, impacted the United States, which successfully detailed by writing books and speeches, the challenges he faced throughout his life, and the results of helping lives today. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. Douglass was soon sent to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld’s household for seven years. Douglass mother name was Harriet Bailey and he never knew who his father was but people say his father was the slave owner. He then learned to read and write even though Mrs. Auld was hardened and no longer tutors him which made him want to learn more. “Douglass sneaks and read against the will of his master, who claims that “if he learns to read, …show more content…

Douglass had died in 1895 years of hard work trying to preserve a black abolitionist’s meaning and memory of the great events he had witnessed and helped to shape. Throughout his life as a slave “Douglass was able to act as a teacher for a large group of slaves for six months, before the activity was broken up by slave owners-incensed by the idea of their slaves being educated”(Douglass). Douglass soon escaped and went on a speaking tour of Ireland and England to remove himself from immediate danger which supporters hearts he touched made arrangements to purchase his freedom. “Frederick English/Irish friends gave him 500 to use for the anti-slavery cause then he funded it towards his newspapers,publishing his message”(Douglass). Douglass message from when he published the North Star and its motto was: “ Right is no Sex-Truth is no Color-God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren”(Douglass). Frederick Douglass life …show more content…

“Douglass's first autobiography-Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass became the bestseller and was reprinted several times.” Frederick Douglass Narrative was more popular than any other slave narrative because he was the most deft with the discourse he was given. “Douglass’ Narrative was accurate for the most part, but it both deliberately and unconsciously excised and fictionalized what “really happened”(Douglass). Frederick Douglass writings and speeches became powerful testimonies to support the abolition of slavery.” “Frederick Douglass speeches were so magnificent that his British friends had purchased his freedom from his owner and was able to return to the United States as a free man in 1847. “ Frederick Douglass’ tone changes to match, at times, popular writing genres of the time that had influenced the style and content of slave narratives’(Douglass). By calling himself an American Slave, he was reminding his audience that slavery happened in America and not some faraway land. Frederick Douglass wrote books to improve that black are just as equal as whites and that wasn't no difference between them and the world needed to know that. Frederick Douglass wanted to show the world that his hard-earned education was an success and reminds us that no matter how powerful a

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Frederick Douglass was born into slavery on the eastern shore of Talbot County, Maryland. His date of birth is unknown since they didn’t keep records back then, but he adopted February 14 as his birthday and his mom called him “ my valentine’’. He lived in Holmes Hill Farm for seven years with his mother Harriet Bailey and his father Aaron Anthony. When Frederick was about eight he got separated from his family and got sent to the Why House plantation, also known as the Great House. The owner was very wealthy and owned 1,000 slaves who worked in the fields.

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Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities. Under its influence, the tender heart became stone, and the lamblike disposition gave way to one of tiger-like fierceness.” He wonders why the ‘land of the free’ is only free for white people and what it takes for the ‘human spirit’ to truly be free. Douglass uses his narrative as a means to show us that he won his freedom, he made himself free but as long as anyone else is still enslaved, he is not a free man. I believe the provocative questions posed by Frederick Douglass along with the experiences he suffered in slavery work together to make his narrative a hit and this why it sold many copies in the United States of America and Europe also.

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Because of this, he successfully creates a contrast between what the slave owners think of and treat the slaves and how they are. Douglass says that slave’s minds were “starved by their cruel masters”(Douglass, 48) and that “they had been shut up in mental darkness” (Douglass, 48) and through education, something that they were deprived of, Frederick Douglass is able to open their minds and allow them to flourish into the complex people that they are. By showing a willingness to learn to read and write, the slaves prove that they were much more than what was forced upon them by their masters.

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