Frederick Douglass Transformation

“Let them know the heart of the poor slave - learn his secret thoughts - thoughts he dare not utter in the hearing of the white man; let them sit by him in the silent watches of the night - converse with him in trustful confidence, of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and they will find that ninety-nine out of every hundred are intelligent enough to understand their situation, and to cherish in their bosoms the love of freedom, as passionately as themselves.” This quote by Solomon Northup from his autobiography Twelve Years a Slave, perfectly describes the state of African American slaves in the 1800. Slaves longed for freedom, for the liberty promised by the deceleration of independence for every man, as long as his skin was

The Narrative of the life of Fredrick Douglass' presented true facts, omitting nothing despite the dangers it imposed on him, in the hopes that they would provide proof for every speech and testimony he gave and would ever give. Narrative of William W. Brown: a Fugitive Slave sets itself apart from other autobiographies of his time by speaking for the masses of slaves and not by voicing his own opinions on the tragedies he recounts, but allowing its readers to draw their own conclusions. Narrative of the Adventures and Escape of Moses Roper from American Slavery showed its readers that slaves were just as much people as their masters. Solomon Northup's Twelve Years a Slave didn’t leave out any information, his commitment to the details of his story provided an irrefutable testimony to the horrors of slavery. The four autobiographies of Fredrick Douglass, William Wells Brown, Moses Roper, and Solomon Northup, told the story of men in the 1800's and their journeys as slaves that completely altered the abolitionist

Since the 1800, England's antislavery movement had been publishing a number of influential slave narratives. But with the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade in 1807 and the growth of the British Antislavery Agitation. Due to the growth of intolerance towards slavery in Britain, in 1833 parliament would vote the outlaw of non-indigenous slavery in the British empire. Therefore, the primary battleground of slavery shifted to the United States. The 1820's and 1830's saw more abolitionist periodicals and antislavery societies issued more resolutions and declarations, sympathetic publishers and tract associations sought a larger market for autobiographical testimonies of African American slaves. Into this atmosphere came Roper's narrative, before Fredrick Douglass' escape to freedom in 1838 or Uncle Tom's Cabin which wouldn’t be published for a decade. Moses Roper's narrative was a prototype of classic American slave narratives of the 1840's. It sets a template on which literary descendents such as Fredrick Douglass and William Wells Brown could build on in later years. Roper's autobiography as one of the early slave narratives published, signaled a broadening of the American front in the campaign against slavery. Roper's narrative contains high levels of violence which was a