How Did Frederick Douglass Contribute To The American Experience

When somebody thinks of a politician, writer, and journalist, he/she usually does not think of a slave. This is what is unique to Frederick Douglass. He was born a slave and escaped to become a writer then a politician. Douglass was one of the earliest black American writers. His works were read by millions of people and are still being read today, showing that they have stood the test of time. This caused his writings to become very powerful. Frederick Douglass changed the American Experience by changing the view on slavery from people socially and politically. The American Experience is what people experience and view America as. Everybody has a different American Experience through his/her life, some are positive and some are negative.

First and foremost, he is a black writer. During his time period, black people did not do much other than be slaves. So the fact that he is black surprised many people, challenging their way of thought. Many people did not read his works because he was black. The way he was able to gain an audience was because he was a former slave. After multiple attempts, in 1838 Douglass finally escaped from slavery with the help of some other (Douglass, Narrative). So, Douglass has first-hand experience as a slave that enables him to get credibility from people, especially other slaves. They wanted to be able to relate to the stories. Eventually these people liked his works so much, that they wanted more and it eventually spread to other groups of people, including the white-man, slave owners. Eventually a ton of different types of groups were reading his works, enabling him to reach out to different social classes. Douglass challenges the “normal” way people think during this time period. The average white-American owned a slave and was racist against blacks. They believed that God created blacks to serve white people. To them this was “a sense of duty to God and man” (Douglass, North Star). They never thought of how slavery affected blacks and believed that it was “normal”. Douglass wrote to change the way the average white person thought. He attempted to get them to feel sympathetic towards blacks. He accomplished this by writing The Heroic Slave. In this book he shows how slavery affects the mind of a slave. He explains how the “evil” of slavery twists the mind of a person. A slave would be willing to do anything to become free or even to just get stuff like food, even kill. He also explains how slavery crushes all of the hope and positivity in a slave. The slave in Douglass’s story, ”almost doubted the existence of a God of justice” (Douglass, The Heroic Slave). This resulted in many people challenging