Frederick Douglass And The Abolition Movement Essay

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Beginning in the 17th century, European settlers began using African Americans laborers as a cheaper source of work. In southern American colonies, slavery spread like wildfire. African American slaves worked on tobacco, rice, cotton and indigo plantations. Most slave owners forbid their slaves from learning to read and write, and typically did not treat them humanly.
In the early 18th century the rise to abolition movement began. Frederick Douglass played a huge role in the anti slavery movement. Douglass was brought into a world of slavery in 1818. Working as slave in Baltimore, Maryland, he challenged the ban on reading and writing, learning the alphabet at the age of twelve. When his master forbade his lessons, he turned to the white children