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Frederick Douglas Essay, Research Paper

Frederick Douglass, a slave in America until the age of 20, wrote three of the most highly regarded autobiographies of the 19th century, yet he only began learning to read and write when he turned 12 years old. After an early life of hardship and pain, Douglass escaped to the North to write three autobiographies, spaced decades apart, about his life as a slave and a freeman. The institution of slavery scarred him so deeply that he decided to dedicate his powers of speech and prose to fighting it. Douglass wrote three biographies about his life as a politician, slave, and abolitionist. However, the historical value of these works does not remain as important as the quality of the works themselves. Frederick Douglass’ writing deserves recognition in the canon of great American authors, because his work meets the chosen criteria for inclusion in a collection of important literature. Douglass influenced many famous abolitionists with his literary works, and this impact, coupled with his desire to write an expose about oppression in America, makes him a winning candidate. Although his published works, mostly autobiographies, received much acclaim from abolitionists, this paper explores the quality of Douglass’s work from a literary standpoint. This paper also details the events shaping Douglass’s impressive life and writing career. By examining the prestigious “life and times” of this black author, the reader will recognize the widespread influence of Douglass’s writing on other antislavery writers, politics, and hence, the public. In a look at his first and greatest work, Narrative of the Life, the following paper will demonstrate why Frederick Douglass deserves a place in the hall of great American writers. To fully appreciate the impact of Douglass’s autobiographies, we must examine violent period in which he lived. Douglass, born in 1818, grew up as a slave on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation in eastern Maryland. At the time, abolitionist movements started gaining speed as popular parties in the North. In the North, pro-slavery white mobs attacked black communities in retaliation for their efforts. By the time Douglass escaped from slavery, in 1838, tensions ran high among abolitionists and slaveowners. Slaves published accounts of their harrowing escapes, and their lives in slavery, mainly with the help of ghostwriters. Although abolitionists called for the total elimination of slavery in the South, racial segregation still occurred all over the United States. Blacks, freemen especially, found the task of finding a decent job overwhelming. White workers often did not want to work with blacks. The Fugitive Slave Law, passed in 1850, allowed slaveowners to hunt the North for their escaped property. Under Supreme Court’s 1857 Dred Scot decision condoning the law as constitutional, a slave’s rights as a citizen became invalid because of the property clause. Reclaiming “stolen” property also lent itself to certain abuses. Slavehunters often kidnapped freed blacks under the premise of the law. However, the growing abolitionist movement provided room, board, and often the means for escape to hundreds of slaves. In contrast to the abolitionists, many blacks such as Garnet and Delany advocated a mass migration back to Africa. The Civil War became the ultimate debate for slavery, but not segregation. After the war in 1865, “black codes” still kept blacks from owning property, and therefore they became virtual slaves to their white employers. The KKK arose from the southern hatred and mistrust of blacks, terrorizing neighborhoods and lynching “uppity” blacks. Stormy times still lay ahead for blacks, and many aging abolitionists retired from their quests. A few blacks entered politics, but never enough to form a solid voting bloc in state or federal legislatures. The age of passive resistance and civil rights appeals approached. From a young age, Douglass fought for the freedom, and later rights, of his fellow blacks, and never saw the desired equality between races. Frederick Douglass’s background deserves recognition, because his background served as the basis for his autobiographies. The material contained in them represents the time in which he lived, and also his reactions and observations of the period. To understand why Douglass’s autobiographies merit reading, we need to examine his life and crusade against slavery in history, not just prose. Born in 1818, Douglass’s grandmother care for him until he reached working age. Then began one of the worst experiences of his life. The woman in charge of him at Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, Aunt Katy, starved the small child, beat him, and verbally abused him. He very rarely saw his mother, who lived on another farm, and records omit the name of his father—possibly because his master was his father. His mother died in late 1825 or early 1826, and he hardly developed enough of a bond with his mother to miss her. The same year, Colonel Lloyd sent him to a more lenient household as a present to one of his relatives. Douglass grew into adolescence in Baltimore, and soon grew to hate slavery, because of his further education in the evils of the institution. Douglass read The Colombian Orator, a collection of anti-slavery speeches, and found them remarkably similar to his line of thought. After discovering in late 1831 that a group of white people, called abolitionists, shared his views, he resolved to escape. After catching Douglass reading, his new master demanded to know how taught him. Not only did educating a slave “unfit him to be a slave” (Autobiographies, 37) said his new master, the act also broke the law. Master Auld sent Douglass to a Negro breaker to quell his rebellious spirit. However, Douglass emerged from the transaction physically scarred but not mentally beaten. The next few years he spent saving money for his escape in 1838. After finding several

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