Comparing Douglass And Lincoln's Abolition Of Slavery

Abolition refers to termination, eradication or the end of something. Emancipation is the protection of social rights and equality of people. It is a process that involves action of the Congress, the president and the slave. Fredrick Douglass was born as a slave and was earlier a great reformer. He wrote and spoke with passion for the abolition of slavery and for equal rights of the African-American people. He greatly supported the rights of women although he still accused Lincoln for favoring the Negroes (Oakes, 2007). Lincoln on the other side was originally a great supporter of abolition and seemed to favor equal rights of Negroes. He also encouraged intermarriage between the black men and white women. He grounded his …show more content…
He also petitioned Lincoln to liberate a sick son from service. Lincoln was emancipated under the guidance of his father at the age of 21 while Douglas emancipated himself immediately after he came out of slavery. Douglass and Lincoln had early and strong experiences with the church, so they both began to denounce slavery and had high opinion of their own abilities. They were also moral pragmatists with a good world view who were passionate about freeing the slaves. They too believed in the economic justice of the people. Lincoln and Douglass views changed with time. For instance, Douglass began to believe that it was possible to work for a change through the American political process and this made him come in to a convergence with Lincoln. Lincoln was an anti-slavery politician but his idea of how fast to end slavery changed with time. He was somehow slow when acting on emancipation (Rae, 1998). On the contrary, Lincoln enlightened his views basically on race. He began to affirm opposition to social equality of the blacks. Besides, Douglass is found to praise the works of Lincoln. The two later came to believe that the country could only advance by eliminating