Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, also known as Frederick Douglass, was just an average slave living with his master, just like everybody else at the time. According to Blight in the Encyclopedia of African American History, as a child, he was separated from his family and had to live a new, devastating life with his slave owners. He lived as a slave for 20 years and as a fugitive slave for 9 years. Throughout his journey as a slave, he was passed on from master to master. He left his first slave owner’s home to be a companion for a little white boy. This is where he learned how to read and write and how to explore is crave for language. This set him apart from every other slave and made him unique. Shortly after he got comfortable there,
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The first autobiography he wrote, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, is the best known and most influential book. According to Matlack (1979), just in America alone, five thousand copies were sold (pg. 15). This autobiography was inspired by one of his fights with his slave owner. As I earlier stated, Douglass got into a brutal fight with the master that was known for disciplining his slaves. Because of this particular fight, it led to him getting the courage to write about it. His narrative consisted of many ideas that he portrayed through being an abolitionist. For people that did not know Douglass, with this autobiography, he had to establish who he was and prove to his readers why they should listen to him rather than others who are rallying against him. Also, putting his life events in fine print and telling the world what he personally went through, showed that whites did not have control over him and that that is the way it should be with everybody. With his second autobiography, it focused on claiming Douglass’ independence rather than stating what he went through. It explained aspects of his free life and how he made the decision to publish a weekly paper and break with the abolitionist movement (Jabour, 2004). Lastly, his third …show more content…
One quote that stood out to me in one of his speeches is, “You are loosed from your moorings and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels that fly around the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free!” I think that this quote is representable of how powerful and inspiring Frederick Douglass was, whether it be when he was an abolitionist, a writer, or an orator. During the process of abolishing slavery, he had a great deal to do with the actual accomplishment. It is safe to say that he was one of the most influential African American men in America who gave all of his supporters hope for what the future could
The first autobiography he wrote, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, is the best known and most influential book. According to Matlack (1979), just in America alone, five thousand copies were sold (pg. 15). This autobiography was inspired by one of his fights with his slave owner. As I earlier stated, Douglass got into a brutal fight with the master that was known for disciplining his slaves. Because of this particular fight, it led to him getting the courage to write about it. His narrative consisted of many ideas that he portrayed through being an abolitionist. For people that did not know Douglass, with this autobiography, he had to establish who he was and prove to his readers why they should listen to him rather than others who are rallying against him. Also, putting his life events in fine print and telling the world what he personally went through, showed that whites did not have control over him and that that is the way it should be with everybody. With his second autobiography, it focused on claiming Douglass’ independence rather than stating what he went through. It explained aspects of his free life and how he made the decision to publish a weekly paper and break with the abolitionist movement (Jabour, 2004). Lastly, his third …show more content…
One quote that stood out to me in one of his speeches is, “You are loosed from your moorings and are free; I am fast in my chains, and am a slave! You move merrily before the gentle gale, and I sadly before the bloody whip! You are freedom’s swift-winged angels that fly around the world; I am confined in bands of iron! O that I were free!” I think that this quote is representable of how powerful and inspiring Frederick Douglass was, whether it be when he was an abolitionist, a writer, or an orator. During the process of abolishing slavery, he had a great deal to do with the actual accomplishment. It is safe to say that he was one of the most influential African American men in America who gave all of his supporters hope for what the future could