Douglass and Jefferson
“In Discussion: Which Writer Would Fredrick Douglass Find Most Important”
If you had to pick one writer between Lao-Tzu, Machiavelli, Rousseau, or Jefferson that represented your view on government who would you choose? Fredrick Douglass was an American slave. He wrote a narrative on his life and how he learned to read and write. Mason Lowance writes, “Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave who became an abolitionist orator, newspaper editor, writer, and adviser to presidents, is paralleled by the growth of the United States from the inconsistencies of its constitutional declarations about freedom through a succession of amendments that granted civil rights to African Americans and women. With every fiber of his being …show more content…
“I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by any one else.” (Page 112). Inalienable rights are freedoms that each individual in the United States have which cannot be transferred to another person or surrendered except by the individual having those rights. Fundamental rights of United States citizens include right to practice religion, equal protection of laws and the freedom of speech. Every person in the United States has the right to learn to read and write. Every citizen has certain rights even if they are a slave. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. That article is mostly why I think that Frederick Douglass would think that he is an important writer. According to Robert A. Williams Jr., “A Native American approach to viewing Thomas Jefferson as a storyteller would adopt and reinvent only those stories that Jefferson tells which remain true. As for the stories that, as shown by the present undeniable reality of tribalism's persistence on the American cultural landscape, are demonstrably false, these stories are simply not useful to Native Americans. These Jeffersonian stories will, in effect, be lost in the retellings.” People thought that Thomas Jefferson was telling stories, but what he was telling was the truth they just didn’t realize it. The Declaration of Independence relates to Frederick Douglass’s narrative because they are both about rights and freedom of the
“In Discussion: Which Writer Would Fredrick Douglass Find Most Important”
If you had to pick one writer between Lao-Tzu, Machiavelli, Rousseau, or Jefferson that represented your view on government who would you choose? Fredrick Douglass was an American slave. He wrote a narrative on his life and how he learned to read and write. Mason Lowance writes, “Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave who became an abolitionist orator, newspaper editor, writer, and adviser to presidents, is paralleled by the growth of the United States from the inconsistencies of its constitutional declarations about freedom through a succession of amendments that granted civil rights to African Americans and women. With every fiber of his being …show more content…
“I lived in Master Hugh’s family about seven years. During this time, I succeeded in learning to read and write. In accomplishing this, I was compelled to resort to various stratagems. I had no regular teacher. My mistress, who had kindly commenced to instruct me, had, in compliance with the advice and direction of her husband, not only ceased to instruct, but had set her face against my being instructed by any one else.” (Page 112). Inalienable rights are freedoms that each individual in the United States have which cannot be transferred to another person or surrendered except by the individual having those rights. Fundamental rights of United States citizens include right to practice religion, equal protection of laws and the freedom of speech. Every person in the United States has the right to learn to read and write. Every citizen has certain rights even if they are a slave. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. That article is mostly why I think that Frederick Douglass would think that he is an important writer. According to Robert A. Williams Jr., “A Native American approach to viewing Thomas Jefferson as a storyteller would adopt and reinvent only those stories that Jefferson tells which remain true. As for the stories that, as shown by the present undeniable reality of tribalism's persistence on the American cultural landscape, are demonstrably false, these stories are simply not useful to Native Americans. These Jeffersonian stories will, in effect, be lost in the retellings.” People thought that Thomas Jefferson was telling stories, but what he was telling was the truth they just didn’t realize it. The Declaration of Independence relates to Frederick Douglass’s narrative because they are both about rights and freedom of the