Douglass and Welty
Frederick Douglass and Eudora Welty came from two completely different environments. Douglass, a child of slaves, was abandoned when he was only six years old and discouraged to learn how to read. Throughout his life, he never forgot his feeling of abandonment. Welty had a happy childhood in a caring family that was passionate about books and reading. One of Welty's first memories was hearing her parents reading to each other from their favorite books. Despite these major differences in their upbringing, both Douglass and Welty used writing as a primary way of expressing their thoughts and ideas and became well-known authors in their own time as well as today, a century later.
It is difficult to understand how Frederick Douglass was motivated to became such an important author when reading his biography. His grandmother raised him until he was a very young child and then left him at his master's home in Maryland. She did not even tell him that this was going to happen. One can only imagine how alone he felt. Only two years later, he was sent to the city of Baltimore to become a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master. Once again he was living in a new environment with people he did not know. It must have been a very frightening time for him, although Douglass was fortunate that his mistress was a kind and tender-hearted woman. For the first time in his life, he was treated like a human being. The mistress even began to teach him the alphabet. Unfortunately, this did not last long. The mistress' husband told her that slaves could not be treated as equals. They cannot learn how to read. Not only did she stop teaching Douglass reading, but she even became angry when seeing him with a newspaper. Many children would have stopped learning. This was not the case with Douglass. The feelings of his master and mistress made him even more motivated to learn how...
"To degrade and stamp out the liberties of a race" signified the "studied purpose" of linking social and civil equality. Douglass concluded that if the Civil Rights Law attempted to promote social equality, so did "the laws and customs of every civilized country in the world," including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, and the Apostles' Creed. He warned
Although fictional, Precious Jones, speaks to the reader through her story with powerful words. She is living in a different kind of slavery, although slavery itself had been abolished ore than a century ago. She is a slave to the lack of humanity of her own parents and the indifference of those who are supposed to teach and offer her guidance in school. As a child, she has no choice,
Stressing the shackles that slavery could latch to a man's mind, Douglass was given insight into the inherent transgression behind the bondage. And his ability to adopt such a perspective, while easy to underestimate from the distance of over a century, is quite remarkable given the overwhelming social constructions designed to deter that sort of thinking amongst his demographic. One of the more effective messages that he conveyed both
Douglass is significant to American history because of his efforts with President Lincoln. Douglass was not simply looking out for his own freedom; he was concerned for the freedom of every slave in America and was determined to do all that he could to help these men experience freedom. Even if this meant talking to the President of the United States. Paul Kendrick notes that Douglass' first meeting with Lincoln
Douglass understands the importance of name which represent an assertion of identity, and identity is freedom: "I subscribe myself" -- I write my self down in letters, I underwrite my identity and my very being, as indeed I have done in and all through the foregoing narrative that has brought me to this place, this moment, this state of being." (Douglas 75 in Davis, Gates 157). This is why
Frederick Douglass: An Exceptional Escape from Slavery, an Exceptional Author, Citizen and Man How did Frederick Douglass' personal experiences illustrate 19th century American race relations? Was Douglass' life typical or exceptional? What was his legacy for future generations of Americans? Frederick Douglass often presented his life as typical. The narrative structure he applied to his own literary efforts as well as his efforts as a speaker and as a lecturer suggested that his
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