Frederick Douglass Essay

Frederick Douglass was a linked States emancipationist, journalist, lecturer, who escaped break ones backry and urged other gruesomes to do standardizedwise before and during the American Civil War. As a forceful and eloquent orator and a bring throughr of inspiring prose, he was probably emancipation in the nineteenth century. Frederick Douglass conceived of independence for blacks note merely as the abolition of slavery alone also as their advancement in social and economic status. He saw the black cause as part of a unspecific struggle to advance human rights for all people, and thus was a firm supporter of woman suffrage.The purpose of this paper is to know the life of Frederick Douglass and be aware of his contributions and importance to our history. II. Discussion A. Who is Frederick Douglass? Frederick Augustus Washington bailey was born in February 1817 in Tuckahoe, Maryland. His father was a white man his mother, a black slave named Harriet Bailey. As a young boy, h e worked for a time as a house servant in Baltimore, Maryland. His mistress, a Northerner, taught him a inadequate of reading and writing. Later, he was put to work in the fields and then(prenominal) in the Baltimore shipyards.He was often treated cruelty for his resistance to slavery, and he was determined to be free. I wish myself a beast, a bird, anything kind of than a salve, he said. Poor treatment instilled in him a shame of slavery he failed in an attempt to escape in 1836. exactly two days later, in 1838, he escaped from slavery and colonized in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he changed his name from Bailey to Douglass. He was largely educated and in 1841, he joined the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.B. His contributions and importance At an abolitionist meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Nantucket, he made his branch public speech and related his slave experiences, and for the next four years, notwithstanding many indignities, he lectured t hroughout the East for antislavery groups. His audience was deeply go by the tall young mans story. From then on Douglass became a leader in the antislavery cause and became one of the abolitionist faecess most effective public speakers.Moreover, his speeches in the following years in the northern states and his works for the secret Railroad did much to notwithstanding the cause of the abolitionists and made his name a symbol of emancipation and action among whites and blacks alike. So impressive were Frederick Douglass oratorical and intellectual abilities that opponents ref employ to believe he had been a slave and alleged that he was an impostor foisted on the public by abolitionist.To answer doubters that he had ever been a slave, he wrote an autobiography in 1845, The Narrative of the look of Frederick Douglass, An American Slavewhich he revised in later years, in final form, it appeared in 1882 nether the title action and Times of Frederick Douglasswhich revealed his m asters identity and endangered Douglass liberty. In the analogous year, the tall, handsome, and articulate Douglass, at the urging of his fighters, went to England to escape the danger of seizure under the fugitive slave laws.His lectures in the British Isles on the slavery indecision in the unite States aroused sympathy for the abolitionists cause and prompted his admirers to raise coin to purchase his freedom. After returning to the United States in 1847, Douglass became the station-master and conductor of the Underground Railroad in Rochester, New York where for 17 years he print and established an antislavery and abolitionist newspaper North Sta rit also support womens rights, a cause that Douglass championed from his participation in the first womens rights convention in 1848which he edited until 1860.Moreover, he gradually skint with William Lloyd Garrisons moral suasionist policy and became a political abolitionist, in the end supporting the Republican Party. In additi on, during these years, Frederick Douglass became friendly with the American abolitionist flush toilet Brown and was given a hint of Browns system of destroying the money value of slave property by training a force of men to help large numbers of slaves escape to freedom in the North via the Underground Railroad. In other words, he used his lecture fees to aid fugitive slaves and headed the Rochester station of the Underground Railroad.He was oblige by a lack of funds to abandon his scheme for an industrial college for Negroes. Despite his opposition to the Harpers Ferry raid, Douglass Fled to Canada because he had raised money for the ventures of his friend and confidant John Brown.When Frederick Douglass learned on the eve of the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859 that it was Browns aspiration to seize the federal arsenal there, he objected warning Brown that an fervor on the arsenal would be tantamount to an assault on the U. S. regime and would prove disastrous, Douglass withdr ew from further participation. After the raid, fearing reprisals by the government, Frederick Douglass fled to Europe, where he stayed for six months. On his return to the United States, he campaigned for Abraham Lincoln during the presidential for Abraham Lincoln during the presidential election of 1860 and, following the outbreak of the Civil War, helped raise two regiments of black soldiers, fought for enactment of the 13th , 14th, and 15th Amendments of the United States Constitution.He became United States come up for the District of Columbia (1877-81), recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia (1881-86), and United States minister to Haiti (1889-91). He died in Washington, D. C. on February 20, 1895. Furthermore, he was able to write other memoirs, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). III. Conclusion In conclusion, Frederick Douglass is truly an important personality in the history of United States because his experiences lea d an eye-opener to those people who abuse and those people who are abused.He fights for equality and freedom of the slaves and thanks to him because if not of his braveness, maybe up to now, slavery continues. He neer withholds himself to speak up in spite of the fact that his life is at stake. Many people, especially those who are in the government, do not like what they hear from Douglass yet he continues to seek liberty for the blacks. He awakens the deep-sleep Blacks that it is nigh time to live freely and enjoy the privileges as citizen of the country.Reference1. Brewton, Vince (2005). vaulting Defiance Took Its Place-Respect and Self- Making in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. The Mississippi Quarterly, Vol. 58. 2. Connery, William S. (2003). Proud Lion of Baltimore the Life and Legacy of Frederick Douglass. humankind and I, Vol. 18. 3. Horton, Lois E. (2001). Radical Passion Ottilie Assings Reports from America and Letters to Frederick Doug lass. American Studies International, Vol. 39. 4. Scott, Neil (1999). An coalescency between Two Giants Frederick Douglass Turns from Critic to Adviser, Friend of Abraham Lincoln. The Washington Times.