Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Booker T Washington

By this definition, the lives of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington provide two of the most clear examples of what it is to be free. Douglass and Washington both wrote autobiographies accounting for their lives during and after their emancipation from slavery. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, delves deep into the first twenty-three years of Douglass’ life, sparing no gory details about slave treatment. Born in 1818 on a plantation in Tuckahoe, Maryland, Frederick Douglass spent twenty years witnessing first-hand the cruelties of slavery and inequality before his daring escape in 1838. Contrastingly, Booker Washington’s Up from Slavery, published more than fifty years later in 1901, paints a calmer,though
At age 6 in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to all slaves, marking an end to one of America’s darkest practices. Douglass and Washington became leading figures in the fight for equality among the races, and aided in the advancement of civil rights in their own ways and time.

Both Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington were freed slaves and influential African American figures. Initially, it may seem the two men harbor many similarities with one another. However, they differ vastly in their obtainment of education, choices in career, and opinions on equality.

To begin with, Douglass and Washington received their education in two different manners. Douglass faced abounding adversities in his pursuit of education. When he left Colonel Lloyd’s plantation at age seven to be a house slave for the Aulds in Baltimore, he met the kind, caring heart of
While a slave, Douglass worked in a plethora of different jobs, and spent a majority of his teenage years in physical labor. He was not of much use in the fields when he was at Captain Lloyd’s plantation in his youth, but proved useful through menial tasks. When he turned seven, he went to Baltimore to act as a house slave for the Aulds. Douglass continued to work there until he was fourteen years old. Then, he was sent to live with his new master, Thomas Auld, in St. Michaels where he would undertake various tasks involving physical labor. Unfortunately, Master Auld disliked his newest addition since Douglass’ city life “had had a very pernicious effect upon [him]” and “it had almost ruined [him] for every good purpose” (Douglass 34). Douglass often allowed one of Master Auld’s horses to run loose five miles to Master William Hamilton's plantation so that he could receive an adequate amount of food there. Fed up with his antics after only nine months, Master Auld decided to send him to Mr. Edward Covey for one year, who had a high reputation for “breaking young slaves” (Douglass 34). At Mr. Covey’s farm, Douglass worked as a field hand for the first time in his life. Douglass’ awkwardness and inexperience with farm work resulted in several brutal beatings and whippings from Mr. Covey. After a year of backbreaking labor, Douglass was dispatched to work for Mr. Freeland who “was heavenly, compared with