Preview

Frederick Douglass Compare And Contrast

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
942 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Frederick Douglass Compare And Contrast
MasterPuppet Prof: T. Elich

USSO.Finalpaper May 23, 2005

This paper will compare and contrast the different experiences of two separate authors during the nineteenth and twentieth century in America. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass relates events that happened to him in the 19th century and how he overcame them. Douglass went from a life of slavery, to freedom and became a speaker and writer on the evils men commit against each other. James Baldwin the author of The Fire Next Time, shows changes and struggles that occurred over one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation declared Negroes free American Citizens. Baldwin cannot understand why in a country characterized worldwide with freedom are white and black only color signs displayed? (54-55). However, there are two sides for the reasons of the social breakdown of unity among people in United States.
…show more content…
His speeches mainly focused on his first hand experiences as a southern slave. He used Reverend Rigby Hopkins as an example to show the brutal treatment given by some religious leaders in the south, who invented reasons to apply the whip to some slaves on Monday (Douglass, 47). Slave owners were impressed with the reputation of Mr. Covey as a "well trained-negro breaker and slave-driver" after one year a slave would be returned to his owner fit for duty (Douglass, 34,45,46). The audience was also engaged by his sense of humor, when he told about breaking the slave breaker Edward Covey (Douglass, 42-43). However, not all slave owners were brutal Mr. Freeland was the best master Douglass had until he became his own master (Douglass, 49 ). Douglass had enough to eat and time to eat it unlike the year he spent with Mr. Covey

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Fredrick Douglas and Benjamin Franklin are two memorable individuals who have had a remarkable impact on their nation and time period. Even though Douglas and Franklin came from two completely different backgrounds they both faced many obstacles throughout their lives. Despite being from different time periods the two shared many things in common like the fact that they were both self-made, both Franklin and Douglas were able to turn nothing into something against all odds. While these two shared many things in common they were also very different.…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl are two of the most influential autobiographies of slavery. Douglass’s experiences are similar to Harriet Jacobs’s, but they have their differences. Jacobs said “O, you happy free women, contrast your New Year’s day with that of a poor bondwoman! With you it is a pleasant season, and the light of day is blessed.” Douglass said “The white children could tell their ages. I could not tell why I ought to be deprived of the same privilege.”…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harriet Jacobs was a slave who was able to escape, and she describes her life as a slave and towards the end the start of her new life in the North in a brief narrative. In the beginning she describes her master and his vile actions, which are against her morals. She describes how sometimes he has a bad temper, but other times tries to be gentle, and states that she prefers his “stormy side.” She also describes her mistress who instead of helping her against the masters’ unruly behavior only feels jealousy and anger. In the account, she describes her master who was unrelenting in his quest to make her submit to him, and often followed her around. Harriet also scribes that she was always treated kindly until she came upon Dr. Flint. During the narrative, Harriet was locked in a shed that…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine your life as you know it completely change for better or for worse. In this essay you will read about how Douglass and Walter are similar people. You will read how Walter and Douglass relate to each other being loyal,determined, and proud.The book Raisin in the Sun is about Walter wanting more money because it would help him and his family have a better life. The Biography of Frederick Douglass is about Douglass standing up to his slave masters and starting a movement for free slaves and equality, Working towards freedom.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass wrote his narrative to denounce the horrors that happened because of slavery, while Ava DuVernay used her documentary “The 13th” to illustrate how mass incarceration is a new form, like slavery, to oppress minorities, especially black people. “The 13th” certainly functions as a continuation of what Douglass was trying to portray in his narrative and one of the ways in which this is reflected is the description of unfair murders in both the narrative and the documentary.…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slaves encounter tremendous challenges to get literate. Douglass, a young teenage slave, “live in Master Hugh’s family about seven years” (61). He is fortunate to learn the alphabet from his sympathetic mistress at first. However, Mr. Hugh perceives that his wife educates Douglass; then, he forbids his wife from teaching the salve. As a result, Mrs. Huge obeys her husband’s command; she loses her kindness to become a cruel slave owner, and she no longer teaches Douglass to read. As Douglass condemn, “education and slavery were incompatible with other each” (61). Slaveholders teach slaves to read and write, which is disadvantageous to them. When slaves become literate, they can run away to escape from their masters’ control. Therefore, education…

    • 126 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the narrative of Frederick Douglass, during the 19th Century, the conditions slaves experienced were not only cruel, but inhumane. It is a common perception that “cruelty” refers to the physical violence and torture that slaves endure. However, in this passage, Douglass conveys the degrading treatment towards young slaves in the plantation, as if they were domesticated animals. The slaves were deprived of freedom and basic human rights. They were not only denied of racial equality, they weren’t even recognized as actual human beings.…

    • 391 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Henry David Thoreau and Frederick Douglass had two very different ideas of protest. Thoreau’s idea was passive and done individually. Douglass’s idea was active and also done individually. Frederick Douglass was trying to expose the horrible aspects of slavery and Henry David Thoreau was protesting slavery and against the government. However, Frederick Douglass’s idea of protest was better and more effective.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One phrase that comes to mind after reading and comparing the lives, beliefs, and character of Fredrick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin is, two men that "shared a similar journey but walked different paths". Similarities started early on in both men's lives that ultimately shaped their beliefs and values, and molded their characters. Both men grew up being deprived to certain extents of having a full education. Unlike Benjamin Franklin, Fredrick Douglass held little to no rights early in life being held as a slave and deemed as property to a master. Fredrick Douglass was introduced to education by his mistress and from the moment of being introduced, education was something that he held dear to him and always sought after. Similar in circumstance, Benjamin Franklin too was held hostage from an education to pursue a trade, but he too always had a sense of self improvement and progress. Both men were in surroundings of a deprived environment when it comes to the subject of education. During this time, it was more common for African Americans to be removed from the nature of learning. All in all both men being held back, and restricted, lead them to becoming self taught and successes in their individual fields.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I somewhat know of my African-American heritage and history. However, I still have a great amount to learn about the pros and cons of the African-American past. After reading about Fredrick Douglass, I have learned the discontentment and immorality of slavery. I also understand why Douglass wanted to be an animal.…

    • 223 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many experiences were different for blacks during slavery than blacks in the Jim Crow south, but the one thing ties them all together is their curiosity that led them to their passion to improve themselves by reading and writing. From slavery to Jim Crow Laws, white southerners feared that the education of blacks would give them the power to resist and threaten the whites’ authority. Although Richard Wright in the story, Black Boy and Frederick Douglass ,in the story Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass grew up in very different time periods and have very different personalities, they do have one thing in common; their passion to learn how to read and write. Wright is a naive, young, free spirited boy that wants to understand the world around him. Douglass is a down-to-earth, rational, smart boy who wants to learn how to read and write, in hopes that it will help him escape to the north. Despite their differences Wright and Douglas had one goal in mind, to overcome the barriers and learn to read and write.…

    • 1176 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The experience of slavery was equally hard for men, women and children. From the cotton fields of America to the sugar cane plantations of Brazil, slavery still carried an awful implication. Though those enslaved may have had different backgrounds or beliefs they both endured the same oppression. No matter their position on the globe, the common oppression of slavery connected them. They were taken from their native land, families were left behind, and despair was on the rise. Along with these similarities, differences can be found. However, the similarities that these two groups represented, connect them on a supernatural level.…

    • 1886 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This book is an autobiography of Frederick Douglass. The word “autobiography” lead our understanding of the book to a new level. “Auto” means “self”, and “graphy” means map; therefore, it is implied that this piece is a map of Frederick Douglass’s life. It is also a piece that a map that lead the readers on to his journey of liberate himself. How he became a “human” from an “animal” and from a slave to a writer. He liberated himself not only physically, but also psychologically (on his thoughts) by writing this autobiography. The…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Slavery may be abolished, however it still exists in its own way today. Slavery comes in many different forms. And to this day slavery still exists after many years of being abolished. Government and equality are central themes that are similar in both Slave Girl in California and The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. However there are very opposing themes such as time and justice as well. In both of these stories they take you through their experience of being brought up as a slave and the many things they had to go through.…

    • 510 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frederick Douglass and I are complementary in many ways. Believe it or not, I can actually see myself as the young woman version of Frederick Douglass in the 21st century. We have a bundle of similarities, but we also have our distinct variations in our education such as how we learned, what we learned, and what we used to learn. For example, one of us may have had more resources but didn’t really have a specific pattern or order to do it, but the other, even though he didn’t have as much, was more organized on how he wanted to learn. In other words, he had an actual plan mapped out.…

    • 1069 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays