Challenges Faced By Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass faced many challenges during his lifetime as a slave, and later as a free African-American. He grew up in a society that imposed stereotypical guidelines upon him - he was a slave, therefore he must never learn to read, never live equally as a free man, and certainly never speak out against slavery. Yet Frederick Douglass made it is his life's purpose to find ways to either change laws, which he disagreed with, or to change his own life in spite of the legislation.
From a very young age, Frederick found himself in slavery. In order to justify their treatment of slaves, most slave owners used negative stereotypes to describe blacks - their savagery, ignorance, and ...
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Douglass speaks of this, saying how he was "utterly astonished...to find persons who could speak of the singing, among slaves, as evidence of their contentment and happiness." (14-15) He realized at a later age that the "songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them" much like people cry when they are sad. (15)
Any slave who dared to speak out against his master would then be faced with the bias in the judicial system. The courts saw slaves as property, not people. The word of a white man, no matter how untruthful, was seen as more credible than the word of a slave. Douglass explains that, "no explanation was allowed a slave", even when the slave is "wrongfully accused" of even the smallest infraction - most of the time, beatings were the punishment, regardless of the crime. (21) When a slave was murdered, no matter what the reason, there was never any sort of punishment of the murderer. Douglass states, "that killing a slave, or any ...
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how to read." (34) This was really the first instance when Douglass was faced with a law that restricted his life, and he fought against that restriction, despite his young age. When he was at a point in his life where he was able to, Douglass began to teach other slaves to read and write in his "Sabbath school", which was held "at the house of a free colored man". (81) Teaching slaves to read and write was still illegal, but Douglass wanted these slaves to learn to free themselves from the bondage of slavery, as he was trying to do.
The abolishment of slavery was the sole desire and goal of Douglass, especially after he managed to escape from his masters. When he was ...
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"Challenges Faced By Frederick Douglass." Essayworld.com. July 19, 2015. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Challenges-Faced-By-Frederick-Douglass/104801.
"Challenges Faced By Frederick Douglass." Essayworld.com. July 19, 2015. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Challenges-Faced-By-Frederick-Douglass/104801.
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