Frederick Douglass

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the life of Frederick Douglass. It explains how he was a social commentator who wrote from a particular personal experience--he had been a slave and was then freed, and he wrote about the slave experience and the value of freedom not just for blacks but for everyone. Frederick Douglass, as noted, was one of the leading figures both as writer and speaker, and he recounted his experiences as a slave in his autobiography.

From the Paper:

"The result is a slave who cooperates in his or her own slavery. Douglass further indicated that both men and women, white and black, involved in slavery were degraded by the experience. He notes the fine nature of his new mistress when he is taken into the Auld home: "I was utterly astonished at her goodness" (Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass). In a short time, however, her demeanor changes because of the fact that she is now a slaveowner: "The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work" (Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass). Thus does Douglass show a concern for women and what slavery is doing to them, and this concern would in time be extended to the place women held in a male-dominated society, white and black."

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