Literary Vigilante
"A single word from the white men was enough-against all our wishes, prayers, and entreaties-to sunder forever the dearest friends, dearest kindred, and strongest ties known to human beings" (Douglass Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass 90). These words came out of Frederick Douglass after what he had experienced and taken a part of in his life as a slave. However, instead of conforming to the society and let the facts crush him, he used the reality as a motivation and dedicated his life into achieving equality and freedom for African Americans. Douglass wrote not only to persuade skeptics of his authenticity, but also to act as a medium by which the underrepresented could speak out. He showed the inequalities and injustices in American society, and tried to change it with the pen instead of the sword. His writings' influences obviously include inequalities in American society, personal experiences with the slave institution, abolitionist society, civil war, as well as religion. Collectively, all of these influences would contribute to the reasons that he wrote in such a sincere, passionate tone in his essays and narratives.During the 1800s in the United States, equality was a word that only a few white men dared to cl
Douglass had two proposals to the Civil War- to abolish slavery and to enlist blacks into the war (Miller 97). Douglass is no stranger to religion. The events and happenings that revolved around the Civil War resulted in many aspects of Douglass' writings. " It was actually from this narrative that he formed the structure, focus, and style of his works (Blassingame 6). Nevertheless, the living evidences in the colored population of the South with no natural capacity for the enjoyment of freedom provided the motives for Douglass to write and determined the nature of his works (Peabody 127). Realizing the injustice for woman and slave, Frederick Douglass wrote about these injustices to make a change for the better in his society (Altman 72). It is easy to see the influence of God and religion in Douglass' writing. His major reason to write out about his personal experiences with slavery was mainly to convince the public of the authenticity of his stories. These experiences would obviously influence his future writing, since his major works were slave narratives. Without the abolitionist movement, or abolitionist literature, Douglass would have never written in the genre that he did. Some recurring themes of Douglass include the brutal nature of slavery and the preservation of the slaves' humanity despite the many trials their owners impose upon them (McEntee 1). This required him to educate himself under the great risk of brutal punishment and then to take the even great jeopardy to attempt an escape (Andrews 131). His contact with abolitionist literature and people compelled him to write out his past experiences. He himself was also directly influenced by religion. Through his antislavery newspaper, The North Star, Douglass kept the pressure on the Union leadership throughout the early months of the war, tirelessly insisting that the real issue being decided was the existence of slavery (Douglass "Douglass' Monthly" 576).
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Acceptance Essays
