A literary analysis of white supremacy through the work of Frederick Douglass
             American culture, government and social structure has been influenced and defined by the writings of both black and white great minds. Thomas Jefferson, the creator of American government and the man responsible for declaring our independence, greatly shaped not only government, but the American way of life. Jefferson was a man who has written about topics such as religion, freedom and love, in such clarity and detail his works today are still read and interpreted. In 1845, nearly one hundred years after Jefferson's time, Frederick Douglass, an African-American, published a narrative of his own life, shocking the world with revelations of the African-American life. Frederick Douglass's writings directly challenge the then commonly accepted views put forth by Thomas Jefferson that African-Americans were inferior and lacked the emotional and intellectual depth and complexity of the white race. Frederick Douglass in his published work, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, presents a depth and range of emotional and intellectual capabilities that directly refutes Thomas Jefferson's observations about the African-American slaves in his Notes on the State of Virginia.
             Frederick Douglass, in the recounting of his life as a former slave, demonstrated more sophistication, with subtleties and nuances in both emotions and intellect than Jefferson noted in his observation on the slaves as a whole. The publication of Douglass's life was most surely shocking to the readers of that era. With the widely accepted Jeffersonian observations about the slaves, often callous and brutal treatment was standard, and for the most part expected of slave owners. Slaves were treated and regarded as simply property, not really people who could, love, feel, and have the same emotions a white slave owner could. Slaves were simple minded and lacked the depth ...