The Life and Works of Frederick Douglass

African Americans have had a significant contribution throughout the political, social, and economic growth of the United States. A good example is Frederick Douglass who has made valuable contributions to the United States despite the fact that he was born a slave. In fact, Douglass is one of the most distinguished African American writers in the 19th century.  Frederick Douglass was a slave in Maryland but he managed to escape slavery by getting an education and became a lecturer at the Massachusetts Anti-slavery society. He is one of the greatest abolitionists.

   In his life as an abolitionist, Frederick Douglass exposed the white people’s evils and ensured that the world knew that these whites never want the black people to become literate. Douglass ensured that the black people got an education because he knew when they have the right knowledge; they will set themselves free from slavery. At that time, a majority of the black people were illiterate because their masters or rather their owners denied them a chance to get an education. An example is in his narrative where Frederick Douglass writes about his master Hugh Auld. Mr. Auld was against his wife giving Douglas some reading material and learning lessons while he was their slave and this is evident when he says, “If you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master”(Douglass 38). This shows that most slave owners (whites) were aware that if the slaves became literate, they would fight against the slavery institution and this is something they never wished to happen because they would lack people to work for them. Therefore, after becoming literate, Douglass made sure that he passed the same knowledge to other slaves and taught them about the evils of slavery and why they should become literate and free themselves from slavery.

 Frederick Douglass faced several challenges and he had to overcome them to achieve his stature. As a young child, Douglass was taken away from his parents and sent to live as a slave. During this time, he came to learn about the evils of slavery, and how the whites are making sure that the slaves do not get an education (Douglass 40). Therefore, he embarked on a journey of getting an education and to free himself and other black people from slavery but it turned out to be very challenging. His master did everything possible to stop him from gaining any education or rather knowledge on how to read and write. His quest for knowledge made him more determined to learn how to read and write because, for Douglass, education was the key to his freedom and the freedom of the other slaves. Douglass faced several tribulations while trying to learn how to read and write while he was a slave but luckily, he managed and became an abolitionist by writing about the evils of the white people and how they were mistreating the black people. Douglass ensured that he exposed why the white people were against the black people getting an education.

  Even though it was difficult to fit in the society as a black person at the time Douglass lived, he managed to fit in the times he lived in. This is because he was determined on his course of being an abolitionist and because he met other people who were with the same mind as him. According to Stepto, Frederick fought slavery as a heroic slave in a hostile society at all costs in addition to ensuring that the black people got the right knowledge that set them free (189).

 Frederick Douglass has a significant impact on the wider African American community in several ways. For instance, through the publication of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglas opened doors for himself and all other African Americans to fight against slavery. Through education, Douglass helped his fellow African Americans to fight against slavery and its evils. He made the African Americans learn how to fight against the institution of slavery and its evil in addition to bringing up more abolitionists (Du Bois 22). Most importantly, he taught them the significance of education, and why it was a vital tool for their freedom. Fredrick Douglass is a man who spent his life fighting for the rights and freedoms of the black people in America. He used his writing and oratory skills to communicate to the world about slavery and this led to the emancipation. Overall, he devoted his life to abolishing slavery.

 In addition, Frederick Douglass made great contributions in helping to end slavery in America. As an abolitionist leader, Douglass ensured that the slave trade had to end and that the black people were freed from this institution. In addition, apart from being an abolitionist, Frederick Douglass repeatedly reinvented himself because, after some time, he became the father of the Civil Rights Movement in America where helped reshape the American politics big time. Hooker notes that Douglass was an African American thinker who was greatly concerned about American politics (695). As a result, he sought to integrate the black people in the American politics to challenge the white supremacy because he was a radical thinker.

 In conclusion, Fredrick Douglass is an African American who made great contributions to America’s social and political spheres. He helped end the slavery institution as well as helping the slaves get their freedom through literacy. Frederick Douglass is a man who made the slavery evils known to the world in addition to ensuring that the Africans Americans got an education and were free from slavery.

Work Cited

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. New     York: Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Print.

Du Bois, William Edward Burghardt. The Suppression of the African Slave-Trade to the United States of America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Hooker, Juliet. “”A Black Sister to Massachusetts”: Latin America and the Fugitive Democratic     Ethos of Frederick Douglass.”American Political Science Review 109.4 (2015): 690-702.

Stepto, Robert B. “Storytelling in early Afro-American fiction: Frederick Douglass’s’ The Heroic      Slave’.”Black Literature and Literary Theory. Routledge, 2016. 187-198.