Frederick Douglass And The Abolitionist Movement Essay

Frederick Douglass spoke to Washington, DC in 1876 We must either hand each(prenominal) the rights of Ameri tooshie citizens, or we must be exterminated, for we can never again be slaves (Foner, 1969, p. 320, as cited in Ballard, 2004, p. 53). This statement concretizes the inhu domainity of thralldom its only equal is death. Douglass was born as a slave in Talbot County, Maryland. It was 1818 and thrall already existed for two hundred years in the coupled States (U. S. ). It took Douglass twenty years, before he escaped slavery.Before his escape, Douglass surreptitiously acquire to read and write, and he soon rose as one of the near eloquent orators of the e cosmoscipationists. Using speech premeditated to distress, educate, and sometimes infuriate, Frederick Douglass encouraged the abolitionist movement. Douglass used his speeches to distress spate well-nigh their prejudice, so that they would be conscious of its inequitable and dangerous surfacecomes. When people were d istressed of the sincereities and results of slavery, they would be more attracted by the principles and goals of the abolitionists. Douglass argued that slavery produces no benefits for the society.Slavery only leads to ignorance among denses, which both negatively affects them and the black-and-blues. In The Church and Prejudice, Douglass asserted You degrade us, and then ask why we atomic number 18 degradedyou shut our mouths, and then ask why we move intot speakyou close our colleges and seminaries against us, and then ask why we dont know more. The blacks were disadvantaged by unawareness, trance the whites were deprived of intellectual forces that the black people could have provided. In his speeches, Douglass further aimed to speak to both whites and blacks, so that they could feel slaverys demeaning consequences.It was his way of using literacy to cope power among the black people, without disempowering the whites. Lisa Sisco give tongue to that Douglass defined lit eracy as shifting as he showed an understanding of literacy as a system of self-representation and as an pathway for political representation as he attempts to speak and write for an oppress people without alienating his white readership (p. 213 as cited in Ryden, 2005, p. 7). Slavery alike compounds prejudice that would have marred a critical victory for the kingdom during the American Civil War (1861-1865).Douglass criticized how the American government would even view being a bigot in times of need, by non recruiting blacks as soldiers. He asked the Pre locatingnt of the United States if this dark and terrible hour of the realms extremity is a time for consulting a mere blunt and unnatural prejudice? Douglass spoke eloquently about how the blacks had helped the whites to rebel against the government, and so there should be no reason that the government would not mesh black people to be soldiers of the state Rising above vernacular prejudice, the slaveholding rebel acce pts the aid of the black man as promptly as that of some(prenominal) other.If a bad cause can do this, why should a good cause be less wisely conducted? He in like manner made a compelling symbolism for a state fighting without the aid of the blacks Men in earnest dont fight with one hand, when they might fight with two, and a man drowning would not refuse to be saved even by a colored hand. Through this speech, Douglass distressed the auditory sense into thinking that slavery does not make either sense at all, and only its abolition can protect the state from another secessionist movement and other threats to national certification and peace.Douglass wanted to educate people about the grave failings of slavery by his speeches- slavery reduces people to beasts with no free will or frugality (DeLombard, 2001). If slavery was this immoral, Douglass could compel people to join the abolitionist movement. Slavery turns gentlemans gentleman beings into creatures of wildness or submission, through a dialectic process engraft in the master-slave relationship.An article compared Douglass understanding of slavery to Hegels Hegel knew about real slaves revolting against real masters, and he elaborated his dialectic of lordship and bondage designedly within this contemporary context (Buck-Morss, 2000, p. 844 as cited in Kohn, 2005, p. 498). Douglass speeches related the dialectical impacts of slavery to all parties involved. First, slavery dehumanizes slaves. Douglass described the horrendous experiences of slaves under the white man. The verbal and physical abuse could only fit animals. These experiences of the slaves underlined the inhumanity of slavery.Second, Douglass argued that slavery dehumanizes masters as well. In The Church and Prejudice, he provided a appointment example of a slaveholder who acted like a vicious animal. Douglass said that there was a class leader master of the Methodist Church, who preached about deliverance and liberty. However, he also lashed Douglass cousin through the same thumbs that prayed, while using the words of the Bible to rationalize his illogical behavior He that knoweth his masters will, and doeth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes Douglass also educated people about the ills of prejudice on the protection of well-behaved rights and liberties.In What the Black Man Wants, Douglass explained that black people have balloting rights, simply because as human beings they do We want it because it is our right, first of all. No class of men can, without insulting their own nature, be content with any deprivation of their rights. By asserting these rights, Douglass motivated people to believe that all human beings have human rights, so they would support the civil rights and freedoms that the abolitionist movement fought for. Douglass used his speeches to infuriate people into action, into destroying every form and look of slavery.In the speech The Church and Prejudice, Douglass narrated hi s experiences of religious bigotry A minister looked to the door, where the blacks were and respire heavily Come up, colored friends, come up for you know God is no respecter of persons This is an example of a speech that enraged people to question the saneness of slavery, when even men of the altar acted like beasts. This speech also uses conceit to depict the dark comedy of slavery (Ganter, 2003). How can God class between colored and white people? They are His children, are they not?Douglass also infuriated people by illustrating the bleakness of slavery and its polar forms. In What the black man wants, Douglass defended the right of the colored people to discern employment when any individual or combination of individuals undertakes to decide for any man when he shall work, where he shall work, at what he shall work, and for what he shall work, it is as yet a form of slavery. By underlining how the government and white people maintain slavery even after the Declaration o f Independence, Douglass enraged people to stub out slavery.Douglass also incensed the people in his Fourth of July speech delivered in Rochester on July 5, 1852, where he assaulted the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. David W. Blight stressed that the pom-pom came with Douglass repetitions of a harmless word, yours (p. 75 as cited in Ramsey, 2007, p. 29). Douglass said This, for the goal of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. The word your aimed to alienate his audience as America has alienated him (Ramsey, 2007, p. 29).Douglass aggravated listeners by enunciating that there was no real independence, only social exclusion and neglect This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. Douglass rhetorical tactic meant to aggressively plead, by transferring the feeling of how the nation had abandoned him to listeners, so that they too would feel how tricky and iniquitous it was to b e orphaned (Ramsey, 2007, p. 29 Waymer& Heath, 2007). His ending for speech emphasized his anger and resentment. He asked people to find another place that had been as vicious as the U.S. in upturning civil liberties and freedoms for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival. This speech angered people to feel that racial discrimination brutally orphaned the whole society, and it was time to abolish slavery and its acclivitous forms. Douglass used the power of the spoken word to distress, educate, and sometimes infuriate, so that people would be persuaded to join the abolitionist movement. His speeches aroused emotions and intellectual understanding, which maximize give-and-take and pathos as rhetorical strategies.By combining these strategies, Douglass could reach out to as many hearts and minds as possible- in either side of the color line. His earnest aim was to change attitudes and behavior toward the colored flight and the idea of freedom and humanity. Douglass speeches have effectively expressed his core mint of society, a society of free and equal whites and blacks. References Ballard, B. J. (2004). Frederick Douglass and the ideology of resistance. Critical surveil of International Social & Political Philosophy, 7 (4), 51-75. DeLombard, J. (2001).Eye-witness to the cruelty Southern violence and northern testimony in Frederick Douglasss American Literature, 73 (2), 245-275. Douglass, F. (1841). The perform and prejudice. Retrieved from http//www. frederickdouglass. org/speeches/ _______. (1852). What to the slave is the 4th of July? Retrieved from http//www. freemaninstitute. com/douglass. htm _______. (1861). Fighting rebels with only one hand. Retrieved from http//www. frederickdouglass. org/speeches/ _______. (1865). What the black man wants. Retrieved from http//www. frederickdouglass. org/speeches/ Ganter, G. (2003).He made us laugh some Frederick Douglasss humor. African American Review, 37 (4), 535-552. Kohn, M. (2005). Frederick Douglasss master-slave dialectic. Journal of Politics, 67 (2), 497-514. Ramsey, W. M. (2007). Frederick Douglass, Southerner. Southern literary Journal, 40 (1), 19-38. Ryden, W. (2005). Conflicted literacy Frederick Douglasss critical model. Journal of Basic Writing, 24 (1), 4-23. Waymer, D. & Heath, R. (2007). Non-profit active public relations and the paradox of the positive A case read of Frederick Douglass Fourth of July Address. National Communication Association, Conference, 1-39.