Writings of Frederick Douglass - Essay Example

& Number Due The Writings of Frederick Douglass Although he wore many hats, Frederick Douglass was an agent for change. In two of his most prolific essays, "Reconstruction" (1866), and "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage" (1867), it is clear that Douglass intended to fight for the equality of all men. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born a slave about 1817 in Tuckahoe, Maryland. In 1838, he escaped slavery and changed his last name to Douglass, after a character in Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott. He died in 1895. After escaping slavery, in 1838, amid the Abolitionist Movement, Douglass dedicated his life to helping others. Largely, he did this through public speaking engagements and his writing. The first thing he published was the autobiographical Narrative of the Life of an American Slave in 1845. After which, he served as publisher of a newspaper, The North Star, before publishing his second novel, My Bondage and My Freedom, a decade later. While those works (which will be discussed later) were about his life, he later became a political activist in his pursuit to help people less advantaged than he. Surrounding the time that "Reconstruction" and "Appeal" were written, there was a lot of political activity, including the aforementioned Abolitionist Movement, which lasted from sometime in the 1830s, until about 1870. This movement should not be confused with the abolitionist movement started by feminists who wanted to end prostitution (arguing that prostitution was also a form of slavery). Instead, the Abolitionist Movement was fundamental in founding the Anti-Slave Society, which aimed at declaring that those enslaved should immediately become free. The Abolitionist Movement saw the end of slavery, but participants didn't consider its job complete. Once black people were free, they advocated for better education for them, so that men especially would get better jobs. If they could work, they'd be better able to support their families. The movement insisted on healthcare for freed slaves. It also offered assistance in helping family member locate other family members from whom they'd been separated during slavery. When the Fifteenth Amendment guaranteed African-American male suffrage, the Movement proper was over. In 1865, Congress had established the Freedman's Bureau. It helped with the tasks of education, healthcare, and jobs, and even the reunification of families. The Freedman's Bureau was especially helpful to refugees of the American Civil War. African-American women took up causes that affected black women at the time, and later, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed to aid all colored persons. All of this helped make Douglass the writer he became. When he wrote "Reconstruction," the Civil War had ended and the country was in a reconstructive state. The "Reconstruction" argument was that although the war had ended, there were still changes to be made. He wrote, "All that is necessary to be done is to make the government consistent with itself, and render the rights of the States compatible with the sacred rights of human nature" (para. 3). He was insisting that the government take a stand within each state, and remain consistent in supporting the rights of all people. He asked that citizens of the United States be able to move, interchangeably, throughout the states and have the same rights in each one. He finished his essay with the opinion that he was not the only person, nor were there only black people, who wanted equality for everyone. He wrote, "This great measure is sought as earnestly by loyal white men as by loyal blacks, and is needed alike by both. Let sound political prescience but take the place of an unreasoning prejudice, and this will be done" (para. 10). In "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage," Douglass' message was just as political, just as strong. His main focus was on the right to vote for African Americans. He asked Congress how they could have allowed black men to fight in the Civil War, but still deny them the right to vote once they returned home. He said black completes "many daring exploits" (para. 4) even through active discrimination, and allowing them to vote in the country they fought gallantly for, was inappropriate. The essays have a lot in common. Of course, each was designed to make a political statement. They were written closely together, too. "Reconstruction was written in December 1866, and "Appeal" was written in January 1867. Both writings were aimed at Congress. In each, Douglass claimed that what needed to be done was extremely simple. He wrote, "Congress has now had time The people themselves demand such a reconstruction as shall put an end to the present anarchical state of things" ("Reconstruction" paragraphs. 8-9). In both instances, Douglass was asking for change. The articles have some differences, though. "Reconstruction" was shorter, and more to the point. "Appeal" was a little more rambling, and a little more aggressive. In it he wrote, "For better or for worse, the Negroes are evidently a permanent part of the American population. They are too numerous and useful to be colonized, and too enduring and self-perpetuating to disappear by natural causes. Here they are, four millions of them, and, for weal or for woe, here they must remain" (para. 4). There is no mistaking his sentiment. It laymen's terms he is saying get over it. He is a mouthpiece demanding that blacks have equal access to all that whites have. He also wrote that it was time for the country to show blacks a little "national gratitude" (para. 5). While it was aggressive, it was also designed to play on the sympathies of congressmen. He detailed the hunger and pain that black veterans endured to secure victory in the war. "Appeal" also relied a little on guilt. "The South will comply with any conditions but suffrage for the negroe. It will swallow all the unconstitutional test oaths, repeal all the ordinances of Secession, repudiate the Rebel debt, promise to pay the debt incurred in conquering its people, pass all the constitutional amendments, if only it can have the Negro left under its political control" (para. 9). The nature of "Reconstruction" didn't call for the employment of these strategies. The nature of "Appeal" was to let Congress know that African Americans were reaching the end of the tolerance rope. Almost a century later, Douglass was judged for not having understood the Constitution enough to fight for it. In " Property or Persons: On a 'Plain Reading' of the United States Constitution," Bill E Lawson quoted Douglass as calling the Constitution a "pro-slavery document" (292). He wrote that later Douglass shirked his duties and refused to vote. Among others, Lawson believed that Douglass was only an activist to gain political spotlight. All of Douglass' writings and teachings, however, are to the contrary. For the country in which we live to have denied civil rights to any Americans after the Civil War, was, to Douglass, as criminal as some of the acts he witnessed while still a slave. In Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, he discussed the wife of a slave master who killed a servant girl for falling asleep while she should have been listening for the baby to cry. He wrote, "I will not say that this most horrid murder produced no sensation in the community. It did produce sensation, but not enough to bring the murderess to punishment" (42). In Narrative, Douglass recounted his feeling like he was still a slave, even once he was escaped, because he could do little to help other slaves. This definitely influenced his writing. Reading "The Liberator" and attending and speaking at anti-slavery meetings finally gave him a "degree of freedom" (Narrative 135). That feeling, I'm sure is the reason he wrote essays. He was hoping to recall that feeling for himself - and introduce it to others. In My Bondage and My Freedom, Douglass also made it clear why he continued his writing. He wrote, "While Heaven lends me ability, to use my voice, my pen, or my vote, to advocate the great and primary work of the universal and unconditional emancipation of my entire race" (Bondage 248). He drew on his experience of others helping him during his escape to remind him to always help others. In some cases, the only thing he could do to help was to speak at meetings, or write to Congress, but he didn't intend to give up on the little that he could do. Douglass is one of the most studied figures in African-American history; therefore, innumerable critics have written him about. One such critic is John P. Pittman. In "Douglass' Assimilationism and Antislavery," Pittman wrote that he believed that Douglass' "personal struggle became a social and political struggle" (69). This is probably true. Douglass shouldn't be faulted for taking up the cause of ending slavery. He was rightfully commended for it. Pittman argued that Douglass' literacy is probably the only thing that made his assimilation into society so successful. That is probably true, too. Even today, it is likely that a spokesperson for just about anything will be well educated, well read, well-traveled, or a combination of the three. Again, he needn't be penalized for his education. If he was so educated and doing nothing with it, a travesty could be declared. That he chose to help others take some personal responsibility was a noble act, and one way that Douglass knew would effect change. In "Douglass and the Myth of the Black Rapist," Tommy L. Lott wrote, "Douglass believed that low esteem for the moral character of black people was a crucial factor inhibiting the social elevation of African Americans" (317). Obviously, this is true, too. The whole point of "Appeal" was to convince Congress that blacks were equal to whites, and that if white men could vote for their leaders, black men should be able to do so as well. Lott felt, though, that Douglass might have missed the point. He wrote that one of the things whites were seeking to do was keep black men from being able to marry white women. Who knows if the right to marry a white woman was Douglass' immediate concern He first married a black woman, then a white one, but it shouldn't be said that his whole political motivation was to marry a white woman someday. Then again, even if that was his motivation, it doesn't change the fact that he argued for all equal rights. That included, I'm sure, the right to marry whomever one chose. All the good he achieved isn't overshadowed by the fact that interracial marriage would be legal, especially since interracial marriage meant that white men would also be free to marry black women. It wasn't one-sided. Perhaps Malaya Abdur-Rahman said it most succinctly. In " 'The Strangest Freaks of Despotism': Queer Sexuality in Antebellum African Slave Narratives," she wrote that whites expected blacks to marry and procreate but worried about their "rapacious sexual appetite for the appropriate objects of sexual desire (members of the opposite sex but the same racial group), to include sexual violence, interracial wanting, bestiality, and homosexuality" (224). In other words, blacks could do what they wanted, as long as they did it to one another, and white women didn't have to suffer the extreme sexual appetites of black men. It is easy to see how Frederick Douglass turned out to be a great American hero. His efforts in emancipation were tireless. He didn't just do a bare minimum; rather he gave everything he had that he thought might improve quality of life for other black people. And his efforts didn't end with male suffrage. One of his most famous quotes is: "When I ran away from slavery, it was for myself; when I advocated emancipation, it was for my people; but when I stood up for the rights of women, self was out of the question, and I found a little nobility in the act." Douglass' good deeds and leadership are not erased because sometimes he got more out of a task than other times. Douglass was an advocate for his people. His primary focus was to effect positive changes for those people. Nay Sayers will always be able to argue that he didn't quite understand the constitution, or that his motives were self-serving. At the time, though, the people he sought to help would have been pleased to have Douglass on their sides. To say that Douglas was affected by his life as a slave is far too simplistic. Having been a slave affected everything he did after his escape. Yet, he wasn't s cynically a figure that he mistrusted all white people. He accepted help from white people, and acknowledged that. He eventually married a white woman, further proof that he didn't generalize all white people as evil. He simply wanted, and fought for equal rights. Having been born so shortly after The Enlightenment Period, an age that brought about the idea of free thinking and free expression, he undoubtedly felt like it was his duty, and his honor, to help. He fought for the right to vote - a right people enjoy (and sometimes take for granted) even now. He wanted change for blacks, it eventually happened, and not even his harshest critics can take away his role in that. Works Cited Abdur-Rahman, Aliyyah I. " 'The Strangest Freaks of Despotism': Queer Sexuality in Antebellum African American Slave Narratives." African American Review 40.2 (Summer 2006): 223-37. Retrieved 02 Mar. 08 from Modern Language Association database. Douglass, Frederick. "An Appeal to Congress for Impartial Suffrage." Jan. 1867. http://www.readprint.com/work-618/Frederick-Douglass ---. "Reconstruction." Dec. 1866. http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/black/douglas.htm ---. My Bondage and My Freedom. Ed. William L. Andrews. Illinois: Chicago Press, 1987. ---. Narrative of the Life of an American Slave. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1998. Lawson, Bill E. "Property or Persons: On a 'Plain Reading' of the United States Constitution." The Journal of Ethics 1 (1997): 291-303. Retrieved 03 Mar. 08 from Electronic Journal Center database. Lott, Tommy L. "Frederick Douglass and the Myth of the Black Rapist." Frederick Douglass: A Critical Reader. Eds. Bill E. Lawson and Frank M. Kirkland. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 1999. Pittman, John P. "Douglass' Assimilationism and Antislavery." Frederick Douglass: A Critical Reader. Eds. Bill E. Lawson and Frank M. Kirkland. Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing, 1999. Read More