Slavery - Part Four- Frederick Douglass



In 1845, Frederick Douglass, a free black man published "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" where he gave a detailed, well-written account of his life as a slave. The book was hugely popular and influential. It forced many people to put themselves in the shoes of a slave and as a result empathize with them. Frederick Douglas was a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Likewise, Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great speaker and writer had once been a slave.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mansa Musa & Ibn Battuta 1280-1368

Image
Salt and copper Crossing the desert, paying a horseman from the destination to meet you The Sahara Egypt was always a prosperous cross-road between three continents. At a time, the Kingdom of Carthage in modern day Tunisia & Libya was the biggest rival to the Roman Empire. the Moors of modern-day Morocco had conquered half of Spain until being forced out in the 14 th  century, and the great Christian philosopher Augustine of Hippo (St Augustine named after) was a member of the Berber people from modern-day Algeria during the last days of the Roman Empire. However, these lands all bordered the Sahara Desert. The largest hot desert in the world. Covering almost 6 million square miles, it’s the size of China and the US combined. Alone it makes up 8% of the earths land mass. It receives less than an inch of rain each year, has a highest recorded temperature of 136 Fahrenheit and an average annual temperature of 86. (Florida is 72) Meanwhile, at night it drops to 21 degrees
Read more

Thomas Paine

Image
Thomas Paine was born in Thetford, Norfolk, England. Early in his life he suffered the loss of his wife, his child, and his business. He took a job as a tax collector and ended up writing pamphlets advocating for pay rises for tax collectors. He became relatively well known and ended up meeting Benjamin Franklin who had been living in London for a number of years. When Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1775 he invited Paine to join him. With the American revolution in full swing, Paine latched on to their cause and became very passionate about it. He wrote Common Sense anonymously and it became hugely popular. It was sold and distributed widely and read aloud at taverns and meeting places. In proportion to the population of the colonies at that time (2.5 million), it had the largest sale and circulation of any book published in American history. It was rumored that John Adam's had wrote it but in a private letter to his wife Abigail, he admitted that he had not and
Read more

Immigration: 2. Jewish

Image
Prejudice Passed On As Irish and Italian immigrants became more accepted in America, they feared the next groups of immigrants; the Jewish and the Chinese.  Jewish Life in Russia - A Different Mirror- page 263 Many people in America were prejudiced against Jewish people. Their religion was different to the Christianity of the Catholics and Protestants. They dressed differently and spoke differently. Some believed Jewish people were secretly trying to take over the USA and spread harmful ideas such as communism.  Henry Ford Henry Ford's father was born in Ireland. However, he wrote of "The International Jew: the Foremost Problem" and believed that the Jews wanted to take over the world.  https://youtu.be/FXBGK3OQIi8?si=NfZ4eiU9O96PNooK Father Couglin  Father Couglin was a Catholic priest who became hugely popular on American radio when radio was first invented. Both of Father Couglin's parents had Immigrated from Ireland and faced discrimination. However, n
Read more