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    Cdouglas 1

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    Andreea Maldaeanu
    Frederick Douglass was a famous African American activist who escaped from slavery. He became known for his writings about slavery including his autobiography "My Bondage and My Freedom". The book was one of the first influential slave narratives. It followed a common structure of chronologically recounting important events in Douglass's life like his childhood in slavery and escape to the North. Through dispassionate yet compelling writing, Douglass aimed to convince readers of the inhumanity of slavery and assert his own identity and humanity. He used religious language and symbolism to denounce slavery and racism in American society.

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    Cdouglas 1

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    Andreea Maldaeanu
    13 views1 page
    Frederick Douglass was a famous African American activist who escaped from slavery. He became known for his writings about slavery including his autobiography "My Bondage and My Freedom". The book was one of the first influential slave narratives. It followed a common structure of chronologically recounting important events in Douglass's life like his childhood in slavery and escape to the North. Through dispassionate yet compelling writing, Douglass aimed to convince readers of the inhumanity of slavery and assert his own identity and humanity. He used religious language and symbolism to denounce slavery and racism in American society.

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    Frederick Douglass was a famous African American activist who escaped from slavery. He became known for his writings about slavery including his autobiography "My Bondage and My Freedom". The book was one of the first influential slave narratives. It followed a common structure of chronologically recounting important events in Douglass's life like his childhood in slavery and escape to the North. Through dispassionate yet compelling writing, Douglass aimed to convince readers of the inhumanity of slavery and assert his own identity and humanity. He used religious language and symbolism to denounce slavery and racism in American society.

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    13 views1 page

    Cdouglas 1

    Uploaded by

    Andreea Maldaeanu
    Frederick Douglass was a famous African American activist who escaped from slavery. He became known for his writings about slavery including his autobiography "My Bondage and My Freedom". The book was one of the first influential slave narratives. It followed a common structure of chronologically recounting important events in Douglass's life like his childhood in slavery and escape to the North. Through dispassionate yet compelling writing, Douglass aimed to convince readers of the inhumanity of slavery and assert his own identity and humanity. He used religious language and symbolism to denounce slavery and racism in American society.

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    Curs Civ.American an II Prof.dr.

    Rodica Mihaila

    FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1817-1895)


    1. His importance: a. Runaway slave - Proved by his example what the blacks once free could achieve. - the most famous black activist in the antislavery movement 184o-61(founded The North Star a black organ) b. attracted national attention as an orator (intellectual power, magnificent voice), journalist, autobiographer and later statesman c. today he is most important for his role in the dev. of black literature: 1845- Narrative of the Life of FD 1855- My Bondage and My Freedom 1881, 1941- The Life and Times of FD 2. The Tradition of Slave Narratives; 1837- Moses Roper; Harriet A.Jacobs: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl written by Herself (1861, 1987) escaped in 1857 3. My Bondage and My Freedom Importance: a. the first slave narrative to make a general impact (its merits and its timing) b. a compelling human document c. introduced autobiography as a characteristic form for black writers from Booker T.Washington through WEB Du Bois to Richard Wright and James Baldwin (- the slave had only one story to tell: his own (but whereas all autobiographies deal with the identity of the author, black autobiographer has to establish that he has an authentic identity, that he exists at all) ; -the theme of black autobiography has been ironically double: to show that the black man is underground and invisible; to show that he can still be revealed as existing and visible Structure - like all slave narratives: a chronological, episodic structure - the important events structuring his narrative: a. birth and early childhood on the Lloyd Plantation (no father); b. at 8 sent to Baltimore the Auld family; c. at 16 hired out to Edward Covey Negro Breaker; d. at 21 escaped to New Bedford, Mass. Literary Merits: - dispassionate accounts of even violent facts. -Purpose: Credibility - the inhuman character of slavery, not identity - Skill in appropriating the language and symbolism of Am. middle-class culture and religion to denounce the evils of slavery and racism -a kind of Jeremiad - denounces American society for its lapses and it affirms its original promise. He distinguishes bet. true and false Americans and christians; bet. those who would affirm the dream and those who would destroy it. A prophet who warns Am. society against perversity and error.

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