Preview

Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Booker T Washington

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1798 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare And Contrast Frederick Douglass And Booker T Washington
By this definition, the lives of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington provide two of the most clear examples of what it is to be free. Douglass and Washington both wrote autobiographies accounting for their lives during and after their emancipation from slavery. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, published in 1845, delves deep into the first twenty-three years of Douglass’ life, sparing no gory details about slave treatment. Born in 1818 on a plantation in Tuckahoe, Maryland, Frederick Douglass spent twenty years witnessing first-hand the cruelties of slavery and inequality before his daring escape in 1838. Contrastingly, Booker Washington’s Up from Slavery, published more than fifty years later in 1901, paints a calmer,though …show more content…
At age 6 in 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation granted freedom to all slaves, marking an end to one of America’s darkest practices. Douglass and Washington became leading figures in the fight for equality among the races, and aided in the advancement of civil rights in their own ways and time.

Both Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington were freed slaves and influential African American figures. Initially, it may seem the two men harbor many similarities with one another. However, they differ vastly in their obtainment of education, choices in career, and opinions on equality.

To begin with, Douglass and Washington received their education in two different manners. Douglass faced abounding adversities in his pursuit of education. When he left Colonel Lloyd’s plantation at age seven to be a house slave for the Aulds in Baltimore, he met the kind, caring heart of
…show more content…
While a slave, Douglass worked in a plethora of different jobs, and spent a majority of his teenage years in physical labor. He was not of much use in the fields when he was at Captain Lloyd’s plantation in his youth, but proved useful through menial tasks. When he turned seven, he went to Baltimore to act as a house slave for the Aulds. Douglass continued to work there until he was fourteen years old. Then, he was sent to live with his new master, Thomas Auld, in St. Michaels where he would undertake various tasks involving physical labor. Unfortunately, Master Auld disliked his newest addition since Douglass’ city life “had had a very pernicious effect upon [him]” and “it had almost ruined [him] for every good purpose” (Douglass 34). Douglass often allowed one of Master Auld’s horses to run loose five miles to Master William Hamilton's plantation so that he could receive an adequate amount of food there. Fed up with his antics after only nine months, Master Auld decided to send him to Mr. Edward Covey for one year, who had a high reputation for “breaking young slaves” (Douglass 34). At Mr. Covey’s farm, Douglass worked as a field hand for the first time in his life. Douglass’ awkwardness and inexperience with farm work resulted in several brutal beatings and whippings from Mr. Covey. After a year of backbreaking labor, Douglass was dispatched to work for Mr. Freeland who “was heavenly, compared with

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T.Washington were both influential men during the Civil Rights movement. Even though they were both extremely influential, they both had contrasting points of views on which actions to take when it comes to racial equality. Booker T. Washington believed social equality would happen over time when the African Americans became economically well built and powerful. W.E.B. DuBois thought that political and social equality was necessary, so he came up with the movements such as the Niagara movement to push for equality. DuBois and Washington were both African American leaders who wanted there to be racial equality among everyone. Washington was the type of man that believed that the African Americans had to work hard and…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    By the age of 12 the thought of being a slave for life began to bear heavily on him. It was at this age that he got his hands on a book called “The Columbian orator” which Mr. Douglass says “In this book, I met with one of Sheridan’s might speeches on and in behalf of Catholic emancipation. These were choice documents to me. I read them over and over again with unabated interest.” Even as a young man he knew he wanted to be free more then anything in the world but he also knew that he had to learn to read and write before he could run away and be free.…

    • 284 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Mrs. Auld began teaching Frederick how to read was Douglass’s first real foray into rebellion. It was illegal to teach a slave how to read and write and after Mr. Auld reprimanded Mrs. Auld, Douglass realized that “to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man” (Douglass 20). The seed of rebellion had been planted and he had discovered his path to freedom. He was proud of his new ability and tried to practice it as often as he could by challenging children to writing letters (Douglass 26). Douglass cultivated this new ability and treats it as the reason he was able to become free.…

    • 737 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One phrase that comes to mind after reading and comparing the lives, beliefs, and character of Fredrick Douglass and Benjamin Franklin is, two men that "shared a similar journey but walked different paths". Similarities started early on in both men's lives that ultimately shaped their beliefs and values, and molded their characters. Both men grew up being deprived to certain extents of having a full education. Unlike Benjamin Franklin, Fredrick Douglass held little to no rights early in life being held as a slave and deemed as property to a master. Fredrick Douglass was introduced to education by his mistress and from the moment of being introduced, education was something that he held dear to him and always sought after. Similar in circumstance, Benjamin Franklin too was held hostage from an education to pursue a trade, but he too always had a sense of self improvement and progress. Both men were in surroundings of a deprived environment when it comes to the subject of education. During this time, it was more common for African Americans to be removed from the nature of learning. All in all both men being held back, and restricted, lead them to becoming self taught and successes in their individual fields.…

    • 522 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Booker Taliaferro Washington was one of the most notorious African American Leaders during the end of the nineteenth century. Born a slave, from a slave mother and an unknown white father, he argued that the black people, after Emancipation Proclamation, should first improve themselves in the education field as well economically. In his autobiography “Up from the Slavery” the reader gets to know exactly the way Booker T. Washington understood the society of the United States in the mid ninetieth and early twentieth century. Even though born a slave, Booker T. Washington considered the slavery, a social institution, as established or standardized pattern of role – governed behavior. From the first chapter he sets the tone as what the reader…

    • 354 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In the early twentieth century, there were several different approaches on the question of black equality. African-American figures such as W.E.B Du Bois and Booker T. Washington held opposing views and approached the problem in different ways. They both felt African Americans deserved equality, but Booker T Washington felt that the way…

    • 1311 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Douglass’s autobiography is one of a personal fate and the other a documentation of the horrors of slavery. With his first recollection of his childhood, being the relentless whipping of his aunt Hester and the horrified of shrieks he heard with every blow of the whip. Living in Baltimore for about seven years he went with no hunger, then only to return to a plantation as an adult to suffer the gnawing pain of hunger. He knew the difference of what it was like to be treated with kindness and to live in the callous bondage of slavery. Douglass sought to bring a sense of order to his life by writing his journey from slavery to…

    • 117 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Frederick Douglass was a creative writer who lived in Augustus Washington Bailey and was separated from his mother when he was a few weeks old and was raised by his mother's grandparents.”when he was about eight he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia”.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many great leaders came from the fight for African-Americans civil rights. Not all these leaders would agree with each other, but all of them had a common ground and that was to fight the oppression that blacks have had for many years. Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois were both civil rights leaders, however they had many different views they also had many similarities. Who were these leaders and what made them different but similar in many ways?…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Douglass begins his narrative as far back as he can remember, explaining that shortly after birth he was separated from his mother Harriet Bailey and was never truly sure of who his father was, although everyone suspected it to be his master, Captain Anthony. Douglass describes the horrible conditions by which slaves were forced to live, including intense labor and exhaustion, meager to no portions of food each day, a few shabby articles of clothing, and the absence of a bed. He goes on to talk about the frequent whippings slaves received, whether they were guilty of breaking rules or their masters simply wanted to express and establish their dominance. Douglass tells of how he was sold to several different masters, one of whose wives (by the name of Sophia Auld) decided to teach him the fundamentals of reading -- an act that became the beginning of Douglass’s realization that he could change his circumstances for the better. He talks about his continuation to work his way through the learning process by gaining help from local boys who could read, and as he learns to read and write, he becomes aware of the actual evil nature of…

    • 1997 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fredrick Douglass lived a very painful and tiring childhood, he was separated from his mother Harriet Bailey at a very young age. “It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age” (narrative 42). Often young children are given to an older woman to be taken care of, since the woman is no longer able to help in the field. Although the children are not let out to do field work until they are of proper age, they are not taught to read or to write while they are growing up. This is the case for all enslaved African Americans. Their lack of ability to…

    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since it was illegal for a slave to learn, the Master forbade his wife to teach Frederick anymore. But, Frederick still craved knowledge; So much that he made his neighbor's kids teach him in exchange for his food. He soon purchased a book called, The Columbian Orator, which changed his life. While staying with his masters, he saw how the slaves were treated on the plantations. They were whipped and mercilessly beat. This was when his detest for slavery began. At the age of seven, Fredrick sent to, Baltimore, to work as a city slave. It was at this point that Fredrick realized what freedom felt like, he says in one of his autobiographies called, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave”, “A city slave is almost a freeman, compared with a slave on the plantation.” He returned to his birthplace at the age of 15, and it was there that he became a field hand and experienced the horrible conditions that slaves had to deal with first-hand. In 1838, he was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld family. It was at this time that Fredrick planned his first escape but aborted shortly after because something happened.…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Harriet Tubman was a leader that was helping slaves escape. They all had joined her because they all wanted to be free, some decided that maybe it wasn’t a good idea and had thoughts of turning around just because of the consequences of them getting caught. But Harriet Tubman had unique qualities that none of them had, the qualities that were necessary to be able to continue doing the tasks. Frederick Douglass also had some curiosity dealing with being enslaved, from his luck of being able to read he learned that there is a whole new world out there. His special qualities led many people as he gave speeches of how it is to be a slave and lucky for him to have escaped.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Douglass’s education began in Baltimore at the age of seven or eight. At this time in Douglass’s life, he was living Hugh Auld and his wife. Upon first meeting Mr. and Mrs. Auld, for the first time in Douglass’s life saw “a white face beaming with the most kindly emotion”. Hugh Auld’s wife Sophia Auld, showed to Douglass that not all white people look down and discriminate against slaves. Sophia Auld did not dehumanize Douglass because of his title of slave, but instead gave him a sense of humanity. It was Mrs. Auld that introduce Douglass to the education of language, which would ultimately lead him on his quest for knowledge. The care and education given to Douglass by Mrs. Auld was short lived though. Upon learning that Mrs. Auld was teaching Douglass, Mr. Auld demanded her to stop. Mr. Auld’s reasoning…

    • 489 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of mater ial prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.…

    • 2092 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays