Sojourner Truth And Fredrick Douglass example essay topic

Olivia Ricks January 12, 2002 Abolitionist Movement Project Period 1 Thesis Statement: As the anti-slavery movement moved on it became clear that the reasoning and opinion of whites on abolition issues were relevant, even though the voice of an African American is more heartfelt and emotional. Sojourner Truth and Fredrick Douglass were great abolitionist. They are still being remembered as heroes along with other abolitionist such as William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Tubman, Wendell Phillips, Lucretia Mott and Quaker Benjamin Lundy. Those are just some of the people that proved that the justification of slavery by whites was bogus. Isabella was born between 1797 and 1800.

She later changed her name to Sojourner Truth (Narrative of Sojourner Truth, 1875). She was born to Betsy and James. James and Betsy were the slaves of Colonial Ardinburgh Hourly. Colonial Ardinburgh died when Isabella was a baby. She and her parents became the slaves of his son Charles. Isabella was said to have ten to twelve brothers and sisters, but has only seen six of them.

She remembers the two that were younger than her a three-year-old girl and a five-year-old boy. Isabella and Peter her younger brother stayed with their parents until the death of Charles. At an auction to decide where Charles's assets were going to be placed, the people thought that James, Isabella's father wasn't able to do anything anymore. Betsy was given her freedom to care for James. They were able to live comfortable for several years until the death of Betsy.

Betsy was supposed to be fixing something to eat for James in the kitchen. James came into the cellar where they lived and saw that Betsy was lying on the floor choking. She had become ill with palsy. Isabella and Peter were permitted to see their mother's remains and visit with their father. James died a couple of years later.

He was found in a filthy, cold and deserted cabin in the woods. The news of his death reached John Ardinburgh the grandson of Colonial Ardinburgh. Jon decided the James should have a good funeral (Narrative of Sojourner Truth, 1875). A couple of years after James death Isabella was married to another slave, named Thomas. Isabella became the mother of five children. Isabella's trial with slavery started way before she was old enough to know it, but she really felt the pains of slavery when it involved one of her children.

One of Isabella's children got sold to doctor, who took the boy to New York, but sent him back because he was too small. Isabella's son Peter was illegally sold. She eventually got him back but he was severely tortured both physically and emotionally by the people he was sold to. When Isabella became free, Peter and Isabella went to live in New York. Peter got into a lot of trouble. Isabella decided to disown him until he changed.

Peter got arrested and Isabella didn't come to his rescue. Peter called a man from his neighborhood that helped young colored culprits. The man, Mr. Williams told Peter that he had to go on a vessel and away from the city. Peter left the summer of 1839. He wrote a letter to Isabella that was dated October 17, 1840.

He wrote her twice afterwards. She never heard from him again. When Sojourner died she left a legacy that was full of hardships, and triumphs. As a man who experienced slavery first hand Fredrick Douglass is a prime example of a black abolitionist who escaped from slavery and spoke out against the institution out of loyalty to his race. Frederick Baily was born a slave in February 1818.

On Holmes Hill Farm on Maryland's Eastern Shore. The farm was part of an estate owned by Aaron Anthony. Aaron Anthony also managed the plantations of Edward Lloyd V, one of the wealthiest men in Maryland. The main Lloyd Plantation was near the eastern side of Chesapeake Bay, 12 miles from Holmes Hill Farm, in a home Anthony had built near the Lloyd mansion, was where Frederick's first master lived. Frederick's mother, Harriet Baily, worked the cornfields surrounding Holmes Hill. He knew little of his father except that the man was white.

As a child, he had heard rumors that the master, Aaron Anthony was his father. Because Harriet Baily was required to work long hours in the fields, Frederick had been sent to live with his grandmother, Betsey Baily. Betsy Baily lived in a cabin a short distance from Holmes Hill Farm. Her job was to look after Harriet's children until they were old enough to work. Frederick's mother visited him when she could, but he had only a hazy memory of her. He spent his childhood playing in the woods near his grandmother's cabin.

He did not think of himself as a slave during these years. Only gradually did Frederick learn about a person his grandmother would refer to as Old Master and when she spoke of Old Master it was with certain fear. At age 6, Frederick's grandmother had told him that they were taking a long journey. They set out westward they had approached a large elegant home, the Lloyd plantation. His grandmother pointed out 3 children who were his brother Perry, and his sisters Sara and Eliza. His grandmother had told him to join his Plantation, where several children were playing on the grounds.

He did so reluctantly. After a while one of the children yelled out to Frederick that his grandmother was gone. Frederick fell to the ground and wept, he was about to learn the harsh realities of the slave system. Frederick's mother was rarely able to visit her children due to the distance between Holmes Hill Farm and the Lloyd plantation.

Frederick last saw his mother when he was seven years old. He remembered his mother giving a severe scolding to the household cook who disliked Frederick and gave him very little food. A few months after this visit, Harriet Baily died, but Frederick did not learn of this until much later. Frederick gradually learned to read and write. With a little money he had earned doing errands, he bought a copy of The Columbian Orator, a collection of speeches and essays dealing with liberty, democracy, and courage. Frederick was affected by the speeches on freedom in The Columbian Orator, and so began reading local newspapers and began to learn about abolitionists.

He was not quite 13 years old but enlightened with new ideas that both tormented and inspired him. Frederick began to detest slavery. His dreams of freedom were encouraged by the example of other blacks in Baltimore, most of whom were free. But new laws passed by southern state legislators made it very difficult for owners to free their slaves. While apprenticing at the shipyard, Frederick was harassed by white workers who did not want slaves or free blacks competing with them for jobs. One afternoon, a group of white apprentices beat up Frederick and nearly took out one of his eyes.

Hugh Auld, his master was angry when he saw what had happened and attempted to press charges against the assailants. None of the shipyard's white employees would step forward to testify about the beating. Free blacks had little hope of obtaining justice through the southern court system, which refused to accept a black person's testimony against a white person. The case was dropped because of this. In Frederick's spare time he met with a group of educated free blacks and loved the fact that he was a student again. Some of the free blacks formed an educational association called the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society, which Frederick was a part of.

This is where Frederick learned his debating skills. At one of the society's meetings, Frederick met a free black woman named Anna Murray. Anna was a few years older than Frederick and was a servant for a wealthy Baltimore family. Although Anna was a plain, uneducated woman, Frederick admired her qualities of thriftiness, industriousness and religiousness. Anna and Frederick were soon in love and in 1838 they were engaged. In 1843 Douglass was a part of the Hundred Conventions project.

This was the American Anti-Slavery Society's six-month tour of meeting halls throughout the west. Even though Douglass enjoyed his work immensely, his job was not an easy one. When traveling, the lecturers had to live in bad conditions. Douglass was often roughly handled when he refused to sit in the "Negro" sections of trains and steamships, and worst of all some of the meetings that were held in western states were sometimes disrupted by mobs. In 1840, when Fredrick was a member of the group American Anti-Slavery Society they split up. Even though all of them wanted to end slavery they didn't think women should have equal rights.

In Pendleton, Indiana Douglass's hand was broken when a gang of thugs beat him and an associate. Such incidents were common on the western frontier, where abolitionists were often viewed as dangerous fanatics. Despite these incidents, Douglass was sure that he had found his purpose in life. Douglass's main way to fight against slavery was to speak about it, but he had to be discrete with what he said. Fredrick Douglass published the story of his life. He got his William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips wrote introduction's for the book.

His autobiography was bestseller. While all of this was going on Fredrick was still not free. He ran from his master. On December 5, 1846 Hugh Auld signed papers that said Fredrick was free. On December 3, 1847 Fredrick newspaper "North Star" went into presses. Some of Fredrick Douglass's hopes were dashed during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, but he continued to travel widely and lecture on racial issues, national politics, and women's rights.

In the 1870's Douglass moved to Washington, D.C., where he edited a newspaper and became president of Freedman's Bank. As a stalwart Republican, Douglass was appointed marshal (1877-1881) and recorder of deeds (1881-1886) for the District of Columbia, and charg'e d'affaires for Santo Domingo and minister to Haiti (1889-1891). Brilliant, heroic, and complex, Douglass became a symbol of his age and a unique voice for humanism and social justice. His life and thought will always speak profoundly to the meaning of being black in America, as well as the human calling to resist oppression. Douglass died in 1895 after years of trying to preserve a black abolitionist's meaning and memory of the great events he had witnessed and helped to shape. Both Sojourner Truth and Fredrick Douglass were former slaves, and had hard lives.

Both of them tried to reach people by word of mouth. Fredrick Douglass was a great lecturer and Sojourner Truth talked with whomever she came in contact with. I think that Fredrick Douglass definitely had more chances to speak because he was a male. Sojourner and Fredrick believed in some of the same things.

The three main ideas they believed in were; equal rights for women, ending slavery and that God loves us all. Fredrick truly captured all of these things in the motto for the newspaper", Right is of no sex- Truth is of no color- God is the Father of us all, and we are brethren". (History Sourcebook) Conclusion: The abolitionist movement to me started the struggle for African Americans to gain equality in the world. People in the abolition movement and the civil rights movement had a lot of similarities between them, but the thing that bonds them is one common goal which is simply to be FREE.

Bibliography

David W. Blight, Frederick Douglass' Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee (1989);
Waldo E. Martin, The Mind of Frederick Douglass (1984).
Jacqueline Bernard, Journey toward Freedom: The Story of Sojourner Truth (1967);
Hertha Pauli, Her Name Was Sojourner Truth (1962).
Fone r, Philip S. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass: Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860.
New York: International Publishers, 1950.
Fredrick Douglass, The Hypocrisy of American Slavery: July 4, 1852 Fredrick Douglass, The North Star Fredrick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass: An American Slave.
Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University, 1960 Internet: web web All pictures came from: Modern History Sourcebook.