Frederick Douglass - the Most Influential African American Writer-Politician of the Nineteenth-Century.
Frederick Douglass
The Most Influential African-American Writer of the Nineteenth-Century
Author RUID: XX-XXX-8426 4/22/2009
This 5-page essay intends to show the reasons why Frederick Douglass’s recognition should not only be as one of the most famous, and prominent African-American writers of the nineteenth-century; but also as one of the most influential political, and social leaders in American History.
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and Page | 1 physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." - Frederick Douglass (1857) A timeless statement made by a man considered a literary genius, a literary savant, even someone guided by divine intervention. Someone whose critics called a liar, and doubted he could ever write in such eloquent, and intelligent way; only because at one point in his life he had been a slave. Someone whose literary influence reached so deep into the minds of its readers, that it helped, and still helps shape the course of American history. This is why Frederick Douglass’ recognition should go beyond being only a great writer; it should also include being the most influential African-American writer and socio-political figure of his time. It is possible that someone’s journey through life, beginning as a child who rose from the subjugations of slavery and its innocent benightedness, to a free man shaping the socio-political landscape of a nation under the resplendent shroud of knowledge may seem to some quotidian enough, and facile to accomplish. Anyone can write a book invoking the ethos, and pathos of its readers to change history. Surely!,
The Most Influential African-American Writer of the Nineteenth-Century
Author RUID: XX-XXX-8426 4/22/2009
This 5-page essay intends to show the reasons why Frederick Douglass’s recognition should not only be as one of the most famous, and prominent African-American writers of the nineteenth-century; but also as one of the most influential political, and social leaders in American History.
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and Page | 1 physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." - Frederick Douglass (1857) A timeless statement made by a man considered a literary genius, a literary savant, even someone guided by divine intervention. Someone whose critics called a liar, and doubted he could ever write in such eloquent, and intelligent way; only because at one point in his life he had been a slave. Someone whose literary influence reached so deep into the minds of its readers, that it helped, and still helps shape the course of American history. This is why Frederick Douglass’ recognition should go beyond being only a great writer; it should also include being the most influential African-American writer and socio-political figure of his time. It is possible that someone’s journey through life, beginning as a child who rose from the subjugations of slavery and its innocent benightedness, to a free man shaping the socio-political landscape of a nation under the resplendent shroud of knowledge may seem to some quotidian enough, and facile to accomplish. Anyone can write a book invoking the ethos, and pathos of its readers to change history. Surely!,
Bibliography: - Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life”, The Norton Anthology – Western Literature. 8th.ed./Vol.2 Lawall, University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, MA 2004 Page | 6 David W. Blight “Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln: A Relationship in Language, Politics, and Memory.” Marquette University Press, Milwaukee, WI 2001 Charles Perdue, “Interview with Cornelious Garner” May 18th, 1937. “Weevils in the wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves” Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN 1976 The Black Collegian Online “Famous African American Leaders” http://www.blackcollegian.com/african/aaprofil.shtml (2009). - - - Rutgers University – Newark NJ