The Hessian :: essays research papers

Frederick Douglass was an emancipated slave who passed from one master to another until hefinally found the satisfaction of being his own he went finished al nearly as many names asmasters. His mothers family name, trace sufficient at least as far back as 1701 (FD, 5) wasBailey, the name he bore until his flight to freedom in 1838. His father may or may nothave been a white man named Anthony, still Douglass never firmly validated or rejected thispossibility. During transit to overbold York (where he became a freedman) his name becameStanley, and upon arrival he changed it again to Johnson. In New Bedford, where there weretoo many Johnsons, he found it necessity to change it once more, and his final choice wasDouglass, taken, as suggested to him by a white friend and benefactor, from a story by SirWalter Scott (although the character in that story bore only a single s in his name). every throughout, he clung to Frederick, to preserve a sniff out of my identity (Norton, 1988).Th is succession of names is illustrative of the duty period undergone by one returningfrom the world of the dead, which in a sense is what the move from oppression to libertyis. Frederick Douglass not only underwent a renewing but, being intelligent andendowed with the gift of Voice, he brought back with him a sharp perspective on the blightsof racism and slavery. Dropped into America during the heat of square away as he was, hisappearance on the scene of debate, upon his own self-emancipation, was a valuable blessingfor the abolitionists. In their struggles so far, there had been many virtuoso(prenominal) arguers butfew who could so convincingly portray the evils of slavery, an act which seemed to entreatlittle short of firsthand experience, but which also required a clear understanding of it. Douglass had both, and proved himself an incredibly powerful weapon for reform. trance theidentity of his father is uncertain, it is generally accepted that the man was white,giving Dougl ass a mixed ancestry. Mirroring this, he was also blessed with an eye thatcould bring into concentre different perspectives and, just as many multi-racial children todayare able to speak multiple languages with ease, he had the ability to translate in the mosteloquent fashion between the worlds of the black man and white man. Thus, ironically, the painful beginning of Douglass existence was inadvertently made (by him) into a treasurefor us (being generally white America). The story of the American Dream, wherein a young