Comparing F. Douglass and B.T. Washington Essays - American Slaves

Comparing F. Douglass and B.T. Washington Compare the Different Views of slavery and the solution to overcoming prejudice presented in the two books written by F. Douglass and B.T. Washington. *********************************************************** Equality! During the late 19th century, there were many men begging for equality for all races in America. Many of these people wrote autobiographies, including Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass. Although these two men were aiming for the same goal in America, their opinions were extremely different. Frederick Douglass was born in approximately 1818. From the time where his mistress taught him to read, Frederick was not satisfied in being forced to work endlessly, for the reward of another man. He quickly became eager to run away at the first time that presented itself. Throughout his entire autobiography, Douglass shows the injustices that the black man was forced to suffer. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was published in 1845, almost 20 years before the official destruction of slavery. Even though Douglass eventually escaped from slavery, he describes the Southern white people in the book to be anti- Negroes. Which makes sense, considering some of the horrific people he was forced to obey. Unlike Douglass call for freedom and equality of the races, Booker T. Washingtons Up From Slavery is the optimistic views of obtaining the equality after being freed. Booker T. Washington was born in 1856. He was freed from slavery while he was younger than 10 years old. Although Washington started on the climb to a great education with next to nothing, he was very optimistic on his races chance to reach equality with the white people. Although he constantly felt the pressure of what failure would do to his race, he still believed that anyone would be rewarded with success, as long as they were honestly striving. Up from Slaverys ring is much more optimistic than the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass. But, it also has to be remembered that Washington lived in the Reconstruction Era, while Douglass lived in the Era of the Civil War and Awkward Peace. Both Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass were strong Negro leaders. Despite the fact that these men died 20 apart from each other, they lived completely different lives and their books express their very different views. Although their autobiographies have extremely different tones, they were striving for the same goal, equality.