Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass wrote an article titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’. This narrative aimed at the abolishment of slavery in the US (Douglass, 1845). The publication is primarily a work of political agitations. This is because his goal was to abolish slavery and convince his readers to fight for abolition. According to many individuals, his work was regarded as sentimental fiction. Furthermore, the book was more inclined towards racial stereotypes.
Sentimental literature can be defined as literature which was aimed at training and educating the sensibilities of the reader. This meant that the readers were able to respond properly to emotional situations such as condemnation and pity. In this case, Douglass had an unmistakable response to the issue of slavery. According to his literature work, Douglass reacted to the slavery issue with sympathy to the slaves and anger to the cruelty of their masters. For instance, this made him respond sentimentally and come up with the literature. Therefore, the aim of the book was to agitate for the abolition of slavery in that era (Miller, 1995).
Douglass was highly degraded by virtue of being a slave. This is because; slaves were not taught how to write. On the contrary, his literature work sold up to 500,000 in its first three years. This proved somewhat unusual since, the pre-existing genre had its influence. In addition, he was also degraded for his involvement with the slavery issue in African nations such as Liberia. Soon afterwards, his book was out of print and Stowe’s fictional novel titled Uncle Tom’s Cabin totally eclipsed his work (Miller, 1995).
In conclusion, Douglass’ perception of money significantly differs from Benjamin Franklin and Henry David Thoreau. His comments on labor in the earlier 1800s were striking on the relation of work. He points out on the issue of the fierce nature of masters to their slaves whereby, the slave poured his toil to the master (Douglass, 1845). This showed how the slaves were being robbed by their masters. Also, many of his works depict his emphasis on a Marxist methodology. On the contrary, Franklin made significant emphasis on the relation of time with money and moral goodness. This is highly railed against by Douglass, who regards the practice as a system of controlling the social classes in the region. In relation to Thoreau, the mid nineteenth century was burdened with revolutionary activities. Thoreau and Franklin have similar interest in terms of money and labor. Although they all approach “freedom” differently, they all place it at the center of the “American Dream” (Miller, 1995).
References
Douglass, F. (1845). A narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. London: Collins Publishers.
Miller, W. (1995). Frederick Douglass: The last day of slavery. New York: Lee & Low Books.
