Frederick Douglass’ Paper Essay Example for Free

Frederick Douglass’ Paper Essay This map portrays a mass exodus into the Northern states as well as Canada. The trip from Louisiana to Indian was an arduous expedition taking several weeks or months to transverse. In this trek African Americans prove their stalwart bravado in the face of danger and prove that their freedom is worth the trail . Frederick Douglass With the idea African American influence in the Civil War, the name of Frederick Douglass is synonymous with freedom, or free blacks. His belief in an unshackled African American race led him to be the spokesman of abolishing slavery. His importance in shaping the fate of the Civil War is found in his being a voice for the freed slave, the oppressed slave, and the sympathizers of abolition. He changed the course of the war simply by speaking out and demanding to be heard, as well as his actions against oppression. His advocacy in abolition changed the tide of not just the war, but also the mentality of many whites to the capabilities of blacks, their intellect, as well as their strength and ingenuity in battle. Douglass was not only a lecturer on anti-slavery but he was a journalist and writer as well. Douglass was invited to join the Anti-Slavery Society and journeyed on a circuit across the Northern states to speak out against slavery by using his own life as a basis for others to become abolitionists. During one of Douglass’ speeches in Pendleton Indiana he is accosted by a mob and has his right hand broken, only a friend and fellow abolitionist stopped the mob from murdering Douglass; in this story and many others, Frederick proves to be a guiding light for other African Americans to unite and be free. Along with these feats of bravery, Frederick Douglass has a magazine entitled Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and subsequently has another paper entitled, Douglass Monthly in which he speaks of the horrendous nature of slavery, its disgrace to humanity and ways in which free blacks are regaining their lives in this country. (Tracy O. 2005). Bordewich describes Frederick Douglass as such, Douglass was one of the most charismatic members of an emerging generation of black intellectuals who were beginning to give African Americans a national voice through antislavery lecturing, journalism, and the ministry. More than anything else, however, it was the steady growth of independent black churches that provided the African American with what John Mercer Langston, the found of the Ohio State Anti-Slavery Society, a black organization called the ‘opportunity to be himself, to test his own powers. ’ (226) The bases of Douglass’ speeches were to encourage abolitionists’ fight in freedom of the African Americans. Many parts of the Northern states were still segregated, especially in areas that could prove to encourage African Americans to learn and be educated. In a Philadelphia, Robert Purvis instituted a black library . In New York, David Ruggles instituted a similar library. Blacks were rising up; they were speaking their minds about suffrage, about oppression, discrimination on public transportation, and schools. Frederick Douglass aided in the movement of a race to define themselves as free to a forming nation, and with the idea of personal liberty laws helping to protect fugitives once they entered the North, this movement quickly became a staple in Douglass’ speeches as well as becoming a changing force in the course of the Civil War. (Bordewich, 226). In striking contrast to white abolitionists, black abolitionists incited their own personal struggles with slavery to get their point across that humans do not belong in bondage. In extreme cases of rebellion groups, some believed in the taking up of arms against their former masters and in the issue of slavery using the events happening on the Amistad d as a vehicle to incite further rebellion and to stoke the fires of freedom and to attest that the supposed supremacy of white slave owners could be overthrown (Bordewich, 227). The antislavery movement, with the help of Frederick Douglass, became one which, though devastated the South’s economy, defined the history of a nation during the Civil War. During his speech with the Anti-Slavery Society, Douglass met with many other like-minded abolitionists, and the lectures proved to be indispensable in allowing the general public to know what abolition was and why it was so integral in the Civil War. As Bordewich describes of Douglass’ life during these lectures. The antislavery movement provided Douglass and a host of his fellow speakers with a forum for their views and life experience that African Americans had never enjoyed before. The stories that they told of floggings, sadistic overseers, shattered families, and prostituted mothers and sisters overwhelmed skeptical Yankees for whom slavery was an unpleasant but abstract national problem, and turned thousands of them into active abolitionists. Douglass soon became one of the movement’s most popular lecturers. ‘All the other speakers seemed tame after Frederick Douglass,’ Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote, after a convention at Boston’s Faneuil Hall. His immensely popular autobiography, first published n 18445, made his name close to a household word (227) Douglass was so adamant about his views of abolition that once during a train ride where he paid for his first class ticket he refused to leave his seat despite the insistence of the conductor. When his refusal couldn’t be tolerated any longer, the conductor had six men physically lift him from his seat to try and remove him due to the enforcement of Jim Crow laws. (Bordewich, 228). The Anti-Slavery Society offered Douglass the opportunity to lecture in New England in the spring of 1843. The lectures began in Vermont and New Hampshire and they ended in Ohio and Indiana. As Bordewich states of this event, Douglass was selected as one of the corps of traveling speakers who would cross the country. He was thrilled. This was his breakthrough, his opportunity to carry his message to a national audience. ‘I never entered upon any work with more heart and hope,’ Douglass wrote. ‘All that the American people needed, I thought was light. Could they know slavery as I knew it, they would hasten to the work of its extinction. ’ 228. Among some of the other noted lecturers there were Charles L. Remond, Henry Highland Gernet, Amos Beaman, and Charles M. Ray. During this period, Frederick Douglass found within himself the ability to offer to an audience the reality of slavery through his own tale of it, and his eventual fugitive state and then freedom. The Church In times of crises, faith is tested, and through this testing there is a revelation of belief and a growing of churches. During the Civil War, both the enslaved blacks and the freed blacks depended on a source of stability and in no other place was this found more strongly than in the church. The church provided a meetinghouse for abolition events (lectures, etc. ), it gave the black community not only a place in which to worship but also a place in which to become united as a people. Not only were many Northern abolitionists found within the sight of the church and religion but also many blacks found within the church a place of sanctuary. As Bordewich states on the subject of black revival religion. Between 1863 and 1846, African Methodist Episcopal congregations grew from eighty-six to nearly three hundred, and spread from the churche’s orginal base in Philadephia as faw wast as Indiana. Black Baptist churches, meanwile, had grown from just ten in 1830 to thirty-four in 1844. Not surprisingly, black churches were usually outspoken in their denunciation of slavery, and many of them were woeven into the web of the abolitionist underground, like the Bethel AME church in Indianapolis, a key station on the Underground Railroad, and Cincinnati’s Zion Baptist Church, which regularysheltered fugitives in its basement (226). Religion was also a source by which the African Americans could be educated. In this turn of events it is not necessarily the African Americans who were a great influence on the Civil War but the war gave them an opportunity to become educated and this happened mainly through studying the bible and learning to read it and become familiar with its morality. In the South, the general opinion was that education for blacks was not stunted through un-exposure to education, but the North held a very different idea ; being removed from the obstacle of slavery allowed freeman to discover their propensity for learning. It is through religion that this education was made possible, as Glatthaar states, â€Å"The more Southern black soldiers studied the Bible, and the better they learned to read and write, the sooner proper character, represented by morality, thrift, industry, and striving for perfection, would take shape among these new freedmen. In turn, this would help to uplift the entire South† (225). The view taken by the abolitionist movement in regards to religion and education was that in the reconstruction it was essential for African Americans to be able to read, write and do arithmetic. One of the overwhelming sentiments that came out of the Civil War was the engrossment of religion to the newly freed blacks. Their strength now came form a religious source and this source gave them the means by which to discover for themselves the true meaning of freedom and gratitude for that freedom. This can best be described through McPherson’s quoting of Susie King Taylor , There are good friends to the negro. Why, there are still thousands that have not bowed to Baal†¦Man thinks two hundred years is a long time, and it is, too; but it is only as a week to God, and in his own time-I know I shall not live to see the day, but it will come-the South will be like the North, and when it comes it will be prized higher than we prize the North to-day. God is just; when he created man he made him in his image, and never intended on should misuse the other. All men are born free and equal in his sight (314). McPherson goes on to give detail about sentiment in the church, and Rev. J. Sella Martin a former slave became pastor of the Joy Street Baptist Church in Boston and wrote this note to Frederick Douglass, Just think of Dimmick and Slemmer (Union Officers) sending back the fugitives that sought protection of them. They refuse to let white men sell the Southerners food, and yet they return slaves to work on the plantation to raise all the food that the Southerners want. They arrest traitors, and yet make enemies of the colored people, North and South; and if they do force the slave to fight for his master, as the only hope of being benefited by the war, they may thank their own cowardice and prejudice for the revenge of the negro’s aid and the retribution of his bullet while fighting against hem in the Southern States. I received a letter form Mobile, in which the writer states that the returning of those slaves by Slemmer has made the slaves determined to fight for the South, in the hope that their masters may set them free after the war, an when remonstrated with, they say that hey North will not let them fight for them (23). The influence that can be seen today with religion and African Americans is the vastness of churches rising across America, and the gospel hymns inspired by wanting to break free of slavery.

For Whom The Bell Tolls Essay -- Literary Analysis, Ernest Hemingway

The novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, written by Ernest Hemingway, is a story of passionate love throughout the brutality of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway uses his personal experiences to portray the true meaning and feeling of this book. Ernest Miller Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The neighborhood he grew up in was straight-laced and rigidly Protestant. Hemingway started his literary career publishing his work in his school magazine. Later on in life, he signed up to join the military in World War II, but was rejected due to his defective left eye from birth. Instead, he enlisted in the Missouri National Guard and remained on the lookout for opportunities to progress to the front. In 1918, he sailed to Europe to become an ambulance driver in Northern Italy. There, Hemingway was seriously injured and while in the hospital fell in love with his nurse, Agnes Hannah Von Kurowsky. She was the model that Hemingway used as Catherin e Barkley in A Farewell To Arms. In 1919, he returned to Oak Park and earned a medal for his valor in Italy. He and his wife had their first son, John, in October 1923. Three years later, in 1926, Hemingway published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises. Sadly, on December 6, 1928, he learned that his father had committed suicide. Years later, during his divorce with his second wife, he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and it was published in October of 1940. The next month, Hemingway married his third wife, Martha Gellhorn. In 1944, he traveled to London and not only fell in love with Mary Welsh, but was involved in a serious car accident and was thought to be dead. In 1945, his third marriage failed and later that year was in yet another severe c... ... brutality of the Spanish Civil War. Hemingway’s simplistic language style, war imagery, mountainous setting, and theme of a heroic protagonist all contribute to his personal experiences in life and at war. Much of his style resembles the personal experiences he had in life with family, love, and war. The imagery that is applied in this piece of literature mirrors what Hemingway had seen and imagined during his service in Italy and his experiences during the relationships which he partook. The setting represents the area in which Hemingway had seen and envisioned Spain. The various themes of this story describe Hemingway’s political views on war and outlook on the morals of life. In conclusion, the qualities that Ernest Hemingway possesses in his writing skills are truly remarkable and they are evidently depicted in this amazing piece of classic literature.

First Perceptions of Blanche Dubois Essay

â€Å"What are your early perceptions of Blanche? † In what ways has Tennessee Williams created this response? The delineation of Blanche Dubois as seen in the first chapter of Tennessee Williams ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ is one of astonishment and acceptance. She has obviously had to travel some distance to reach her destination and I think that this has taken its toll on Blanche and affects her patience later on in the scene, and which may also explain her growing hysteria. The first time the Blanche is depicted by the stage directions, the reader (or view of the play) obviously notices that she does not fit in with the poor, run down area of New Orleans that she had entered: â€Å"Her expression is one of shocked disbelief†¦ looking as if she were arriving at a summer tea or cocktail party in the garden district†¦ Her delicate beauty must avoid a strong light. There is something about her uncertain manner, as well as her white clothes, that suggests a moth† From this description, we can infer that, like a moth that is attracted to the light or flame, which will undoubtedly burn it, she too could be attracted to something that could hurt her in some way. The white that she is wearing also suggests purity and innocence, possibly reflecting her arrival to the alien world. Throughout the first scene, Blanche is constantly interacting with the different characters of the play, including Eunice, Stella and Stanley. She also only talks to these characters singularly, which allows for dramatic irony to develop and also concentrates the interaction between her and another character, which allows her to express her different views to the three characters in the opening scene. I think this allows Blanche to communicate different aspects of her character, and her social class, which seems to alter the way she communicates with the different characters she encounters. Blanche talks to Eunice as if she has not spoken to someone of Eunice’s class very often. She responds to Eunice with short and simple answers and does not seem to want to get into a conversation with her. Towards the end of their conversation, Blanche seems to get impatient, as she wants to be left alone and has a small outburst: â€Å"What I meant was I’d like to be left alone†. I think this reflects Blanche’ belief of her social class, and that she is above others (especially the black, lower class). After her encounter with Eunice, Blanche is given a short amount of time to reflect on her new surroundings, which she is obviously not comfortable with or use to by her statement to herself: â€Å"I’ve got to keep hold of myself†. This shows the tension and hysteria building up within her, which will later on be released. Blanche is much more open and talkative with her sister, and is thrilled to see her, although disappointed to see that Stella is living in such an area of New Orleans. There seems to be tension between the two sisters, created by their uneasiness of how they talk of their past and the anxious, tension building stares that they give each other, and the way that Blanche seems to control the conversation; trying to keep herself talking until she has to stop and realize the reality of her situation and where she is. Blanche also seems to be very defensive of herself, and talks of her pain of watching the people around her die in her own home. She seems to think that Stella may look down on her for losing Bell Reve, and becomes hysterical towards the end, until she reaches another climax and bursts out with: â€Å"I let the place go? Where were you? In bed with your – Polak! † . Blanche also seems concerned with her own self image: â€Å"But don’t look at me, Stella, no, no, no, not till I’ve bathed and rested! â€Å". I think that this also is due to her class and her belief that she is of a higher social status than the people around her (with the possible exception of her sister). Her other weakness seems to be her drinking. She nervously looks around in Stella’s and Stanley’s flat for some alcohol and has some, but later on says (indirectly) that she had not had one and that she would only drink one a day. I think this may show Blanche’ nervousness and what she may do when she is nervous. She therefore may use alcohol as an escape from reality, and the place, which she finds herself in. Blanche seems a bit uneasy around Stanley when they first encounter, and is much less talkative than she is to Stella (possibly, again due to her social class beliefs). Also, I think she is not used to people being so direct with her, as Stanley asks her a personal question to do with her last love quite early. This ends in a climax and her proclaiming: â€Å"I’m afraid ‘m going to be sick†. Looking at the scene as a whole, I can see that Blanche is not use to her new environment, and that she is finding it difficult to get used to her settings, possibly because she was caught completely by surprise when she discovered where her sister lived. This I think has took its toll on Blanche as it has weakened her throughout the first scene and made her slightly hysterical.

Oedipus the King - 1315 Words

Lorne Coughlin Literary Genres: Drama and Essay September 20, 2007 The tragedy of Oedipus Sophocles is one of the best and most well-known ancient Greek tragedians. He influenced the development of drama especially by adding a third character and thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. Even though he wrote 123 plays, he is mostly famous for his three plays concerning Oedipus and Antigone: these are often known as the Theban plays or The Oedipus Cycle. One of these plays is â€Å"Oedipus the King†, which will be discussed throughout this essay. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus learns, as the story unfolds, that he committed both patricide and incest. Sophocles’ use of dramatic irony emphasizes how limited†¦show more content†¦This proves that he is in control of his destiny and failing because of who he is. Also, another turning point of the story is when the details surrounding the death of Laà ¯os are unveiled. After having learnt from the drunken man that his so-called parents from Corinth were not his real par ents, Oedipus was sad and enraged: â€Å"I contained myself that night, though I felt anger/And a sinking heart† (64). Afterwards, Oedipus saw an oracle (page 65) that said to him that he would be his father’s murderer. These events caused him to leave Corinth as he did not want to harm his â€Å"so-called† father. Then, he meets Laà ¯os’ chariot and out of rage, kills all of them including Laà ¯os: â€Å"I struck him in my rage/[†¦]I killed them all.† (65). Again, by being who he is, he committed a severe crime as it is, a crime that would lead to his destruction later on. The fact that he believes heavily in prophecies and in what the oracles (spokesman of the Gods) said (he left because of it) and was severely upset by the drunken man’s comments are signs reflecting his behaviour, who he really is. Thus, his personality is the root of all his actions, as bad or good as they are. There is another take to this event. Oedipus could have killed Laà ¯os, not only because he was enraged, but also out of hubris over which has the right of way. â€Å"Hubris† here can be seen as exaggerated self pride that leads to fatal retribution. ItShow MoreRelatedOedipus The King Of Oedipus868 Words   |  4 Pageschallenge that waits upon one. Confidence overpowers cockiness. The cocky trait is heavily represented in the story â€Å"Oedipus the King† (c. 430 B.C.) by Sophocles. In the story, Oedipus the king of Thebes has the cocky trait and it results in torture for life. Oedipus’s arrogant personality shows throughout the story as he tries to find the killer of the former king of Thebes, his father. Oedipus tends to deem himself as a god throughout the story which plays a big role in interaction with people around himRead MoreOedipus The King : Oedipus1328 Words   |  6 PagesOedipus the King Oedipus had a lot of different character traits both good and bad. He had a good conscience; he cared deeply for the people in his life and protected them. He was very empathetic, smart and a dependable man who lived his life with great integrity. He was an honest man with strong moral principles and lived a righteous life. He found it difficult to live anything less than a righteous life; when he realized what had become of his life, his guilty conscience consumed him. He was filledRead MoreOedipus The King Of Oedipus1019 Words   |  5 Pageswhat makes Oedipus actions in his quarrel with Teiresias and also throughout the play so dramatically compelling, is the fact that the audience knows the outcome of the story. We know Oedipus fate even before he does, and there is no suspense about the outcome itself, instead, the audience anxiously awaits Oedipus to reveal his fate unto himself in his desperate quest to rid his city of the terrible plague, or maybe even more so, to simply d iscover his own unfortunate tale. Oedipus is relentlessRead MoreOedipus the King1125 Words   |  5 PagesOedipus the King by Sophocles is about Oedipus, a man doomed by his fate. Like most tragedies, #8220;Oedipus the King#8221; contains a tragic hero, a heroic figure unable to escape his/her own doom. This tragic hero usually has a hamartia or a tragic flaw which causes his/hers#8217; downfall. The tragic flaw that Sophocles gives Oedipus is hubris (exaggerated pride or self-confidence), which is what caused Oedipus to walk right into the fate he sought to escape. Pride like that of Oedipus hadRead MoreOedipus the King1065 Words   |  5 PagesSophocles’ use of irony is amongst the greatest of all time, as demonstrated masterfully in Oedipus the King. He displays both ambition and understated humour by using irony in diverse ways, both cosmic and dramatic, as well as verbal irony to add a greater level of wit. Every word spoken holds great symbolic weight and those words contribute to a narrative that reflects the gods plans. Adversely the work of Johnathan Swift takes the form of a social satire, combining economic arguments with a sociopoliticalRead MoreOedipus the King1164 Words   |  5 Pagesmen of high reputation and good fortune such as Oedipus.† This attitude, commonly found in men of high station is not specifically identified as pride in the case of Oedipus and, indeed, different readings can place Oedipus’ great flaw in a number of areas. It seems as if Sophocles intended to emphasize the more common interpr etation of Oedipus’ flaw being excessive pride, but other interpretations, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1967 film Oedipus Rex, present other possibilities as the main characterRead MoreOedipus the King773 Words   |  4 PagesThe Greek drama Oedipus the King, written by Sophocles, is regarded as one of the most perfect tragedies ever written. The tragedy Oedipus the King is highly esteemed partly due to its use of dramatic irony. Dramatic irony means that facts or events, which are not known to the characters on stage or in a fictional work, are known to the audience or reader. Sophocles uses dramatic irony to demonstrate how little the protagonist really knows. The main dramatic irony in Oedipus the King contrasts Oedipus’sRead MoreOedipus The King, Or Oedipus Rex1249 Words   |  5 Pagesmost famous probably being Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, or Oedipus Rex. For a play to be considered a tragedy, it must have a tragic hero. According to Aristotleâ €™s definition of a tragic hero, they must be a decent moral person, of high social standing who eventually meets with a tragic downfall, of their own doing, suffering more than deserved, and realizing their error too late. In the play Oedipus the King, Oedipus is the epitome of a tragic hero. Oedipus Rex was generally a â€Å"good† person; heRead MoreOedipus The King And Oedipus At Colonus1567 Words   |  7 Pagesworks of Sophocles and particularly evident in Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus, not only exalts the Greek nationalism present at the date of composition but dictates the course of the story, evolving as its tragic hero works through his fated anguish. Hubris, defined as exaggerated pride or self-confidence, is the earmark character trait of Oedipus and perhaps Creon. However, it is the abandonment of his sanctimonious nature that distinguishes Oedipus as a true hero. The theme of the evolutionRead MoreOedipus The King, And Oedipus At Colonus1343 Words   |  6 Pages Oedipus, a play written by Sophocles, has become a staple in the study of a Tragic hero in classic literature. When this was written in the fifth century, theatre was more than a means of entertainment but almost a religious event. Robert Fagles goes even further by saying tha t†theatre was not only a religious festival; it was also an aspect of the city’s political life.† (Fagles) . Greek dramas were presented only twice a year during religious festivals that honored Dionysus, the god of wines