Research Paper on:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in an Historical Context

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who Frederick Douglass is. One of the early pioneers of the civil rights movement, Douglass would work diligently and doggedly to secure educational rights for persons of color during his  lifetime. His achievements signaled enormous milestones in the civil rights journey, and his book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, serves today as a primary source which gives insight  into the mind, dreams and desires of the black man during that particular period of time. Historically speaking, Douglass writing is evident of the 19th century issues facing persons of  color and greatly illustrates the events and people of that era. "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a  man" (Douglas, 107). Frederick Douglass generally wrote and spoke to predominantly white audiences. This shaped his approach toward discussions of liberty and freedom for blacks. Though it seems to  have galled him to face the blatant truth, the white man was still very much in control of how much life, liberty and pursuit of happiness was directly allotted to  the black man. As a result, most of Douglasss work is written for the white establishment. The other obvious reason was that most of the black population at the time  could neither read nor write. Most were still slaves and white Southerners viewed Douglass as somewhat of an anomaly. An educated black man went against everything they had determined was  right about blacks. This was another issue to which Douglass took exception. He determined that it was education which would bring the black man onto a level playing field and  he determined to make that possible for all of black America. Douglas astonished those he spoke with, and soon the Anti-slavery organization asked him to tour around the country