Crevecoeur Speech Thesis

Frederick Douglass composes remarkable points in his speech regarding slaves being disconnected from the state and how America’s shouts of liberty and equality are hollow mockery, which complicates how Crevecoeur portrays America as being the most perfect society existing, where man is free.
Crevecoeur paints America as new and improved, where people feel the national pride, where there's no invisible power, and the rich and the poor are closer together in society than that in Europe. A significant aspect in Crevecoeur’s speech is that men in America, “receive ample rewards for their labours; these accumulated rewards procure them lands; those lands confer on them the title of freemen,” (Crevecoeur 3). In America, if you work hard, the more

Crevecoeur brings about a topic in relation to what an American is. In Crevecoeurs mind, an American is someone, “who leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds,” (Crevecoeur 4). Yet in Douglass’ speech, it is understood that these prejudices are still in the present, unchanged. Douglass makes this point by stating, “Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future,” (Douglass 5). The significance of Douglass’ point is that there are people who say everyone is equal, when really people are still treated unfairly based on their color. However, Douglass still believes that America is young enough to bring about change and to escape its old ways and yes, eventually become new and improved. The complications between these commentaries on who and what an American is, reveal that although America continued to have injustice, the young nation was still maturing and had great opportunity to flourish and right its