Frederick Douglas on Equality and Justice for Slaves and Women

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The idea of Americanism as viewed by Frederick Douglass comes in two variations. The first being the Americans who’s fathers fought for unalienable rights given to each man, Americans who love liberty, welcome refugees from around the world with open arms, the purest of Christians following the word of God. The second type of American being the more truthful in the eyes of Douglass is the American whom sits idly on the accomplishments of these same fathers that fought tooth and nail against the British for freedom. When the opportunity to create massive change and liberation for slavery and the rights of women, to stand by these unalienable rights that are supposedly extended to each man, the argument falls upon deaf ears. The liberties that Americans so gleefully claim are nothing but a sham, hiding behind Christianity and riding along the coattails of their fathers hard fought change for such liberties. Frederick Douglass criticizes what it means to be an American and argues that the liberties promised within the constitution should be extended beyond the wealthy oppressors; the freedom to be ones own should be extended to all citizens of the United States. The time to make change is now while America is still young and in its development. In order for Americanism to reflect the ideology in which many of its citizens blindly view it as, Frederick argues that the government and its citizens must stop hiding behind their inconsistent politics, fake Christianity, and to not shrink away at the site of change in order to bring about truth to the words that their founders fought so hard to ink to paper providing equal freedom to all citizens. Both slaves and women within the United States felt the vast inconsistencies that plagued t... ... middle of paper ... ...ing the general public to view their fellow men, as less than what they truly are, their equals. The institution of slavery has blinded the clergy and churches of America, causing them to sit idly by as an injustice is being brought upon God’s people, a god that all men share. Christianity has become a tool in which the separation of whom receives liberties and whom does not becomes its clearest. As Douglass says “ At the very moment that they are thanking God for the enjoyment of civil and religious liberty […] they are utterly silent in respect to a law which robs religion of its chief significance, and makes it utterly useless to a world lying in wickedness.” Christianity has become a tool of oppression for the elite; used to deny unalienable rights to their fellow man, the same rights their own fathers had fought so valiantly for during the founding of America.

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