Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Good evening.
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My name is Justine Saunders and I'm going to be
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presenting how Frederick Douglass was able to tell his truth
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throughout history.
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So let's just get right into it.
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So, uh, yeah, throughout history, there's always been a struggle
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for existence, Right?
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So the course of humanity is marked by a history
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of constant struggles between class, gender, race, certainly religion and
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many other demographics that I didn't list.
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But there is a history of constant struggles between people
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in the humanity and Douglas believed, right, that if he
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showed the world or enlighten the world rather about the
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horrible realities, the horrors of american slavery, then, you know,
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humanity could then be, uh, can realize what people shared.
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Um, and then it could become abolished.
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Right? So this is any very idealistic uh, philosophy that
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he, that he proposes.
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It's it's presenting, you know, how the world should be,
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uh, which is very idealistic, oppose a realistic, which presents
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how things are.
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So he is a, I guess a figure for early
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idealistic, um I guess writing and thought and also I
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want to stress the uniqueness of american slavery.
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Right? So Frederick Douglass was born into american slavery.
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This is different than other historical forms of slavery, which
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there has been many forms of slavery throughout history.
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This is different because american slavery generational, right?
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So Children were born into slavery, there is no way
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out of it.
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Um, It was also one of the first major form
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of slavery that was sold, a race based.
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So uh, you had Children who could not uh leave
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slavery in the past.
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Another form of slavery, you had people who could leave
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after a certain re compensation period had passed, but this
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was not the case of american slavery was very, very
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brutal. Um but more about uh uh Frederick Douglass, he
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was a very strong, you know, literary artist.
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He utilized the literary technique of appeal paint those ito
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logos throughout his work is definitely the narrative of Frederick
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autobiography of Frederick douglass.
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And he has a very strong writing ability that he
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acquires throughout throughout his life.
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And he's very important, you know, to narrative writing.
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This is uh, one of the most early and was
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informed, important narrative compositions uh, throughout this enlightenment period.
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And you know, his truth is reflected in several themes
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throughout the alignment period that we're going to get to.
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And the first here is finding Douglas.
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The first truth is that, you know, education thought, you
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know, how did education affect Frederick Douglass is, you know,
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his truth, you know, uh literacy and education, you know,
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mm, they are so important for a free society and
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these were denied to african americans.
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So slavery isn't, isn't an ideology correct.
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Um, uh, it's, it's a mindset, it seeks, it seeks
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to enslave a mindset and uphold another, so it's very
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hard to to defeat.
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Um and you know, a lot of americans, or excuse
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me, slave owners and white americans were afraid, you know,
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to, you know, afraid for african americans to become litter
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size because, you know, of um retribution and the fear
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of abolition of the ideology and the institution of slavery.
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So upon hearing that, you know, Mr old.
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Um and from the narrative, he Frederick Douglas wants the
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slaves to remain, you know, excuse me, Mr old wants
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the slaves to remain illiterate and Frederick Douglass realizes the
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importance of reading and education and literacy after that.
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Um and you know, so even though that Mr Douglas
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was born into slavery, his mind was never enslave, you
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know, certainly um acknowledges the pathway he quotes from slavery
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to freedom as from the narrative.
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And you know, he usually is his paint those in
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this narrative and here's an example where he says slavery
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was a poor school when the human intellect in a
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heart and this is very, very true.
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They were very brutal for denying people knowledge, you know,
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free and accessible education is necessary for any free society.
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This is what he pushes this, this, this concept and
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its hold up today.
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Yeah, the next is, uh, he's one of the true
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that he's always, he's a radical thinker.
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He's really radical.
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So how is Douglas radical?
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His thought is very radical.
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You know, what does it mean?
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He challenges, what's it, what does it mean for the
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human spirit to be free?
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He poses these questions to the americans who we're facing
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a moral crisis in this time.
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You know, slavery is an institution no different than marriage,
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right? And it's an ideology like no different than fascism,
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where liberalism or conservatism.
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So it's very hard to defeat.
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So he had, he had to produce something very, very
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radical in order to produce, uh, like to defeat these
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strong, strong force of slavery's.
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And african americans were large, later literate and unpublished at
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this time.
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So that that is a radical point in and of
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itself. Um, he's also radical because he produces something called
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the duality of Christianity.
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So the rally Christianity is, you know, christians Say one
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thing, but they are completely different in the fact that
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the acts were 100% different.
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Uh, radical challenges to religious norms of the American South,
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correct. Um, he challenges, you know, these norms, he's, uh,
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he quotes in the book, you know, luke 2012, excuse
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me, 47 which quotes that, you know, any slave that
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disobeys his master's shall receive.
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Um many, many lashings or a beating or punishment.
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And that's the south used to justify slavery.
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So there's definitely justified slavery in the south.
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And he questions his through his thought through his writings
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in his time.
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And um you know, during slavery, he writes, you know,
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I have the quote quota here.
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Um you know, he writes how, how he himself struggled
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with the existence of identifying the existence of God nor
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slavery in which I could assume, you know, being subject
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to the conditions and uh huh Yeah, anyway, it's very
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easy to see how you can struggle with the existence
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of a deity during this time period.
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Um, in the last uh theme that I realized that
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helped Douglas realizes truth is just his willpower to be
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free. Right?
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So just he escaped slavery and not just slavery, He
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escapes mental slavery.
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So slaves, they were slaves that they were mentally, they
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were slaves.
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They they did not have any hope, had no real
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well promise.
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And through education, he he realizes that promise to be
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free. So he has the willpower because of education um,
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to be mentally free.
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And then from that to be physically free.
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Uh you know, it just kind of philosophical, but like
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without even free will, he musters free will if you
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can. So, um Slaves have no free will, but somehow
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he's able to muster, you know, free will out of
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all, out of his circumstance.
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And he proves that and he writes, you know, later
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on that freedom is not just a natural right, but
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freedom. He writes into the 1870 yesterday that freedom is
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a natural power, that rationality, morality and free will, and
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natural powers and that social and political institutions can restrict
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natural these natural powers.
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Um and that's just what I found really interesting in
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some research.
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Um and, you know, slavery, he poses a dichotomy and,
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you know, slavery as an institution versus free will as
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a condition of human as a human condition.
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Free will is a human condition.
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We're all subject to it, but slavery as an institution.
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So these forces were at play here, we're fighting, were
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conflicting. And this is very interesting to see how, you
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know, Mr Douglas, you know, it is able to to
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right, I guess that balance.
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Um and another reason that I see free role as
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his truth is that, you know, he never loses sight
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of the larger goal, even when, you know, he becomes
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free, he would later become an advocate.
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And not just, you know, maybe if you became free,
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you would just want to you're tired and you want
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to be free.
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But he he fought and used literature in his oratory
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skills and to to advocate against this this, uh, this
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institution, to this ideology of slavery.
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And he didn't live to see for the ratification of
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uh, The 13 amendment which abolished slavery in 18 65.
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He didn't need to see that.
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So this is why I believe that Frederick Douglass is,
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uh, his truth.
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I was very, very in line with the enlightenment period
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with with the rise of education during this time, the
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rise of just free thought, he fits right into that
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theme. The rise of radical thought, he fits into that
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theme and the rise of willpower.
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You know, there is a, the french people are a
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good example of how will power does work in in
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the enlightenment period.
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So, this is what I found interesting uh, throughout this
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course