Unit 4: The Secret Road to Freedom (1ère G_gr1)

They Lived to Tell the Tale

Frederick Douglass was a former slave who escaped at around 20 years old. He was born in Maryland. He was a former US ambassador in Haiti. He is considered as the father of the black protest movement in the USA. He learned to read by himself. Throughout his life, he was a writer, an abolitionist, a vocal advocate, a social activist for black people’s rights and women’s right to vote. He also was a publisher and published his own newspaper: The North Star.

Text A

This document is an extract from Douglass’ autobiography published in 1845. In this excerpt, he deals with his childhood and explains how he felt dehumanized because he did not know about his age. In fact, slaves were compared to cattle as they were reduced to mere properties for the slave owners. On top of that, ignorance was a tool for the slave masters to have power/sway over the slaves.

Text B

This document is an extract from a speech pronounced by F. Douglass in 1852. Douglass is addressing the hypocrisy of Independence Day while slavery was still prevailing in America at the time. He argued that Black people had no reason to celebrate this festival because they were not respected and had no rights in this country at the time. Moreover, Black people did not feel included in the American values as they did not have the same rights as white people. They were not free to live as they wished to.

Text C

This text is an extract of a speech pronounced by Harriet Tubman. She was a famous abolitionist who played a big role into the escape of hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad.  She pronounced this speech in Boston in 1859.

She explains the reason why Black people must stay in America. Indeed, some people wanted to send them back to Africa. However, according to her, it is not a good thing because they had been living in America for a while, therefore their made their lives in America, they belonged to the country. Sending them back to Africa could ruin their lives. She uses a simple metaphor by using the examples of garlic and onions so that her message could be understood by everyone.

To conclude, all the texts are denouncing the atrocities of slavery. However, one is more emotional (text A) and the others are more political (text B and C). Besides, we can feel the anger in the texts and the way they really wanted to share their arguments in a way everyone can understand them. They strongly wanted to put an end to slavery so that it would not happen again.

 

Homework: Learn the lesson.