The Slavery Experience
Speech
Frederick Douglass Speech at the Anti-Slavery Association – 1848
"For seventeen years, Mr. Chairman, the Abolitionists of the United States have been encountering obloquy, scorn, and opposition of the most furious character, for uttering,— what? Their conviction that a man is a man,—that every man belongs to himself and to no one else. In propagating this idea, this simple proposition, we have met with all sorts of opposition, and with all sorts of arguments drawn from the Bible, from the Constitution, and from philosophy, till at length many have arrived at the sage conclusion that a man is something else than a man, and that he has not the rights of a man."
Why?
Fredrick Douglas was an escaped that joined the abolitionist movement and wrote about his experiences with slavery. I picked this speech because I figured who knows more about slavery than an escaped slave. I also picked it because he was such a inspiring person. He wrote this speech to give points and get people fighting against slavery. He is saying that being a slave isn't being a human. That is why he is trying to fight so hard against it.