Frederick douglas to thomas jefferson essay

September 26, 99

Dear Mr.

Jefferson:

Throughout most of my life I had been a slave to the white man. I was, yet , luckier than most. I used to be able to turn into a freeman, and still have since committed my life for the abolition of slavery and oppression with this country. This oppression endures because of the hypocritical nature by which this country’s founding fathers, including you, outlined their very own independence.

Many times of our own most devoted document, The Declaration of Independence, you contradict your self and the ideas that are offered. It appears that the ideals you present are just for those which has a white epidermis such as yours. All other people, for example the American Negro, are not even considered people in your white wigged world. Were only property to be traded accordingly, with no regard to get our people, friends, or perhaps personal beliefs.

These are aspects of life that you and i also both fought against for, but are reserved just for you.

To begin with, in your Declaration of Independence you state

“¦that almost all men are set up equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the quest for Happiness. ” That to secure these privileges, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their merely powers from the consent in the governed. 

Although this statement is usually bold and share many of the people a feeling of patriotism, I realize no patriotism in it.

Wherever is my entire life and freedom and how do you really expect me personally to follow happiness when I am cared for with the same respect that you give your cattle? Additionally , in case the government will get its electrical power from the persons why am I not noticed? The Negroes are the many governed people in this land, yet they may have no say in how they are ruled. This seems to contradict the complete basis of your great democratic system.

I must assume then that we are not thought to be men in your eyes. I actually find this hard to think as well.

If you do not consider us to get men then why does the government rely us since three-fifths of any person because of their census numbers? Even more important, if we are generally not men, how could you have a young child with one us? You did in reality have an bogus child with one of your slaves, didn’t you? Are we all only men when it is convenient for you? This appears to be the case. In case you would open up your mind just a little you would see that Negroes could become much more. Check out what several of your freed slaves are getting to be. They are, as I stated in a newly released speech, “¦merchants and assistants, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, publishers, orators, and teachers.

 As can be seen, we have the mental capacity to become something that your individuals have become. We are, however , and so oppressed that it is difficult for all of us to show this intelligence, since we are provided no way to become knowledgeable.

Inside your Declaration of Independence, closely following the privileges that you consider to be unalienable you condition, “That anytime any Kind of Government becomes destructive to ends, is it doesn’t Right with the People to alter or to remove it, and to institute fresh Government.  This statement gave me cause to close a recent speech simply by saying, “¦for the love of God, split away, and fling from you the gruesome monster, and then let the weight of twenty , 000, 000 crush and destroy it forever.

 Through this statement and the rest of presentation I was illustrating that the govt you produced is strong in many respects, but needs to be restructured to include Negroes as people not the property you see these people as. We require not eliminate our current government, we must only alter it, as you state the folks must do in the event the government does not honor the God provided rights of the people. To ensure this Union to be the nation you and I envision this to be, we all cannot oppress those that may be of great help to our land. We must reevaluate our personal system and fix all those hypocrisies which exist within it.

Only then will certainly this land be able to legally say that, “All men are manufactured equal. 

Sincerely

Frederick Douglass

Govt