Sojourner Truth and Frederick Douglass

¶ … African-American Slavery are recognized as foundational to the development of the United States, as well as to many other colonial and post-colonial nations. Within literary accounts of slaves, such as those of Fredrick Douglass and Sojourner Truth there are many accounts of these real struggles, for both themselves and their families and as told through their eyes about others held in bondage and their captors. The foundational difference, between the millions in captivity and these two thinkers, is simple, as they shared the reality of literacy, something very few slaves had as it was illegal in some places and severely sanctioned in others to teach slaves to read and write and they in turn shared this hard won skill with the world, as the voice of slavery. (Douglass, (http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/Literature/Douglass/Autobiography/A1.html) in fact Sojourner Truth's words were actually ghost written from her dictation by Oliver Gilbert, the case of black literacy was so extreme. (Truth (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/truth/1850/1850.html) Additionally, comparisons and contrasts can be made between the rights of slaves and the rights of women the works of both of these individuals also discuss in detail the universal definitions of natural human rights as I see them.

The relationship between literacy and any human cause is deep. It goes without saying that without a few, first hand reporters, such as Douglass and Truth are, the universal struggle for the abolition of slavery would have taken longer and possibly meant less to the world, that in many cases reluctantly and only eventually accepted the abolition of slavery, though not necessarily the condition. The ability of one person to travel to all the places and individual might need to go, or even a few people, to address the world with regard to the conditions and problems within slavery is limited. With the words written down and printed, repeatedly such proliferation of ideas and experiences becomes possible. Only those who truly lived the experience of slavery, hold the power of first hand knowledge to guide those who do not live within this world, and in the case of slavery an outsider could never really understand the institution completely. Very few individuals could possibly understand what it was like to be denied fundamental rights or dignities, such as knowing the name of your father, the love of your mother or even the date of your birth, unless you have lived it, like Douglass did and partly Truth as well. (Douglass) (Truth) This seemingly simple information and expression of love are things most everyone in the world takes for granted, as a universal right, and yet many slaves were denied such information, as a manner of control, though not quite as strong as that of the permanent "mental darkness" of illiteracy. (Douglass) in some ways the legal situation of women was similar to that of slaves, as they had no rights to their property or their children, unless granted by their husband or their father.