Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Genesis 1:27. The truth of this proverb is exemplified in the lives of both Booker T. Washington and Frederick Douglass. Both auto biographies tells gripping tales of slavery, freedom, and their many life accomplishments as well as their failures. In both biographies booker T. And Frederick Douglass shared some of the same life experiences such as both being born into slavery Frederick had a traumatizing experience as a slave wile booker T, had under the circumstances a somewhat better experience.

Frederick was taken from his mother as a child and put to work on a plantation under the rule of a cruel master. Like many southern plantations the slaves were overworked and exhausted, received little food, few articles of clothing and nothing to sleep on but the cold hard floor. Those who break rules and even those who do not are beaten or whipped, and sometimes even shot by the plantation overseers. Douglass’s life on this plantation is not as hard as that of most of the other slaves. Being a child, he serves in the household instead of in the fields. At the age of seven, he is given to Captain Anthony’s son in law’s brother, Hugh Auld, who lives in Baltimore. In Baltimore, Douglass enjoys a relatively freer life. In general, city slave-owners are more conscious of appearing cruel or neglectful toward their slaves in front of their non slave owning neighbors.

As time goes on he is taught to read by his masters wife but she was forced to stop by her husband who told her that education makes a slave unmanageable. As Frederick counties to learn to read and write he begins to become conscious of the evils of slavery. Wile Booker T. Washingtons life begins on a plantation in Franklin County, Virginia. Following Emancipation and the end of the Civil War, Washington and his family, including his mother, his stepfather, his sister, and his older brother, move to Malden, Virginia, where Washington’s stepfather secures work at a salt-furnace. The first few years out of slavery are difficult for the family, but Washington is a curious, ambitious child and pursues his desire for an education. His first glimpse of education comes from his labor at the salt-furnace.

Following this, Washington receives a spelling-book from his mother and with it, masters the alphabet. When a literate black man from Ohio arrives, he offers his services as a teacher to the town’s black population. In this way, Washington begins to develop academically. and Like booker T. Frederick did not know his birth date but was thought to be born sometime between 1817-1818 wile booker T. Was thought to be born sometime during 1856.

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