The Speech of Frederick Douglass - Tandem to Leslie Harris Works Essay - 9

The Speech of Frederick Douglass - Tandem to Leslie Harris Works - Essay Example The author had been invited to make a speech regarding the meaning of the Fourth of July to the black population in America. The author is a male black American citizen. The first section of the speech praised what the founding fathers had done to the country. However, the second section of the speech was in tandem to the issues raised in chapter 6 and 7 in Leslie Harris’ In the Shadow of Slavery and the A People and Nation which focuses on slavery and a criticism of the stance of the American people regarding slavery. This essay will be focused on the speech of Frederick Douglass in comparison to Leslie Harri’s In the Shadow of Slavery and the A People and Nation. In their writings, the two black abolitionists bare almost similar arguments directed towards the perception and the overall negative consequences of slavery. Leslie Harris teaches history at Emory University and an author who writes based on her class experience and gathers enough evidence from newspapers, organizational records and other forms of literature. Leslie Harris gave detailed information about race and class in New York City. In the Shadow of Slavery has revealed more than two-century slavery in the city. She has touched on the real issues that affected African Americans who lived their lives in the shadow of slavery where most of them were enslaved. The black colour was seen as an inferior colour and the dark moments of the blacks could not be erased even after slavery ended. The author focusses on the actions of blacks in the New York City and devotes more than half of the book to the New York City’s slavery. She asserts that blacks played a major role in the development of the city and further gives details on how class and community arose between blacks and whites. She thoroughly tackles the era of slavery, developme nt of antislavery sentiment and movements and finally the era of abolitionism. Harris details the developing struggle against slavery, notes the importance of black labour and notes the white ambivalence about black freedom.