American Dream
...edom from slavery in his future. As a young man, Douglass experienced several torturous events in his career as a slave. His slaveholders repeatedly whipped him and treated him as if he was an animal. Three of these goads, from four to six feet long, he cut off, and trimmed up, with his large jack-knife. This done, he ordered me to take off my clothes. To this unreasonable order I made no reply, but sternly refused to take off my clothing. “If you will beat me, you shall do so over my clothes.” After many threats, which made no impression on me, he rushed at me with something of the savage fierceness of a walk, tore off the few and thinly worn clothes I had on, and proceeded to wear out. On my back, the heavy goads which he had cut from the gum tree (Douglass, 214). This quote shows that Douglass is willing to oppose those who have power over him. He felt he did not receive the respect he deserved and wanted to become a free man and help others who were in the same position. Not only was Douglass an assertive individual, he was a brave man and stood up for his own rights as an individual. “I now forgot my roots, and remembered my pledge to stand up in my own defense” (Douglass, 242). Freedom was something that Douglass wanted and he was not willing to give anything up for his fight. The women of Seneca Falls use the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions to expressed their beliefs about the current status of women and hoped to abolish the system of inequality between the genders. These women were trying to achieve equality through the expression and explanation of their beliefs. They felt oppressed in many different ways in regards to government issues, such as not being able to vote. Having no voice in government involvement caused women to be viewed as incapable of making decisions on important political manners. In marriage women were treated in the same respect as voting. If the women had her own income, she was forced to hand over her money because under marriage, she was considered “civilly dead” (Primus, 139). Not being allowed to purchase property and having the moral restraints placed upon them which men did not caused these women to begin to fight for equality. Abolishing this system of the women “slaves” was the dream that all these women wanted so badly. One of many of their resolutions was to have “the same amount of virtue, delicacy, and refinement of behavior that is required of woman in the social state, should also be required of man…” (Primus, 140). The dream that these women wanted was, “that women is man’s equal” (Primus, 140). In these last two quotes that were stated, women wanted to be equal to men. They wanted the same level of involvement with the government, able to obtain education, and have her rights to all their earned wages. In a way, the slaves in the eighteen forties were treated with the same respect as the women. Amelia, and other Lowell factory workers, are subjected to poor working conditions and low wages, but hoped that labor reforms will help them achieve a better work environment. As a factory worker in the eighteen hu...