frederick douglas ius self reliant
...ainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace…” (Douglass 45). This quote from the novel is a great depiction of one of Emerson’s thoughts from Self-Reliance. He believed that any man who remained true to himself and believed in his own thoughts was a genius because doing so was extremely difficult. Although many slaves’ hopes and dreams of escaping were crushed by the tedious and exhausting work of the plantation, the conviction that he would not have to be a slave his entire life. Douglass strongly believed in his every action, and his true genius was displayed because of it. Through this, Douglass was able to preserve one of his most precious qualities, self-reliance. Slaves have been stereotyped as unintelligent, unskilled, and worthless objects that are only good for long days of work in the field. Douglass was able to break free of this profile by overcoming illiteracy and becoming a great reader and writer. He learned to read from the boys in Baltimore, and to write from the shipbuilders there. Later in the novel, Douglass started a Sunday school in which he would teach illiterate slaves to read and write. No one had ever done this before. In his essay, Emerson says that a man must be a nonconformist. This is because the mass of the men in civilization follow each other in order to become successful instead of allowing psychological separation from society to take them places unattainable to those who mimic others. The thousands of slaves in America at the time were brainwashed by their masters not to think; therefore, it was tough for any slave to retain the aforementioned sense of individuality. Douglass, on the other hand, took the time to listen to his thoughts rather than follow the majority. “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others…” (Douglass 45). By breaking free of the stereotype of feeblemindedness given to all slaves, Douglass became a nonconformist and increased his level of self-reliance. “He is supported on crutches, but lacks so much support of muscle” (Emerson 45). According to Emerson, a man who is not self-reliant depends on society for support. Douglass is the complete opposite and this is most clearly seen when he asks Hugh Auld if he can hire his time with the secret objective of obtaining enough money to successfully es...