Frederick Douglass · Politics

Self-Made Men

Douglass delivered his most popular lecture more than fifty times: a meditation on the men who rise from nothing by their own labor. But in his mouth this all-American gospel of self-reliance carried a radical edge - a demand that the self-made man be given, above all, a fair chance.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Douglass praised self-made men but insisted they need a fair chance. In your own words, how did he balance individual effort against the demand for justice?

Leads to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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