The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
How do the works of Frederick Douglas, “The Heroic Slave” in the period leading to and including the Civil War reflect the causes of that conflict?
NAAL, Vol. B, pp. 2143-2171
NAAL, Vol. B, pp. 2143-2171
The Heroic Slave" is the fictionalized story of Madison Washington. The story follows Madison, a black slave, through the eyes of Mr. Listwell, a free white man. Mr. Listwell attempts to help Madison escape to Canada. Madison gets to Canada but returns to the South because he misses his wife and family. In the end Madison ends up leading a revolt on a slave ship. Certainly the whole idea of human dignity and freedom plays into this. Slaves were not satisfied with simply escaping to Canada or a state where they had more rights. They wanted to be considered human beings with the same rights as white men under God and country. The story is about one slave's desperate attempt to live with his family and and finally rebel for freedom. The Civil War was largely fought under this sense of liberty and , for many blacks, freedom to live free in their own home.