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   akannan Teacher
   Middle School

   eNotes Editor

   Douglass' statement strive to support the abolitionist message of his narrative in its conceptualization of slavery as a moral problem.  In making slavery an institution that is rooted in the "the pride, power, and avarice of man," Douglass transforms a highly political and sectionalist issue into a very moral one, and an issue that is predicated upon the firmament of human dignity.  This helps to make slavery perceived as a moral evil, one for which there is little negotiation.  As an abolitionist, Douglass sought to reconfigure the issue of slavery as one that lay outside the realm of states rights, political negotiation, and  one that could be legislated away. In crafting it as an issue that relates to "avarice" and "pride," Douglass helps to make slavery a moral issue whose mere existence is sinful.  In the process, Douglass' work helps to expand the moral imagination of the reader, the essence of all abolitionism.

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   Posted by akannan on Monday September 28, 2009 at 4:19 PM