Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by: Andrea ... - Feminish

I n t r o d u c t i o nI did not hesitate to let it be known o f me, that thewhite m an who expected to succeed in w hipping,m ust also succeed in killing me.Frederick Douglass, Narrativeof the Life of Frederick DouglassAn American Slave Written byHimselfIn 1838, at the age o f 21, Frederick Douglass became arunaway slave, a hunted fugitive. T hough later renow nedas a powerful political orator, he spoke his first publicwords with trepidation at an abolitionist m eeting— a m eetingof white people— in Massachusetts in 1841. Abolitionistleader William Lloyd G arrison recalled the event:He came forw ard to the platform with a hesitancy andem barrassm ent, necessarily the attendants o f a sensitivemind in such a novel position. A fter apologizingfor his ignorance, and rem inding the audience thatslavery was a poor school for the hum an intellect andheart, he proceeded to narrate some o f the facts inhis own history as a slave.. . . As soon as he had takenhis seat, filled with hope and adm iration, I rose. . .[and]. . . rem inded the audience o f the peril whichsurrounded this self-em ancipated young m an at theN orth, — even in Massachusetts, on the soil o f the PilgrimFathers, am ong the descendants o f revolutionary