Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You

Frederick Douglass's Proverbial Struggle for Civil Rights

Bibliographic Data

ID2801402
AuthorsWolfgang Mieder (corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume114
Issue453
Pages331-357
Publication date2001-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American Folklore (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8715 • E-ISSN: 1535-1882
PublisherUniversity of Illinois Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/jaf.2001.0015
OpenAlexW2067672069
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited19

As a deeply religious person, Frederick Douglass (1818-95) relied heavily on biblical proverbs to strengthen the social and moral statements in his debates, lectures, and writings. But while the biblical proverbs provided religious authority to Douglass's deliberations, he was also very much aware of the social significance of folk proverbs in his fight against slavery and for civil rights. The proverbs function as authoritative and collective statements, and they serve as important social and moral messages. As such, proverbs show themselves to be traditional wisdom well suited to becoming verbal weapons in the fight for freedom, democracy, and civil rights

Civil rights · Civil society · Democracy · Epistemology · Nothing · Political science · Politics · Religious freedom · Sociology · White (mutation) · American Constitutional Law and Politics · American History and Culture · Law · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Mormonism, Religion, and History · Philosophy

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