Why did Frederick Douglass struggle in the book?

Question

The book i'm reading for english is called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself

Answer 1

He was struggling to find freedom and justice in a racist, slave-holding society

Answer 2

At the time of Douglass's comment, slave holders were a small percentage of the total populatin of the United States. We did, however, have indentured servants (similar to debtors prison) and other "slavery" issues. Douglass frequently spoke against slavery, but he saw that just taking on the actual slave holders would not solve the problem. If every slave holder were killed or forced to give up their slaves, there would still be slavery somewhere in the world. There is still slavery to this day. His point was that to abolish slavery in the US, one had to abolish slavery every where which would require a complete change in philosopy and politics in a number of countries throughout the world. Thus, his movement to free US slaves was handicaped by the fact that if successful, he would only be affecting the US. He would not be changing the mind set that encouraged slavery to begin with.