We admire his enterprising spirit. We applaud his attempts to negotiate, while a slave, for a "work-for-hire" status. By exchanging bread with neighborhood children for writing lessons, Douglass is, in essence, an entrepreneur. Arriving in New Bedford, he found his first job — unloading ships and working as a day laborer. Indeed, because his only commodity was his body, he made his sales pitch simply by approaching potential customers. Salesman, orator, entrepreneur, capitalist, Douglass thrived in these free market conditions. Capitalism demands absolute freedom in market transactions, but a slave economy, which does not always allow for the strongest or best to prevail, is inefficient.
Alongside his belief in the value of education, Douglass also believed in the individual's ability to create his own destiny. This tenet has been, of course, a dominant philosophy in the West since at least the European Enlightenment and one which New England Transcendentalism wholeheartedly embraced. (New England Transcendentalism, which still dominates American culture to this day, emphasizes hard work and personal success; an example of Transcendentalism today is the "Just Do It" slogan.) Douglass wrote at a time when the question of personal destiny was not unrelated to that of national destiny or the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Personal, economic, and political gains would ultimately also benefit the nation. Consequently, our national ideology is also part of our personal belief. Until the end of his life, Douglass was a believer and a participant in the American Dream.
