The 13 colonies put their foot down against England from the very first line which states, "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." This historic document was written on July 4, 1776 and was written to show a new theory of government, reasons why the 13 colonies were separating from England, and as a formal declaration of war. It gave the 13 colonies freedom from all of England's laws. The reason people wanted the Declaration was because the people thought that they had the right to be free from England and to be their own individual colonies with their own laws. .
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is a piece similar to The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin because it deals with a man who comes from poverty and obscurity and through education chases his dreams and goes on the quest for freedom himself. Douglass lived a very deprived life from his birth. He saw his mother only a few times during his life and never truly knew who his father was. He suspected that his father was a white man, his master Captain Anthony. When Douglass was around seven or eight, and he was under the watch of the Auld's, a distant relative of Captain Anthony's, he was taught how to read through Master Auld's wife. The slavemaster did not approve of teaching a slave how to read due to the fact that it could one day be very dangerous. This only sparked Douglass" curiosity and drive. After his escape to freedom in 1838, he headed the Rochester station of the Underground Railroad and also established The North Star. Since Douglass was such a well-educated man, he was able to deliver in his book a very real feeling for what the slaves endured. By doing this, it stirs up feelings by the reader toward slavery. Even though Douglass died over 200 years ago, his story lives on, therefore, he is still supporting the quest for freedom.