Slaves were not seen as individuals with rights, but as generally dispensable and the death of one slave just meant the replacement by another. To this end, I feel that is was in the physical fight with Mr. Convey that became the real catalyst for freedom for Douglass. As Douglass himself stated, " This battle with Mr. Convey was the turning point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. It recalled the departed self-confidence, and inspired me again to be free. It was a glorious resurrection, from the tomb of slavery, to the heaven of freedom." It was with the thought that freedom may not come without the threat and possibility of death that Douglass became confident in his determination to no longer be oppressed.
It is also of note that Douglass found himself at odds with religion. He has seen in the oppression of slaves a self-serving definition of religion. "We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel, and babies sold to purchase Bibles for the poor, heathen . . all for the glory of God and the good of souls! The auctioneer's bell and the church going bell chime in with each other and the bitter cries of the heart broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master." For it is in the oppression, the breaking of the slave's spirit, that the masters really taught submission and really gained oppression. It was in Douglass seeing himself has having some inner power and his idea that to keep this power, he must be free. The real danger was not in the physical aspects of slavery (no food, clothing, or poor living conditions) but in the breaking of the spirit which leaves the body void of hope and subsequent humanity. It was in Douglass" recognition of his spirit that I believe enable him to find and ultimately obtain freedom.
Martin Luther King on the other hand had a sense of failure of the so-called American institutions in eliminating the oppression of the black people.