Harriet Beecher Stowe and Frederick Douglass both challenged their legitimacy of slavery through their literature. The only thing to tie into Stowe and Douglass is that they both were anti-slavery. Both depicted slavery in different ways. Stowe based her story on her intentions, and was trying to reach out to people, of why slavery is not permissible. In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe told a story on how she thought slaves were treated. Douglass story was relevant to his life, until he escaped from slavery. In Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, he told his story through his real life actions. Also, when it comes to their writing style, Douglass uses a more vivid description on situations that he has witnessed, unlike Stowe.
During the time of Stowe and Douglass literature, slavery was a big issue, which was taking over the south. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who was a white woman, did not like the idea of holding people captive with mistreatment. She then went on to write Uncle Tom's Cabin, a fictional story on how slavery was to her. Stowe then knew that she wanted to get her story across, in hope to grasp people attention. Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery, wrote on his actual life. When he wrote his Narrative, he showed all the hardship and mistreatment he was faced with. Once Douglass escaped from slavery, he wanted to help other people who were stuck in slavery. He also used his story to reach out to the Northern people in hope of help. Both Stowe and Douglass became Anti-Slavery abolitionists. .
In Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe depicted the life of an African American man named Tom. Stowe told how the slaves were treated. Although Uncle Tom's Cabin is a fiction, it told a true story on how the slaves were being treated by their slave owner. "This is God's curse on slavery! – A bitter, bitter, most accursed thing! – A curse to the master and a curse to the slave! I was a fool to think I could make anything good out of such a deadly evil.