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Work #1268 · Mid

West India Emancipation

Frederick Douglass
1857 (delivered August 3, 1857, Canandaigua, NY) · English
Speech / Oration · African-American intellectual tradition / Black-radical tradition / American abolition

Douglass's 1857 Rochester speech — proper-political-philosophical analysis of British emancipation as model for American work

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute West India Emancipation (Mid)
Time · Extent Finite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency None
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Discrete

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

West India Emancipation

The August 1857 pre-Civil-War American moment.

Space

West India Emancipation

Canandaigua, NY; the broader pre-Civil-War American abolitionist setting.

Matter

West India Emancipation

The embodied American political community Douglass addressed.

Observer

West India Emancipation

Douglass as proper African-American political-philosophical orator.

Energy

West India Emancipation

The political-rhetorical-philosophical energies of mid-Douglass abolitionist work.

Information

West India Emancipation

The systematic political-philosophical content of the speech.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

West India Emancipation

West India Emancipation has been universally cited as foundational African-American political-philosophical speech; the "power concedes nothing" formulation has remained central to subsequent political-rhetorical work.