Discuss the extent to which Douglas may be considered a Transcendentalist in his view of human nature and the future of the United States?

Douglass is in many ways
a Transcendentalist, as he believes in the power and freedom of the individual. The
Transcendentalists believe that the individual's soul is all powerful and that a person should
be guided by his or her inner inspiration. Douglass is guided by his innermost thoughts and
feelings to break out of slavery and free himself. From a young age, he trusts himself and his
thoughts and beliefs over those espoused by the society, as he never considers himself inferior
to whites and refuses to believe that he is undeserving of his freedom. He is receptive to
arguments, such as those published in the abolitionist newspaper The
Liberator, that each human being has the right to freedom. It is this message that he
later spreads as a speaker on the abolitionist circuit.

His vision of
American society in the future is one in which individualism will triumph. He believes that
enslaved people have the right to pursue their own dreams and destinies and that they should not
be confined by the limitations of what their society thinks they were capable of. In addition,
he believes that people should not be judged by the color of their skin or their backgrounds but
based on their own merits.