I found Daniel O\u2019Connell\u2019s address to the Committee of the Irish Repeal Association of Cincinnati to be very interesting. It\u2019s both impressive to me that O\u2019Connell took such a strong stance against the Irish Americans who were against Abolition, and disheartening that Irish immigrants would adopt such a position in the first place. O\u2019Connell focuses a lot on this very idea, saying \u201cIt was not in Ireland you learned this cruelty\u201d (1). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also find it interesting that O\u2019Connell saw it as a necessity and a priority to denounce the racism of Irish-Americans, and that he fought for Abolition alongside Irish liberation. I think that his politics are very representative of the intertwined ideas of the Black Atlantic and the Green Atlantic, and the similarities in the fight for rights and liberation. I find it indicative of O\u2019Connell\u2019s passion in the fight against oppression that he advocated not just for his own people, but for Black people in America as well. This also reminds me of the term intersectionality, which is a more modern day approach to activism that values interconnectedness and goes beyond advocacy for just one group. I also do believe that it was easier for O\u2019Connell, as a notable white man, to have a more expansive field of advocacy than it would have been for Frederick Douglass. I imagine that Douglass would not have been taken as seriously if he began advocating for Irish rights. It also would have jeopardized his relationship with the English, and he needed to build as much support as he could for the cause of Abolition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is also important to acknowledge that Frederick Douglass did indeed practice intersectionality, as he campaigned for women\u2019s suffrage and was one of the only men in attendance at the Seneca Falls Convention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I found Daniel O\u2019Connell\u2019s address to the Committee of the Irish Repeal Association of Cincinnati to be very interesting. It\u2019s both impressive to me that O\u2019Connell took such a strong stance against the Irish Americans who were against Abolition, and disheartening that Irish immigrants would adopt such a position in the first place. O\u2019Connell focuses … <\/p>\n