Models of Agency: Frederick Douglass and 'The Heroic Slave.'.

In the novella 'The Heroic Slave' Frederick Douglass explored African American heroism and various models of agency available to him for the depiction of liberation, liberators, and sentimental appeals for assistance. A vehicle for Douglass to describe his split with Garrison, it became his own declaration of independence and a means to expose the cultural politics of benevolence within antislavery culture. 'The Heroic Slave' enabled Douglass to explore the personal politics of interracial cooperation within the antislavery movement and the cultural polities of agency within antislavery rhetoric.