On February 20th, 1895 Frederick Douglass died in the nation's capital following a massive heart attack. Born into slavery, Douglass was never certain of his precise birth-date but conjectured that he was born on February 14th, 1818 at his grandmother's shack east of Tappers Corner, Maryland. For my money Douglass along with Lincoln were the two most influential figures in 19th century America. Many of the founders lived into the 1800's, including, famously, Jefferson and John Adams who both passed on July 4th, 1826. But the founders were decidedly men of the 18th century. It is to Douglass and Lincoln, profound thinkers, earnest moralists and soaring wordsmiths (and in Douglass' case, orator) that we primarily owe the greatest achievement of their age, the slaying of the asp in America's garden, slavery. And though we still struggle in this country with the legacy of the "peculiar institution" without the moral power of Douglass and the political power of Lincoln, the Nation might not have survived it's passing.
I would offer that Douglass was the quintessential 19th century American. Through his father and master he was a white man. Through his mother, Harriet Bailey, a slave who worked so many hours each day that Douglass later lamented "I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day", he inherited his African and Native American ancestry. Regard his countenance. Very little of his father shows in it, (perhaps casting some doubt to the legend of his paternity) but his proud, stern visage belies the smoldering intensity of a man who carries the indignity of servitude in his heart and it's scars upon his back. This photo too reminds me of the black and white studies of Native Americans of that time who suffered similar injustice and could not keep their sorrow from their eyes.
After his mother died, when he was ten, Douglass eventually came into the possession of Sophia Auld of Baltimore, who, in contravention of Southern Law, undertook, surreptitiously, to teach him to read. Perhaps as punishment for his wife's activities, Sophie's husband Hugh hired Douglass out to a plantation owner - where he proceeded to teach the children of other slaves to read. His lessons were soon discovered, however, and he was consigned to another planter who was known to "break' slaves. The teenage Douglass bore the whippings for a time and then turned on his tormentor and (Wiki tells us), whipped his ass. To our everlasting benefit as a nation he survived this transgression, as well as several subsequent attempts at escape, and, with the financial help of the free black woman who would become his wife, Anna Murray, finally made good his freedom in September, 1838, boarding a train in Baltimore and later donning a sailor's uniform obtained for him by Murray to pass through Delaware and into New York City. He wrote of his arrival to a friend -
'I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions. Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.
Douglass and Murray were married shortly thereafter and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in New York City, which could boast of the attendance of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. Douglass became a licensed preacher in 1839, at the tender age of 21, and used his pulpit to hone his abolitionist message and his public speaking skill. He soon attracted the attention of the Great Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and the men began a friendship of mutual benefit, Garrison learning more of the evils of slavery first hand, and Douglass getting a hand at making his way onto the abolitionist lecture circuit. The two men would later break on the issue of whether the U.S. Constitution was a document worthy of burning (as Garrison had done) or "an instrument in the fight against slavery." as Douglass came to believe.
After publishing his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in 1845 (again, to emphasize the swiftness of his rise), at age 27, which gave him a measure of financial security, Douglass traveled to Great Britain and Ireland where...
Eleven days and a half gone and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle Ireland. I breathe, and lo! the chattel slave becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab—I am seated beside white people—I reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown into the same parlour—I dine at the same table—and no one is offended... I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, 'We don't allow niggers in here!
One wonders if not Douglass was tempted to linger in Europe, where his book was selling and admiration attended rather than the hurtful looks he undoubtedly garnered in his native America.
To our everlasting gratitude as a nation, he returned to us.
Upon his return he moved to Rochester New York and founded "The North Star" which afterwords competed with Garrison's "National Anti-Slavery Standard" as the nations leading abolitionist journal.
In 1848, Douglass was the only African American to attend the Seneca Falls Convention adding Women's Rights to his roster of worthy causes to champion.
On July 5, 1852, Douglass delivered an address to the ladies of the Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing Society titled "What to the slave is the 4th of July?" If you have not read this address I encourage you to do so, IMHO it is one of the two or three great exercises in American rhetoric right up there with Lincoln's Second Inaugural and FDR's "I welcome their hatred" chastening of his detractors.
In the speech Douglass begins like the first gentle wafting of a far off but impending tempest by apologizing (quite needlessly) for his lack of oratorical skill...
The fact is, ladies and gentlemen, the distance between this platform and the slave plantation, from which I escaped, is considerable — and the difficulties to be overcome in getting from the latter to the former, are by no means slight. That I am here to-day is, to me, a matter of astonishment as well as of gratitude. You will not, therefore, be surprised, if in what I have to say I evince no elaborate preparation, nor grace my speech with any high sounding exordium. With little experience and with less learning, I have been able to throw my thoughts hastily and imperfectly together; and trusting to your patient and generous indulgence, I will proceed to lay them before you.
He notes that he has been invited to speak on the occasion of of the nation's 76th Fourth of July Celebration (and in the shadow of the Compromise of 1850 and it's harsher fugitive slave laws) and reasons that if 76 is old for a man it is young for a nation and this is good because...
I repeat, I am glad this is so. There is hope in the thought, and hope is much needed, under the dark clouds which lower above the horizon. The eye of the reformer is met with angry flashes, portending disastrous times; but his heart may well beat lighter at the thought that America is young, and that she is still in the impressible stage of her existence. May he not hope that high lessons of wisdom, of justice and of truth, will yet give direction to her destiny? Were the nation older, the patriot’s heart might be sadder, and the reformer’s brow heavier. Its future might be shrouded in gloom, and the hope of its prophets go out in sorrow.
He goes on to laud the framers
"who had not adopted the fashionable idea of this day, of the infallibility of government, and the absolute character of its acts" a subtle slap at those who maintained that slavery was protected by law, and said
They went so far in their excitement as to pronounce the measures of government unjust, unreasonable, and oppressive, and altogether such as ought not to be quietly submitted to. I scarcely need say, fellow-citizens, that my opinion of those measures fully accords with that of your fathers. Such a declaration of agreement on my part would not be worth much to anybody.
Here he quietly, modestly...sneakily...sets up a contrast between the founders and the pipsqueaks in current governance.
Then the storm begins.
Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression.
Then a lull in which he recounts the steps taken to separate America from Great Britain and the risks taken by
"Your Fathers"
He then proceeds to do what every petitioner for justice since the nation's founding has done...he cites Jefferson's Declaration.
I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
From the round top of your ship of state, dark and threatening clouds may be seen. Heavy billows, like mountains in the distance, disclose to the leeward huge forms of flinty rocks! That bolt drawn, that chain broken, and all is lost. Cling to this day — cling to it, and to its principles, with the grasp of a storm-tossed mariner to a spar at midnight.
With that image set, he proceeds to laud the framers in sad contrast to the present government... sometimes with tongue restrained but , at times, decidedly in cheek.
I remember, also, that, as a people, Americans are remarkably familiar with all facts which make in their own favor. This is esteemed by some as a national trait — perhaps a national weakness. It is a fact, that whatever makes for the wealth or for the reputation of Americans, and can be had cheap! will be found by Americans. I shall not be charged with slandering Americans, if I say I think the American side of any question may be safely left in American hands.
Now the gale blows in earnest.
'It was fashionable, hundreds of years ago, for the children of Jacob to boast, we have “Abraham to our father,” when they had long lost Abraham’s faith and spirit. That people contented themselves under the shadow of Abraham’s great name, while they repudiated the deeds which made his name great. Need I remind you that a similar thing is being done all over this country to-day? Need I tell you that the Jews are not the only people who built the tombs of the prophets, and garnished the sepulchres of the righteous? Washington could not die till he had broken the chains of his slaves. Yet his monument is built up by the price of human blood, and the traders in the bodies and souls of men shout — “We have Washington to our father.” — Alas! that it should be so; yet so it is.'
The evil that men do, lives after them, The good is oft-interred with their bones...
'I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. — The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, lowering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrecoverable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people...'
'...Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Americans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively, and positively, negatively, and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. — There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven, that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.'
I have left out long, sublime passages in the speech so as not to violate copyright, but will quote one final passage and urge that you read the whole thing for yourself... it is a masterwork.
What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
Douglass went on to become the first black man to consult with a president in his office and to goad, prod and half-drag a reluctant (and needfully cautious) Lincoln to Issue the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. It was a bumpy ride...
"Our faith in him was often taxed and strained to the uttermost, but it never failed…we were at times stunned, grieved, and greatly bewildered; but our hearts believed while they ached and bled."
"under his rule and inspiration we saw the Confederate States, based upon the idea that our race must be slaves…battered to pieces…in the fullness of time, we saw Abraham Lincoln…penning the immortal paper, which, though special in its language, was general in its principles and effect, making slavery forever impossible in the United States."
He spent the rest of his life fighting for the further emancipation of his people and for universal suffrage for women. He became the first black man to receive a nominating vote for President by a major (R) party and actually ran for Vice-President on a minor party ticket.
In recent times his reputation has suffered, as is the fashion, as eager authors and zealous historians, unsatisfied with the established fact of his greatness, have fitted him with feet of clay and written about his martial infidelities and paramours.
Me?
I give not a twit.
He overcame slavery and the lash to talk in a quiet room with Lincoln.