Frederick Douglas was prominent in the 19th century though his story is little known and even less taught today. We might do well to try to understand this man who was a large figure of his day. His story is important to the Civil War Era.
Frederick Douglas: the young man
Douglass was born a slave. He never knew his exact date of his birth; his father and he never saw his mother after seven years of age. Then as now, slave owners made a point of separating families. They feel compulsion to break family bonds and increase dependence on the slave owner. Dependence and submission are the bonds of slavery. They are what hold the system together.
Maintenance of slave discipline requires simple fear and destroying self-esteem. A slave could receive punishment for not working hard enough. More importantly, they could also receive punishment for working too hard or for suggesting labor-saving ideas. Douglass taught himself to read as a teenager. What he read opened his mind. It also fired a need for personal freedom and independence.
His owner discovered this disturbing development eventually. Once he did he sent Douglass to live with Edward Covey. Covey was a farmer who made extra money breaking the will of unruly slaves. Covey beat Douglass every week for six months. He was beaten for cause and without justification. Soon the young Frederick Douglass gave up all hope of being free.
Self Respect
Then, one August day in 1835 when Covey struck him, Douglass fought back. He was never able to articulate where he found the courage to do it. The two men struggled until Covey stumbled away spent. From that day on Covey never laid a hand on Douglass. The teenage slave had stood up for himself. He earned the respect of Edward Covey. But more importantly, he earned self-respect.
Frederick Douglass considered this the most important lesson of his life. He would tell this story often when urging black men to enlist in the Union Army. He would say, You
And in this way Douglass explains the requirements of freedom to those who had none.
Douglass left slavery in 1838 by slipping into the North disguised as a U.S. Navy sailor. He bluffed his way past suspicious conductors and runaway-slave hunters. And once in the North, he joined the abolitionist movement. He was quickly recognized as a powerful speaker and writer. William Lloyd Garrison the abolitionist movement’s leader burned the U.S. Constitution. In Garrison’s view, the constitution legally protected slavery. For that reason he felt it was irredeemable.
Frederick Douglass on the U.S. Constitution
Frederick Douglass rejects Garrison’s view. His belief is that the U.S. Constitution is fundamentally opposed to slavery. Douglass reasoned that,
“…Interpreted as it ought to be interpreted… the Constitution is a glorious liberty document.”
Frederick Douglass is a forgotten American patriot. Douglass became a strong supporter of the Republican Party. The Republicans were the new anti-slavery party. Frederick Douglass is a forgotten American patriot.
Abraham Lincoln was initially someone Douglass had doubts about. He didn’t think Lincoln was truly committed to ending slavery. Douglass warmed up to the Lincoln as the conflict wore on. Lincoln, on the other hand, always admired Douglass. As we know, the Union victory ended American slavery.
None the less the Democratic Party re-established itself in the South. In the 1870s and ‘80s, a new kind of racial oppression arose in the form of Jim Crow laws. Worse yet, they were accompanied by widespread lynching. This was a bitter for Douglass to accept but he never gave up the struggle. He spent the last three decades of his life agitating for civil rights. He said frequently,
“Freedom… depended on three boxes: the ballot-box, the jury-box, and the cartridge-box.”
Position of Blacks in America.
Black Americans, as citizens, are entitled to full freedom and equal protection under the law. For Douglass, this was self-evident. At an 1893 speech, when hecklers began booing him, Douglass set his speech aside. He then spoke extemporaneously saying,
Frederick Douglass believed true liberty comes for black Americans, only as it comes for anyone else. Freedom comes when people take full responsibility for their own fate. In the end, hard work and education secure the rights people earn. People retain only those rights they are willing to stand and fight for.
In his most popular lecture “Self Made Men” Douglass said,
Douglass defended equality and freedom until the day he died in 1895. Well he understood the deep prejudice that existed. He never accepted it as an inherent part of American culture. Frederick Douglass wrote,
“My cause… was and is that of the black man; not because he is black, but because he is a man.”
In the 1800s we had Frederick Douglass.
Today we have what; Colin Kaepernick and Lebron James? Mr. Kaepernick says, I’m kneeling to protest injustice against the black men in America. That leaves one to observe how odd that seems…. Because at the same time he joined Islam. Islam is a religion that still owns black slaves. So Mr. Kaepernick why are you not protesting that?
And Mr. James says, “… I believe he (the GM of the Rockets) wasn’t educated on the situation at hand and he spoke… Yes, we all have freedom of speech, but at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you’re not thinking about others and you’re only thinking about yourself… So many people could have been harmed … not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually.” Translation I love money. I think it buys freedom. I always put myself first. That’s what is important. The rest of you chumps in Hong Kong who want freedom… I do not support you. Get it yourself. Now if you had more money we could talk about my supporting you. You get me, right?
God help America. Let’s embrace Candace Owens and Frederick Douglass not Colin Kaepernick and Lebron James. Frederick Douglass is a forgotten American patriot.
