Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings

Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War

S ELECTIONS FROM H IS W RITINGS

Edited and with an Introduction by

P HILIP S. F ONER

DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.

Mineola, New York

DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

GENERAL EDITOR: PAUL NEGRI EDITOR OF THIS VOLUME: JOSLYN T. PINE

Bibliographical Note

Frederick Douglass on Slavery and the Civil War: Selections from His Writings, first published in 2003, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published in 1945 by International Publishers Co., Inc., New York.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Douglass, Frederick, 1818-1895.

[Selections. 2003]

Frederick Douglass on slavery and the Civil War : selections from his writings : edited and with an introduction by Philip S. Foner.

p. cm. (Dover thrift editions)

Originally published as: Frederick Douglass. New York : International Publishers, 1945.

eISBN-13: 978-0-486-11301-2

1. Antislavery movementsUnited StatesHistory. 2. SlaveryUnited StatesHistory. 3. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 18611865African Americans. 4. Reconstruction. I. Foner, Philip Sheldon, 1910 II. Title. III. Series.

E449.D737 2003
973.7-dc22

2003055600

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation
43171102
www.doverpublications.com

Contents

by Philip S. Foner

A TRIBUNE OF HIS PEOPLE

by Philip S. Foner

N O GREATER dramatic proof of the contributions the Negro people have made to our democratic tradition can be offered than to cite the career of Frederick Douglass. From his early life until his death, on February 20, 1895, this great American, this great Negro, was concerned with the universal struggle for freedom of people everywhere. Under the skin, he once observed, we are all the same and every one of us must join in the fight to further human brotherhood. His biography is essentially the story of unceasing efforts to further human brotherhood. Born a slave, he lifted himself up from bondage by his own efforts, taught himself to read and write, developed a great talent as a lecturer, editor, and organizer, became a noted figure in American life, and gained an international reputation as the spokesman for his people. An advocate of womens rights, labor solidarity, and full freedom for all regardless of race, creed, or color, Douglass represents the highest type of progressive leadership emerging from the ranks of the American people.

In its issue of June 28, 1879, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle said of Douglass, whom it described as among the greatest men, not only of this city, but of the nation as wellgreat in gifts, greater in utilizing them, great in his inspiration, greater in his efforts for humanity, great in the persuasion of his speech, greater in the purpose that informed it":

Frederick Douglass can hardly be said to have risen to greatness on account of the opportunities which the republic offers to self-made men, and concerning which we are apt to talk with an abundance of self-gratulation. To him, the republic offered no opportunities. It sought to fetter his mind equally with his body. For him, it builded no school-house, and for him it errected no church. So far as he was concerned, freedom was a mockery, and law was the instrument of tyranny. In spite of law and gospel, despite of statutes which thralled him and opportunities which jeered at him, he made himself by trampling on the law and breaking through the thick darkness that encompassed him. There is no sadder commentary upon American slavery than the life of Frederick Douglass. He put it under his feet and stood erect in the majesty of his intellect; but how many intellects as brilliant and as powerful as his it stamped upon and crushed no mortal can tell until the secrets of its terrible despotism are fully revealed. Thanks to the conquering might of American freemen, such sad beginnings of such illustrious lives as that of Frederick Douglass are no longer possible; and that they are no longer possible is largely due to him who, when his lips were unlicked, became a deliverer of his people. Not alone did his voice proclaim emancipation. Eloquent as was that voice, his life, in its pathos and in its grandeur, was more eloquent still: and where shall be found, in the annals of humanity, a sweeter rendering of poetic justice than that he, who has passed through such vicissitudes of degradation and of exaltations, has been permitted to behold the redemption of his race?

Douglass has told us the story of the early period of his life as a slave in his fascinating autobiographies. The story merits retelling. He was born in Talbot County, Eastern Shore, Maryland, in the month of February (the exact year is unknown though it is commonly believed to be 1817). His father he never knew, and his mother he saw but seldom. Since she worked as a slave on a plantation twelve miles removed from her six children, he was cared for by his grandmother until he was five or six years of age. Once he was visited unexpectedly by his mother who had walked the twelve miles to see him and bring him a large gingercake. I dropped off to sleep and waked in the morning to find my mother gone, he recalled years later. I do not remember ever seeing her again. Death soon ended the little communication that had existed between us, and with it, I believe, a life full of weariness and heartfelt sorrow.

At the age of seven the lad was taken from his birthplace to the residence of his master, Captain Aaron Anthony, who served as manager of the vast plantations of Colonel Edward Lloyd. Here he discovered additional realities of slave life. For three years he was so pinched with hunger as to dispute with old Nep, the dog, for the crumbs which fell from the kitchen table. Often he followed with eager step, the waiting girl when she shook the table cloth, to get the crumbs and small bones flung out for the dogs and cats. Such treatment made the young boy fully aware, even at the age of nine, of the unjust and murderous character of slavery.

When ten years old, Douglass was sent by Captain Anthony to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld, a relative of the Anthonys. For seven years he served Hugh Auld, first as a household servant and later as an unskilled laborer in his shipyard. Eager to learn to read and write, he begged his mistress to teach him. In response to his pleas, Mrs. Auld began to teach him to read, and before long young Douglass had mastered the alphabet and could spell words of three or four letters. But the lessons ended the moment Mrs. Auld proudly told her husband of the boys rapid progress. In Douglass presence, Hugh Auld prohibited any further instruction on the ground that learning would spoil any nigger. The words only served to increase the youths determination to learn: Very well, thought I, knowledge unfits a child to be a slave... and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom.

By various ingenious devices Douglass continued his education. He converted into teachers white children whom he met on the streets by having them help him with his Webster spelling book which he kept in his pocket. The first fifty cents he earned shining shoes went for the purchase of a popular schoolbook, the Columbian Orator. He devoured its contents, and from the speeches of Sheridan obtained a bold and powerful denunciation of oppression and a most brilliant vindication of the rights of man.

When Douglass was eleven years of age, he was sent to his masters shipyards to beat and spin oakum, keep fires under pitch boilers and turn grindstones. During slack periods he mastered the essentials of writing by imitating the letters on the ships. Using the streets as his schools, his playmates as teachers, and the fences as his copybooks and blackboards, he learned to write. Once in later life he wrote in response to a request for his autograph: Though my penmanship is not fine it will do pretty well for one who learned to write on a board fence.