Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn. Frederick Douglass
actions. He further insisted that he would never make any “promise so rash and wild” as a vow to participate.[27]
Over the course of three issues in late October and early November, the Anglo-African published a lengthy chronicle of Brown’s weeklong trial. Compiled from various newspaper accounts, the series’ final installment closed with a sampling of the material found in Brown’s carpetbag after his capture. Of the 102 letters in Brown’s possession, the paper printed two. The first read:
Brooklyn August 18 ’59
Esteemed Friend
I gladly avail myself of the opportunity offered by our friend Mr. F. Douglass, who has just called upon us previous to his visit to you, to enclose to you for the good cause in which you are such a zealous laborer. A small amount [ten dollars] which please accept with my most ardent wishes for its, and your, benefit.
The visit of our mutual Friend Douglass has somewhat revived my rather drooping spirits in the cause, but seeing such ambition & enterprise in him I am again encouraged. [W]ith best wishes for your welfare and prosperity & the good of your Cause. I subscribe myself Your sincere friend
MRS. E.A. GLOUCESTER
Please write to me with best respects to your son.
In the second letter, James H. Harris, a black friend of Brown’s in Cleveland, mentioned the trouble he was having raising funds there, complaining of the lack of resolve of the “whole Negro set.”[28] While the Anglo-African’s selections seem intended to illustrate the sturdy support for Brown received from his closest black allies in Brooklyn—the Gloucesters—Elizabeth’s communique also clearly identified Douglass’s role as a conduit of material support. The latter’s own dispatch to the Rochester Democrat, in which he denied any role in Brown’s actions, followed the letters from Gloucester and Harris. Although the excerpts ran without introductory comment, the many members of Douglass’s inner circle who read the Anglo-African no doubt knew the score: Douglass was clearly implicated in Brown’s assault on slavery.
* * *
In the aftermath of the Civil War, John Brown would serve as one key touchstone for Douglass, and Abraham Lincoln would be another. Douglass did not meet Lincoln until August 1863, but the two had common friends and associates. In late February 1860, Lincoln came to see Beecher in action at Plymouth Church, the initial planned location for the landmark antislavery speech he ended up delivering the next day at Cooper Union; the Independent’s Bowen and Tilton served as coorganizers of the Great Hall event.[29] When Douglass began to make high-profile appearances in Brooklyn in February 1863, Lincoln became a central figure in his lectures. Though Douglass came to like the president personally, he was often frustrated with Lincoln’s cautious handling of the war. But as historian Eric Foner observes, in the aftermath of the president’s assassination, Douglass began to elevate the fallen leader’s heroism, praising Lincoln in order “to get people’s support for Reconstruction.”[30] Such calculations were evident in many of Douglass’s Brooklyn appearances, most poignantly during his rousing January 1866 speech at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), when he sang Lincoln’s praises and relentlessly trashed Andrew Johnson.
At that same BAM event, Douglass denounced the upsurge in anti–black equality sentiment stirring in Brooklyn, which the speaker had encountered first-hand during the run-up to the lecture. As he became close allies with Tilton, Douglass now experienced some ups and downs with Beecher—and after those two figures had their famous blowup in the 1870s, Douglass remained in Tilton’s camp.[31] In the speeches Douglass gave in Brooklyn during the Civil War and Reconstruction, the stars of John Brown and Abe Lincoln shone brightly. It was fitting, then, that the last two major addresses Douglass delivered in Brooklyn focused on the lives of these two pivotal figures.
Whether at BAM, Plymouth Church, or Bridge Street AME, at an Emancipation Jubilee in Bedford-Stuyvesant or the Union League in Crown Heights, Douglass struck up lively conversations with his audiences. During the Civil War and into Reconstruction, he also continued to incur heavy fire from the Brooklyn Eagle. In the following selections of his speeches and responses to them,[32] we see Douglass’s brilliance on display, and in the process learn a bit about the Brooklyn he knew well.
Editor’s Note
In editing the speeches, my goal was to present as accurately as possible what Douglass stated at each of the Brooklyn events. Some of the lectures here (Chapters 1, 3, and 8) combine Douglass’s published versions with accounts from newspapers. Others rely primarily on newspaper transcriptions of the speeches (Chapters 2, 4–7, and 9). At the end of the brief introductions to each chapter, I identify the main sources.
So as not to distract readers by noting every typo or unclear pronoun found in the newspaper coverage, I simply fixed some of them. Similarly, in certain portions of the speeches, I adhered to contemporary rules for capitalization (especially regarding proper nouns) and modernized some punctuation (particularly in the use of dashes). Rather than insert repeated or unclear ellipses, I chose to summarize in parentheses (or footnotes) the gist of any substantial deletions. For ease of readability, I inserted occasional paragraph returns. In general, most of the inconsistencies—in spelling, punctuation, and grammar—from the original texts of both the speeches and the newspaper reports have nonetheless been retained. The small changes noted above were made solely for the sake of clarity to the reader.
—T.H.
Chapter 1
Self-Made Men
Williamsburgh, with Walt Whitman
January 1859
Douglass’s first widely promoted appearance in Brooklyn occurred in early January of 1859. Williamsburgh, home to an established black community, had only become part of Brooklyn in 1855. Accordingly, the Williamsburgh Times (founded in 1848) became the Brooklyn Daily Times, and from 1857–1859 the paper’s editor was Walt Whitman.
According to biographer David S. Reynolds, Whitman grew increasingly conservative on racial issues during the period just before the Civil War, at one point asking rhetorically in a Daily Times editorial, “Is not America for the Whites? And is it not better so?” A supporter neither of slavery nor of black equality, Whitman—like many of his contemporaries, including Lincoln—at the time advocated colonization.[33] Even so, he continued to hold Douglass in high esteem.
Douglass came to Brooklyn to present, for only the second time, what would become a stock speech in his repertoire, on “Self-Made Men.”[34] He gave the lecture at the Odeon, a theater on 5th Street (now Driggs Avenue) between S. 3rd and S. 4th Streets. Due to inclement weather, attendance was sparse. But Whitman was in the audience. Here is his account in the Daily Times, followed by a sampling of Douglass’s speech.
*
The lecture of this gentleman, which was delivered at the Odeon last evening, pursuant to announcement, was quite slimly attended, the unfavorable state of the weather having kept many persons at home who would otherwise have been present.
Mr. Douglass was very much confined to his notes, and was not so fluent as we remember him to have been some years ago.[35] He has a splendid voice, loud, clear and sonorous, which would make itself heard in the largest open-air assembly. His lecture was upon “Self-Made Men”—rather a trite topic, but quite appropriate when the antecedents of the lecturer are considered. He was liberally applauded at various points of his discourse, where he alluded to his past history, or spoke of the circumstances under which he had himself risen to a prominent position.
He commenced by alluding to the many illustrious examples of self-made men in all ages, and the causes that had given them prominence. The celebrated Negro, Touissant L’Ouverture, was mentioned first, together with