Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass
his birthplace, and his work on farms and in Baltimore City.
After he published the Narrative in his late twenties, he knew he was in danger of being recaptured. In 1846, he was able to secure funds from British abolitionists to formally purchase his freedom (at a cost of $711). Britain had passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833.
DOUGLASS AND CHRISTIANITY
A theme in the Narrative is Douglass's assessment of the behavior of whites who called themselves Christians and yet taught their slaves about the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ. This was also a theme in many of his antislavery speeches. Some preachers and owners tried to live out the teachings of the New Testament, but most simply took lines from the Bible out of context to justify slavery. Indeed, Douglass notes that the worst owners also seemed to be the most religious. He mentions the slave breaker who wanted to worship and sing with him during prayer meetings, and owners and overseers who were rich and pious but who whipped women until the blood ran from their bodies.
In highlighting the hypocrisy of those who would call themselves Christians, the Narrative reads as quite an anti-religious text. In the Appendix, however, Douglass attempts to distinguish between genuine and false Christians. In doing this, he was probably trying to appease his supporters, who were not plantation owners but city-dwelling Christians in the North-East. An excerpt from the Appendix gives both a sense of the oratorical style that made Douglass famous, and his views on religion:
What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to the slaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference – so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.
LATER YEARS
During the fifty years following the publication of the Narrative, Douglass was a forthright advocate for human rights, and not only of black people. He and Anna provided a temporary home to hundreds of escaped slaves as part of the Underground Railroad. When slavery ended with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, he regularly spoke out for the civil and voting rights that became enshrined in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.
In the 1840s, on the abolition circuit, Douglass found that female abolitionists were not allowed to speak out publicly. This led him to become an outspoken proponent of women's emancipation. He was the only man to attend the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York for women's rights, and told the audience that he could hardly agitate for black rights and keep quiet on female suffrage:
In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of the government of the world.
In 1882, after over forty years of marriage, Anna died. Before long, though, Douglass married a white woman suffragist and abolitionist, Helen Pitts, who was about the age of his oldest daughter. Amid the controversy, Douglass said: “This proves I am impartial. My first wife was the color of my mother and the second, the color of my father.”
He was also an early campaigner for black children's education, and against the racial segregation of education. In the Civil War, he argued that black Americans should be able to fight on the Union side.
After Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1876, Douglass was appointed marshal to the District of Columbia. It was the first ever Senate-approved posting of a high-level job to a black man and, although it involved few duties, provided a handsome stipend. In 1878, he was able to buy a 20-room home overlooking Washington D.C. “Cedar Hill” is now a federally run museum, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
Douglass and Helen travelled widely in the 1880s, including trips to Europe. He remained in demand as a speaker. He was opposed to the various ‘Back to Africa’ resettlement programs mooted at the time, and also the idea of black separatist movements and all-black towns.
In 1889, President Harrison appointed him the consul-general to the Republic of Haiti, which he resigned in 1891. The following year, Douglass built a row of rental houses for African Americans, which still stands in the Fells Point area of Baltimore.
Douglass died on February 20, 1895, having just returned from a women's rights meeting, where he had been escorted onto the stage by Susan B. Anthony.
His writings and speeches fill many volumes. He became revered by many, black and white, and was one of the most photographed Americans of the nineteenth century. Schools and buildings are named after him.
Douglass made an indelible impression on American life.
FURTHER READING
The Library of Congress is a rich source of Frederick Douglass's manuscripts and correspondence. Many of his earlier writings and papers were destroyed in an arson attack on his home in Rochester, New York, in 1872, but the LC collection still contains over 7,000 items and 38,000 images. Many of the materials are available online.
Collections of his works include John W. Blassingame, et al, The Frederick Douglass Papers, (3 vols., Yale University Press, 1979), and Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings, (edited by Philip S. Foner, abridged and adapted by Yuval Taylor, 1999).
The most comprehensive modern biographies are William S. McFeely's Frederick Douglass (1991) and David W. Blight's Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018).
About Debra Newman Ham
Debra Newman Ham is a former professor of history at Morgan State University (1986–1995), and also served as an archivist and African American history specialist at the National Archives (1970–1986) and the Manuscript Division at the Library of Congress (1986–1995). Books include Black History: A Guide to Civilian Records in the National Archives (1984), and The African-American Mosaic: A Guide to Black History Resources in the Library of Congress (1993).
ABOUT TOM BUTLER-BOWDON
Tom Butler-Bowdon is the author of the bestselling 50 Classics series, which brings the ideas of important books to a wider audience. Titles include 50 Philosophy Classics, 50 Psychology Classics, 50 Politics Classics, 50 Self-Help Classics and 50 Economics Classics.
As series editor for the Capstone Classics series, Tom has written Introductions to Plato's The Republic, Machiavelli's The Prince, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, and Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich.
Tom is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney.
www.Butler-Bowdon.com
PREFACE