Frederick Douglass: life and legacy

Frederick Douglass

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself appeared in May 1845. William Lloyd Garrison wrote the preface; Wendell Phillips wrote an introductory letter. Douglass's stark rendering of his torturous slave experiences, however, was the smash. By 1848, eleven thousand copies had been published in the United States; French and German translations had appeared; and in England, it had already experienced nine editions. Ecstatic praise for Douglass's eloquent and touching narrative was widespread. "The book, as a whole, judged as a mere work of art, would widen the fame of Bunyan or Defoe," wrote the Lynn Pioneer reviewer. This reviewer added: "It is the most thrilling work which the American press has ever issued -- and the most important. If it does not open the eyes of this people, they must be petrified into eternal sleep." A British reviewer marveled at Douglass, "a fugitive slave, as but yesterday, escaped from a bondage that doomed him to ignorance and degradation, [who] now stands up and rebukes oppression with a dignity and a fervor scarcely less glowing than that which Paul addressed to Agrippa" (Pioneer, 1845; pg. 59-60).

Douglass's slave narrative was part of an important black literary tradition that flourished between 1840 and 1860 and reached at least as far back as 1789, with the London publication of the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. Among the plethora of slave narratives published between 1840 and 1860 was not only Douglass's first autobiography, but his second: My Bondage and My Freedom ( 1855). These and the many other highly popular and evocative black autobiographies were trenchant abolitionist polemics. As abolitionist propaganda, they were unparalleled. Douglass's narratives, arguably the best, exemplified not only the highly political nature of these autobiographies, but also the traditions from which they sprang: black abolitionism, black activism, and social reform (Nichols, 11-89).

Whites became abolitionists out of choice; blacks were abolitionists out of necessity. This sense of exigency was part of the signal contribution of black abolitionists to the abolitionist struggle: a gripping analysis of slavery and its ramifications from an experiential perspective. They and their people had been and still were slaves and, as a result, plainly perceived the imperative of emancipation. Those like Douglass, whose experience and perception exceeded the merely personal, could and did offer analysis as well as description. Douglass's abolitionism skillfully combined the subjective and objective dimensions of description and analysis. He cast his searching net as widely as he possibly could and endeavored to catch the significance and compulsion of abolitionism in their myriad complexity.

Besides stressing the immutable bond between slave and free blacks, he also emphasized the often implicit psychological and emotional identification of the black slave with the abolitionist, white and black. Perhaps only a former-slave-turned-abolitionist could truly invoke the spiritual and ideal level on which slaves and abolitionists communed. He thus remarked that among the slaves, the existence and activities of the abolitionists were known throughout the South, and cherished with gratitude. It has increased the slave's hope for liberty. Without it his heart would faint within him; his patience would be exhausted. On the agitation of this subject he has built his highest hopes. My friends, let it not be quieted, for upon you the slaves look for help. There will be no outbreaks, no insurrections, whilst you continue this excitement: let it cease, and the crimes that would follow cannot be told (Blassingame, 1:4).

Much more than propaganda, rhetorical exaggeration, and wishful thinking, this idea expressed a metaphysical reality to which Douglass was particularly sensitive. White and black abolitionists alike theoretically agreed on two basic principles: "First, the freedom of the blacks in this country, and, second, the elevation of them." The American Anti-Slavery Society's original Declaration of Sentiments, adopted in December 1833, enshrined these twin goals. The dedication of white abolitionists to emancipation and improved race relations graphically set them apart from the vast majority of whites. Nonetheless, white abolitionists were clearly less committed to racial equality than black abolitionists, who possessed a personal and thus more profound perception of the need to reform the racist character of American society. Douglass maintained that the truest test of a white abolitionist's commitment to black liberation and racial equality was to observe how he treated his northern black neighbor. Those who viewed abolitionism as applying ideally, actually, or both only to enslaved southern blacks and neglected the elevation of their free northern black neighbors were, according to Douglass, "sham abolitionists." The abolition of slavery alone would be a necessary though insufficient victory. The full abolitionist victory demanded the abolition of racism. Consequently, Douglass and most black abolitionists agreed that the most viable and gratifying antislavery tactic in northern communities was to promote the numbers of "the intelligent and upright free men of color." Otherwise stated, "the most telling, the most killing refutation of slavery is the presentation of an industrious, enterprising, thrifty and intelligent free black population" (Douglass' Paper, 1853).

The tandem battles against racism and slavery signified, on one hand, Negro alienation from the disillusioning reality of America and, on the other, Negro attraction to its engaging ideal. Racism and slavery obviously violated the American ideals of freedom, justice, and equality that Negroes, slave and free, believed in and built their faith in and optimism for America upon. Nonetheless, the depth of the Negro's idealism outspanned the depth of his alienation. Black abolitionists, notably Douglass, personified this pivotal conflict. On the one hand, Douglass could condemn America for its slavery, especially from "the slave's point-of-view." He could righteously declare, from that perspective: "whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future" (Griffiths, 1969).

In the same speech, he could also insist that he did not despair because "there are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery." In addition to his belief in a moral universe ruled by God, he drew hope from " 'the Declaration of Independence,' the great principles it contains, and the genius of American institutions." His "spirit" was cheered, too, "by the obvious tendencies of the age": ever-growing civilization, progress, and internationalism. 22 the intensifying contradiction of the increasing worldwide trend toward enlightenment as against the barbaric relic of slavery plainly ensured slavery's demise. Progressive idealism as a mechanism for constructive social change and reform buttressed Douglass's lifelong dedication to the eradication of slavery and racism. His representative black critique of America's hypocritical idealism constituted an indispensable perspective toward America.

White abolitionists were obviously less racist than most of their white contemporaries. Nevertheless, they still tended to see and to treat blacks as less than equal. For example, very few blacks ever rose to prominent positions in the two major, national, white-dominated antislavery organizations: the Garrisonian American Anti-Slavery Society and the political abolitionist American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. This exclusion helped to fuel separate black organizations. When Douglass declared his ideological independence from his Garrisonian mentors, their vituperative opposition revealed not only deep disappointment and regret, but an unwillingness to allow Douglass, a black man, to speak his own mind. At bottom, the issue in Douglass's case was less his ideological purity and disloyalty than his race and his importance as the representative Negro (Griffiths, 1969).

Civil Rights

For Douglass and other black leaders, the infamous 1883 Republican Supreme Court decision nullifying the Civil Rights Law of 1875 clearly illustrated the Republican party's accelerating descent. The decision struck Douglass as "one more shocking development of that moral weakness in high places which has attended the conflict between the spirit of liberty and the spirit of slavery." It constituted "a concession to race pride, selfishness and meanness, and will be received with joy by every upholder of caste in the land." Douglass blasted the decision's disingenuous and dubious logic. "What does it matter to be a citizen," he asked, "that a State may not insult and outrage him, if a citizen of a State may? The effect upon him is the same, and it was just this effect that the framers of the Fourteenth Amendment plainly intended . . . To prevent" (Weissman, 1975).

Douglass found especially reprehensible the tactic of opponents of the Civil Rights Law wherein they stigmatized it as an attempt to legislate social equality, a bugbear of racist whites. He countered that "social equality and civil equality rest upon an entirely different basis, and well enough the American people know it." The former rested upon condition and, to an extent, choice; the latter upon rights and law (Weissman, 1975). It was misleading to associate social equality, a privilege, with civil equality, a right, for they denoted different things. The threat of black equality, rather than interracial social equality, represented the actual racist fear, according to Douglass. "To degrade and stamp out the liberties of a race" signified the "studied purpose" of linking social and civil equality. Douglass concluded that if the Civil Rights Law attempted to promote social equality, so did "the laws and customs of every civilized country in the world," including the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the Sermon on the Mount, the Golden Rule, and the Apostles' Creed. He warned his fellow Americans that if the vile spirit of caste as exemplified in the ignoble Supreme Court decision of 1883 persisted there would be a "black Ireland in America" (Gregory, 1971) .

Evidence of the Republican party's betrayal of blacks encompassed its failure to enforce the letter and spirit of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments. It likewise included its failure to pass: an Election Reform Bill (during President Hayes's administration) to eliminate election abuses in the South; the Lodge Force Bill (during President Benjamin Harrison's administration) to compel the president to send troops to the South if necessary to protect citizens' lives and rights; and the Blair Educational Bill (again during Harrison's administration) to subsidize a basic education for all American children. Due to these and like disappointments, Douglass became increasingly critical of Republican presidents starting with Hayes. On the contrary, he continued to think well of Republican Ulysses S. Grant, Hayes's presidential predecessor, who, unlike his successors, had stood firmly by the freed people. Notwithstanding the corruption among Grant's advisors and associates, and the resulting moral taint this gave his administration, Douglass had supported him for reelection in 1872 because of his efforts on behalf of the freed people as well as the nation.

Douglass's growing loyalty to the Republican party in the 1870s reflected several motives. First and foremost, he identified the party, regardless of its shortcomings, as the Negro's best friend in the political arena. In 1871, he had declared that "if as a class we are slighted by the Republican party, we as a class are murdered by the Democratic party. Whatsoever may be the fault of the Republican party, it has within it the only element of friendship for the colored man's rights." A little more than a year later, using a famous nautical metaphor, Douglass portrayed the Republican party as "the deck," and all other political parties, "the sea." Similarly, in 1888, he still viewed "the Republican Party as the sheet anchor of the colored man's political hopes and the ark of his safety" (Weissman, 1975). Second, in Republican party politics, Douglass found excitement, prestige, and a challenge. It offered a platform to promote his people's cause, a golden opportunity for the realization of his political ambitions, and a boost to his self-esteem. Third, it enabled him to act upon his maturing political consciousness: his growing belief that the national political arena represented a viable context to espouse the cause of humanity, notably the Negro's elevation. This complex and interrelated set of motives influenced the whole of his postwar political career and helped to make the elder race statesman more amenable to compromise and more understanding of human foibles.

Both Douglass's unwavering support of Grant and his growing involvement with stalwart Republican politics caused him to break with his longtime friend and ally, Charles Sumner, on the issues of the Liberal Republican insurgency and the annexation of Santo Domingo. The mutually bitter antagonism between Grant and Sumner caused the latter to form an uneasy alliance with Liberal Republicans, who advocated civil service and tariff reform, besides amnesty for the South. Douglass and Sumner agreed that the freed people's plight was critical. They disagreed, however, on the need to replace the corrupt and inefficient Grant administration in 1872 with one to be headed by Horace Greeley, presidential nominee of the Liberal Republicans and Democratic party. Douglass, whose overriding concern was the freed people, could not accept Sumner's position linking a "New Departure," amnesty for the South, with an insistence upon protection for the freed people's civil rights. Virtually all Liberal Republicans, with the notable exception of Sumner, were willing to forsake the freed people in order to achieve the "New Departure" they viewed as essential to their insurgency. Douglass, consequently, rejected the Liberal Republican movement, railing against "the intention of this new party to check the progress of the nation to complete freedom." Furthermore, he editorialized that "all reform movements started by Republicans outside of their own party, are impudent frauds, devised by demagogues for corrupt purposes" (Gregory, 1971). As a result, he helped to convince his people, who revered Sumner for his dedication to their struggle, to reelect Grant, against Sumner's opposition.