Happy Valentine’s Day Frederick Douglass
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/frederick-douglass-movement-liberation
Frederick Douglas is my hero. While my son gets his middle name from Malcolm X, the name of Frederick Douglass is also held by the highest respect in my heart. I love freedom fighters. I love people who stand up for justice. And I love Frederick Douglass.
Born into slavery in February of 1818, he would escape in his youth and transform himself into one of the most respected figures in history.
By the way, the title of this blog is inspired by the mother of Frederick Douglass. While we do not know the exact date of his birth, his mother used to call him “my little Valentine”, and so most historians believe he was born on this day.
Regardless of the day he was born (or any of us for that matter), it was the life he led that matters. And what a life it was!
He taught himself to read (while still a slave), escaped to freedom, became a famous orator and writer, published his own newspapers (the North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper), and rivaled abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison in fame and influence.
http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf
Here’s an excerpt from his autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
He describes how he learned how to read during a time when slaves were not taught.
Chapters VI and Chapter VII
Very soon after I went to live with Mr. and Mrs. Auld, she
very kindly commenced to teach me the A, B, C. After I had
learned this, she assisted me in learning to spell words of three
or four letters. Just at this point of my progress, Mr. Auld found
out what was going on, and at once forbade Mrs. Auld to
instruct me further, telling her, among other things, that it was
unlawful, as well as unsafe, to teach a slave to read. To use his
own words, further, he said, “If you give a nigger an inch, he
will take an ell. A nigger should know nothing but to obey his
master—to do as he is told to do. Learning would spoil the best
nigger in the world. Now,” said he, “if you teach that nigger
(speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping
him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once
become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to
himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It
would make him discontented and unhappy.” These words sank
deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay
slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of
thought. It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark
and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding
had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had
been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white
man’s power to enslave the black man. It was a grand
achievement, and I prized it highly. From that moment, I
understood the pathway from slavery to freedom. It was just
what I wanted, and I got it at a time when I the least expected it.
Whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my
kind mistress, I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction
which, by the merest accident, I had gained from my master.
Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a
teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at
whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.
I get goose bumps just reading those words. How could you not? If Frederick Douglass could do it, what less can I? Douglass had nothing going for him, but determination and a strong mind. My life has been blessed compared to his. How can complain? How can I make excuses?
http://www.frederickdouglass.org/douglass_bio.html
Featured Video:
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/frederick-douglass-movement-liberation
Disclaimer: This video clip is not fluff. It is a serious lecture by West Point Military Academy Assistant Professor of History Robert McDonald. Being a long time teacher (currently high school World History), I have a professional interest in such lectures. I love studying history. Understanding how people lived before us, and how liberty has constantly struggled against tyranny, allows us to understand better our world today.
This year my social studies department (currently it’s “World History”) chose Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Chapters VI and Chapter VII, as a primary source reading. It’s a shame so very few students have read his words and studied his 
life. It was a pleasure to teach this to my students. It’s my hope (teachers have to hope) that some of them will continue their study.
Douglass understood the principles of the American Revolution and of freedom in general. He understood it was not specific to any particular group. Freedom is freedom. Besides advocating for the rights of blacks, he stood for women as well.
“I hold that this cause is not altogether and exclusively a woman’s cause. It is the cause of human brotherhood as well as the cause of human sisterhood, and both must rise and fall together. Woman cannot be elevated without elevating man, and man cannot be depressed without depressing woman also.”
He gave many speeches. He was a powerful advocate for abolition. It was impossible to hear him speak and remain convinced that blacks were inferior. His speeches left listeners spellbound, rapt with attention and admiration. Once he was asked to speak in honor of Independence Day. His words were powerful and brilliant. They were a slap in the face to any American who considered the nation to be the land of “the free”.
“Do you mean to mock me by asking me to speak today?” July 5, 1852
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing is empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass-fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”
Douglass was asked what should be done with the black man. His answer is pure libertarian. In essence, it was
free us and leave us alone!
“The American people have always been anxious to know what they shall do with us…. I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are worm-eaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the Negro cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!
If you see him on his way to school, let him alone, don't disturb him! If you see him going to the dinner table at a hotel, let him go! If you see him going to the ballot- box, let him alone, don't disturb him! If you see him going into a work-shop, just let him alone,--your interference is doing him a positive injury. [Don’t] attempt to prop up the Negro. Let him fall if he cannot stand alone! ….Let him live or die by that. If you will only untie his hands, and give him a chance, I think he will live. He will work as readily for himself as the white man”.
Frederick Douglass, April 1865
As a Libertarian, I know our struggle for freedom is ongoing. The struggle against tyranny will never end. As much as most of us are content to manage our lives without the evil desire to rule over others, there will always be someone who wants to control you.
The great abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison wrote in 1829, some 31 years before slavery would be ended,
“Every Fourth of July, our Declaration of Independence is produced, with a sublime indignation, to set forth the tyranny of the mother country, and to challenge the admiration of the world. But what a pitiful detail of grievances does this document present, in comparison with the wrongs which our slaves endure! …. In view of it, I am ashamed of my country. I am sick of our unmeaning declamation in praise of liberty and equality; of our hypocritical cant about the unalienable rights of man.”
William Lloyd Garrison, July 4, 1829
He fought the struggle against slavery for decades before its end was realized. And the Quakers (those pacifist Christians) had held (long before Garrison and the abolitionist movement) that “it was wrong to own another of God’s
Here’s a primary source from 1693 where the Quakers (Society of Friends) spoke out against slavery.
http://www.qhpress.org/quakerpages/qwhp/gk-as1693.htm
Here’s another that shares this:
Read the following excerpt from the Germantown Quaker Petition of 1688 and identify the reasons why they opposed slavery:
"There is a saying that we should do to all men like as we will be done ourselves; making no difference of what generation, descent, or colour they are.... To bring men hither [to America], or to rob and sell them against their will, we stand against. In Europe there are many oppressed for conscience-sake; and here there are those oppressed which are of a black colour....Pray, what thing in the world can be done worse towards us, than if men should rob or steal us away, and sell us for slaves to strange countries; separating husbands from their wives and children."
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=45
I take inspiration from Frederick Douglass who returned to the struggle in America after enjoying two years of peace and acclaim in England and Ireland. His supporters bought his freedom (and a printing press as well) and the African American newspaper, the North Star began publishing in 1847.
I do not go back to America to sit still, remain quiet, and enjoy ease and comfort. . . . I glory in the conflict, that I may hereafter exult in the victory. I know that victory is certain. I go, turning my back upon the ease, comfort, and respectability which I might maintain even here. . . Still, I will go back, for the sake of my brethren. I go to suffer with them; to toil with them; to endure insult with them; to undergo outrage with them; to lift up my voice in their behalf; to speak and write in their vindication; and struggle in their ranks for the emancipation which shall yet be achieved.
----FAREWELL TO THE BRITISH PEOPLE, March 30, 1847
He understood well the life he was choosing.
“I still see before me a life of toil and trials..., but, justice must be done, the truth must be told...I will not be silent."
Don’t be silent friends. Stand up for freedom.
Support your Libertarian Party.
http://lpnevada.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91&Itemid=224
Links:
http://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/frederick-douglass-movement-liberation
http://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Douglass/Narrative/Douglass_Narrative.pdf
http://www.frederickdouglass.org/douglass_bio.html
http://www.frederickdouglass.org/speeches/index.html
http://trilogy.brynmawr.edu/speccoll/quakersandslavery/
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=45
