Life of Frederick Dougls

THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS Author(s): WILLIAM H. MC CLENDON Source: The Black Scholar, Vol. 3, No.
7/8, THE BLACK LEADER (March-April 1972), pp. 6-16 Published by: Paradigm Publishers Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41206337 . Accessed: 30/04/2013 14:16
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FrederickDouglass
PAGE 6 THE BLACK SCHOLAR MARCH-APRIL,1972
THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

BY WILLIAM H. MC CLENDON
Douglass is one of the very rare and outstanding examples of Frederick those black persons who consistentlyregarded blackness and the black experience with seriousness and respect. He demonstrated from the day of his decision to escape slavery that the defining of the black situationand takingcontrolof black life were mattersthat rightlyrested only within the realm of black people. This awareness along with other facets of his social and political consciousness are the stimulithat impelled him to carry on for and unyieldfifty-five years an unfaltering the battle to white remove oppression ing of black people. It is well documented that the contrivances, contradictions, brutalities and combinedand atrocities of the slave system circumstances and conditionsof produced that can in America for black living people best be described as a veritablehell. Also the accompanyingprejudices and attitudes which were expressed toward non-slave black people were equally as vicious and caused them misery closely akin to that endured by the slaves. As black people began to acquire recognition as formal communities in some places within the American scheme, there were corresponding expressionsof resistance from an impressive number of black spokesmen. Of these, black history and other fields of black social concernsconcurthat Frederick Douglass was one of the most courageous, dynamic,prolific,and articulate.
THE BLACK SCHOLAR MARCH-APRIL,1972
Douglass was born February 14, 1817, and lived as a slave forthe first twenty-one years of his life. He knew firsthand the cruelties,indignities,and degradations of slavery.During his youthwhen he resisted and foughta brutal slave breakerto whom he was assigned, he learned, "He is whipped oftenestwho is whipped easiest." He escaped fromslavery in 1838 and shortly afterwardswas married to Anna Murray. JTrom the time Douglass removed himself frombondage and became a part of the abolitionist movement he undertook establishinga new set of ground rules for attackingthe slave system.The most imcauses portantbeing that the anti-slavery could not be best assertedand championed only by whites. Douglass held this to be a violation of a general tenet of human conduct. In making his position clear on this point he said, "There is no royal road to perfection. Certainlyno one must wait for some kind of friendto put a springing board under his feet,upon which he may easily bound from the firstround of the ladder onward and upward to its highest
William H. McClendon is Director of the Black StudiesCenterat Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He received his education fromliving the "black experience" everyday of his life. McClendon is a political theorist and community conwith Willamette and sultant, presently University Pacific College in establishing black studies programs.
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round. If he waits for this he may wait He who does not long and perhaps forever. think himself worth saving from poverty and ignorance, by his own efforts, will be worth the efforts of hardly thought anybody else." Douglass thus placed clearly before the blacks and the whites of this nation the perspectivefromwhich the black struggle for freedomwould have to be launched. The starting Une in the battle for the liberation of black people was to be drawn by the blacks themselves and their resourcefulness towards this objective would have to be consistently demonstrated. This did not preclude acceptance of the cooperation, help and philanthropyto be offered by whites but it was necessaryfor black men seeking an end to slavery to show theirallies and collaboratorsthe directions to be taken to obtain freedom. This level of thinkingwas exhibited by Douglass when he was just twenty-one years of age. Douglass had heard of the abolitionists while in Baltimore and after moving to New Bedfordwhere he firstsubscribed to the Liberator,he began to attend Abolitionist Society meetings. On March 12, con1839, he spoke in favorof resolutions and also delivered an indemningslavery denunciation of the African colonispiring zation efforts of the AmericanColonization "That we are American citizens, Society. born with natural,inherent and just rights; and that the inordinate and intolerable scheme of the American Colonization Society shall never entice or drive us from our native soil/' It was thus that Douglass emerged as a black spokesman and his leadership capabilities were immediately recognized by the white abolitionists. Douglass' firstspeech of note was delivered when he appeared with William Lloyd Garrison and fortyabolitionistsat Nantucketon August 12, 1841. His unquestioned authority and eloquence elicited amazing responses fromthe audience. In this and in subsequent appearances he
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gave a new spirit and drive to the antislaverymovement. Douglass possessed an excellentspeaking voice, masterful appearance and incomparable intelligence.Through the skillful use of mimicry and magnetic elocution he could: transferhis listeners (entire audiences) to a slave compound; dramatizethe slave-ownersteaching obedience to slaves by using Christiandogma; depict the horror and humiliationof black women being subjected to the lusts and rapingsof slaveowners; illustrate the grief of mothers, fathers,and children when separated by slave sales and punishments. He was able to create sorrow, sympathy, repulsion, anger,and rage over the slave system.William Wells Brown said no one could talk against the slave systemon a level equal to Frederick Douglass. When Douglass spoke to the Plymouth Anti-SlaverySociety in December, 1841, he came to grips with the malevolence of white Christianity and white education in America.He said, "Church,God, nor Christianityremovesprejudice . . . blacks are to be kept in a special place in the United States. A place decided upon by whites. Blacks do not choose or make the decisions. Whites degrade blacks and then ask why are they degraded. Colleges and Seminaries are closed to blacks and you ask why we don't know more." Douglass avoided directing his sharp, critical rhetoric at persons and kept it aimed solely at the slave system. His thesiswas centeredaround the masterand the slave alike being tyrannized by slavery, both were strippedof dignity. On thissame occasion Douglass said there is a twin battle to be fought,one against Southern slavery and the other against Northern prejudice. In supportingthis he cited his "Jim Crow" ordeals in riding trains in to Massachusetts,the job discriminations which he had been subjected and the degrading treatmentthat was directed at blacks by the white Christian churches. These personal experiencesremoved from
THF BLACK SCHOLAR MARCH-APRIL,1972
of the Douglassthelabel ofbeinga mimic white of thinking politicalopportunists. his own Douglass soon tiredof relating to He was determined slave experiences. examine make inissues,questionmorals, and develop ferences, expressprinciples mansocialconcepts. Collins, John general was the of Anti-Slavery Society, opager He this. instructed to Douglass to posed accent and just with a speak plantation tell his sad story, the whiteswould take care of the philosophy. Douglass in rethat the North could not asserted sponse unbe committed to abolitionist purposes manblack less the fullest of expressions hood were in evidenceand this included the intellectual and the learned.Douglass refused to acceptor be a party to any atmeek, tempts to portraythe ignorant, He stupid,clown black as a stereotype. deraisedthe question thathas convulsed ceitful whiteliberalsever since,"Do you think of black men as causes and as sentient,intelligent beings, or as the raw materialof crusadingrighteousness?" In 1845 Douglass went to England to crusadeand lecturein the cause of the After he returned abolitionist movement. he began publishing the North Star in New York,in 1847. A breach Rochester, occurred betweenDouglass and Garrison inbecause Garrisonand his followers sistedon following a line of non-violence and passiveresistance and usingonlyapof moral suasion peals againstthe slave Garrison was system. opposed to any nationalistic indications or expressions among blackssuchas havingtheir own churches, or convenlodges, schools,newspapers, tions.Douglass was determined to follow a program of political actionand to exercise an unmatched and unrelenting zeal in hisassaults theslavesystem and all against of its proponents. This meant that he would lead blacksin setting up programs to takecontrol of their own lives. the Douglass pioneeredin structuring which black in logic people subsequent in the United periodsof theirexistence Statescould use to evaluatethe roles of
His succinct whitepoliticalfunctionaries. assessments of AbrahamLincoln,Henry Clay, JohnCalhoun,and Daniel Webster are deserving of recall as these figures faces of wore some of the mostcommon whiteracismwith whichblacks have to the feelings of Lincoln deal. In explaining towards black people, Douglass said, "President Lincolnwas a whiteman and sharedprejudices common to his countrymen towards the coloredrace." that HenryClay .LJouglass commented in hissupport used ofthe1850compromise the soft,gentle dictionand exemplified This of compromise and conciliation. spirit servedto increaseClay's politicalstature and providedhim with an tremendously conto end thesectional imageof working flictsbetweenthe Northand the South. as preparClay managedto be publicized while the the nation for for way unity ing he every usingdeceptively guile possessed the positionof the South. to strengthen thatClay and disclosed Douglassperceived was ambitious all beyond comprehension and thathe lacked the intent, capability or skill to removethe deeply imbedded that had developed between antipathies forces.In reality slaveryand anti-slavery to givingall concesClay was committed sionsto the Southern slaveholders. Douglass summed thisup by stating Clay'splan in words, and to liberty, "giveseverything in deeds." secureseverything to slavery In describing the customary performances and ideologicalexpressions of John him evaluated as Calhoun, "Truly Douglass the slaveholding of his spirit representing state (South Carolina)." In considering Calhoun's1850speechto Congress, Douglass categorized it as despicablediatribe, filledwithevil proposals but candid and his Calhoun forthright. directly expressed wish for slaveryto continuealthoughit could hardlyhave escaped his awareness that slavery was inhumaneand sinful. Douglass revealsthatCalhounhad the attention of the nationbecause he was the mosteffective politicalvoice of whitesuPAGE 9
premacy but once his speech had been man of slaveryis found heard,"The mighty to be mightierin his silence than in his eloquence." In speakingof its actual worth Douglass said "Something brilliant and dim and powerfulwas expected; something weak was given." The Calhoun speech was expected to cause a tremorthroughto the oppoout the land and striketerror nents of slavery but the speech revealed that the power attributedfor so long to Calhoun had ended, as the language of his discourse was actually shallow and should be viewed as lacking in moral substance. of the ( This is true of most of the rhetoric whether it is whites uttered oppressors by or blacks.) Such rhetoricis never a force for or a source of morality, strengthand it is liberation; always modified,ambivaor assaultive and spoken by those lent, who are servileand obedient to the forces of repression.Its purpose is to intimidate and to announce that otherinstruments of harm and authority are to be used if and when power chooses. Those persons who speak sincerelyfor liberation and against oppression employ the language of freedom which is for the oppressed a commitmentand for the oppressor always a threat. Of Daniel Webster, Douglass asserted that his celebrated oratorical capabilities were misused and his talents wasted in supporting the 1850 Compromise. Webster was pictured as being endowed with intellectualpowers but seriouslydeficient in moral integrity. Douglass exposed him as adept at distortion:"Mr. Webster presentsus with a specimenof his skill,in the art of substituting darknessfor light,and bitter for sweet, and of the manner in which he can confound ignorantbigotry with uncompromisingand intelligentfidelity to principle." By 1851 Douglass was assuming a position of "ballots if possible, bullets if necesinstitutions, sary."He demanded integrated but if racist oppositionwas overwhelming he would establish special or separate facilitiesforblacks. Numerousaccounts of
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Frederick Douglass quote his classic call to black people to struggle:"The man who the wrong is the man to dehas suffered mand redress,that the man struckis the man to cry out and that he who has endured the cruel pangs of slavery is the man to advocate liberty.It is evident that and we must be our own representatives but advocates, not exclusively, peculiarly but in connectionwith -not distinctfrom, our white friends." RederickDouglass was disintguished JT by in dealing with the various his flexibility dilemmasand concernsof his time.He was always willing to reverse himself where revealed the new evidence and information errors of any previously held opinions. Douglass interpretedthe "freedom conLincoln, et al, to mean cepts" of Jefferson, that blacks were human and any abridgements or denials of their humanity deserved repudiation.He was aware of the white racist prerogativesthat were woven into the fabricof the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitutionjust as he also fullycomprehendedthe racistic in America. content of white Christianity In his deliberations and political action crusades to shake this white racist nation away from its confidence in the infernal he embarkedupon a program slave system, of his own to politicallypropagandize the docuU.S. Constitutionas an anti-slavery ment.This was done specifically to win the minds of as many people and nations as possible to black causes. He claimed that the preamble was specificallyavowed "to secure the blessings of liberty." He followed through with many telling arguments that slavery was thus incompatible withthe fundamental principlesof the U.S. Constitution.To many he seemed to disregard the American nation as being a white racist systemwith firmethnocentric convictionsto classifyblacks as property ratherthan as persons. Douglass became the most vigorousand effective Garrisonbepolitical abolitionist. came even more aggravated with him and
charged him as being an apostate. In turn, Garrison was labeled by Douglass as an abolitionistpolitician. Frederick Douglass was the epitome of leadership and he led superbly - both the enslaved blacks and the enslaving whites, in the direction of freedom. He offeredfirmly and judiciously solutionsto the greatestsocial and political problems of this nation. He was an ardent and uncrusader of unrelenting zeal compromising for the inclusion of black soldiers in the Union armies; a forcefuland determined advocate of enfranchisement for freedmen and in efforts to extend and expand the coverage of civil rights to include all he earned the respect which is Americans, typical of the life he lived. to Douglass made compellingstatements blacks fill the to roles had encourage they to play; to show abolitioniststhat there were spokesmenamong black people who recognized their responsibilities;to warn forces of slave unrest and the pro-slavery ultimate violence that could develop. He expressed in philosophical terms the moralityunderlyingall of man's struggles to achieve liberty.Black people were now being taught by a black man that they had to be activistsfortheirown liberation and the messages of Douglass were being carried to all black people including those who existed under the most horrendous circumstances.Two excerpts from Douglass* many dissertationswere of significance at this point: "The limitsof tyrants are prescribedby the endurance of those whom they oppose," and, "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them,and these will continue till they are resistedwith either words or blows, or with both." Exposure of slaves to the teachings of Douglass caused much unrest.As they began to understandbetter,many situations developed in slaveholdingareas that were difficult to control.There was widespread feeling among blacks that the tyrannyof
slavery must end. In obesiance to Douglass' statement,"He who would be free must strike the blow," many slaves resolved that any effortexpended in the quest for freedomwould be an honorable way to die. This philosophywas relatively easy to teach to some slaves and even more so to many of those blacks who were not held as chattel. .LJouglass as a slave saw slaveryas evil; a violation of human beings and out of harmonywith nature and conscience. As a slave Douglass thought and acted as a free man. He believed man should have freedomof choice and that slavery was a denial of this.Whatevera slave did to end his slaverywas moral and the slave could not and should not be held responsible. All slave actions are reactions to the brutalities of slavery and are justifiable! This he learned fromten years of serious study and fromhis associations with John Brown. From Frederick Douglass the country began to learn that libertyand slaveryare both considered in the U.S. Constitution but an oath to support slavery should be unthinkable. He emphasized thatif thereis acknowledgementand acceptance of the preamble of the Constitutionand its concerns with libertyand justice, then slaveholding, fugitive slave capture, and the kidnapping of non-slave blacks must be condemned.Douglass saw the Constitution as having some radical defects but these oppressivefeaturesmust be rejected by all honorable people in the North and the South because as it stood, slaveholders would continue to get the strongestdefense for their way of life fromthe Constitution. Those people who see justice and freedomas a purpose of the Constitution are in opposition to slavery. Douglass' argumentsilluminatedfurther that "The wickedness of the slave system and its evils were not victimized and all Americans were responsible for its existence. If the rightto libertyis self-evident then slavery is a sin. It is ridiculous that
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people of the North can claim as friends people who hold slaves in the South. Slavery is a systemof lewdness and piracy and the slaveholdersare but keepers of houses of ill-fame. Slave breeding is the chief source of business wealth and income in Virginia.The blood of the most prominent slaveholdingfamiliesis forsale in the slave markets of New Orleans." Douglass charged the criminalsin this endeavor as including the lawmakers and ministers . . . they were for forces of evil. Douglass' response to the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 was vigorousand vitriolic. He pointed out that blacks in the North were in a panic; free blacks now had no more defense against slave hunters than slaves; no black was to be given a court hearing if he was claimed by slave chasersas a fugitive; so called freedmen of the Northwere now literally thrown being intoslavery;the law was disruptive, threatand ening, demoralizing;familylife, jobs, were placed in jeophouses, communities for blacks ardy everywhere;many settlements of black people began to fall apart as the inhabitants were forced to flee and scatter.Many distinguished black activists and leaders (also fugitives)were forcedto seek otherplaces of refugesuch as England and Canada. Among these were Samuel R. Ward, HenryH. Garnet,and Daniel Payne. Douglass did not waver in his stance nor did he withdrawfromany of his previous positions as an abolitionist although his personal safety was far from secure. He committedhimselfto create in the North an anti-slavery awareness and a conscience about the injustice of the Fugitive Slave Law. -t'fter the Compromiseof 1850 Douglass became aware of the additional difficulties of shaping white opinion to favor blacks. Also, black communitiesbecame further divided over the issues of emigrationand segregation. Douglass emphasized that and male supremasectarianism, patriotism cy were divisiveand destructive. The emigrationmovementamong blacks was gainPAGE ?2
ing in numbers but he was opposed as were the majority of blacks at thisjuncture. Between 1947 and 1953 he determined thatthe black conditionin the U.S. needed considerable analysis and that long-range goals and strategiesmust be delineated. The 1850 Fugitive Slave Law convinced Douglass that these could no longer be delayed. Douglass saw blacks as being of two groups: Those who felt inferiorto whitesin statusand ability,and those who believed that more black professionals and intellectualswould provide the only solutions to black problems. He labeled the latter as a negative quantity as they were disregardingthe masses. They were charged as being disillusionedwith the ignorance of other blacks and despairing of the prejudice of whites and therebylosing theircourage to continueto battle for the statusand conditionsto which they should aspire for all of their people. By the late 1850's Douglass was moving towards a position where he would assert that men were moved by practical interests and not necessarily by appeals to logic and morality.By 1850 twenty-five percent of the Northern blacks were mulatto. Whites feigned more tolerance for them and their economic opportunities were slightlybetter as the whites would hire them in the notion that a lighterskin revealed a white geneticinput and thus they were likely to be a bit more intelligent. This was verydamaging to some blacks as they actually accepted and began to use such judgmentsin settingtheir own standards. The color factorbegan to influence some lighter skin blacks to feel superior to those of darker complexions.The irony of this is that mulattoeswere never accepted as white and had to share all of the of legal and public policy descrimination theirdarkerbrothers. This was an era when blacks failed to apply the lessonstaughtby Douglass. The black experienceis centered in and the black experience results from the peculiar status and bizarre and brutal treatment imposed upon all knownAfrican descendants by white racists in America.
and escapist,middle-classNegroes when he said, "The world is full of violence and fraud,and it would be strangeif the slave, the constantvictimof both fraud and violence, should escape the contagion." He assertedthat an ignorantpeople cannot support an educated and professional element. Blacks should, be developed in the skills and the trades. He saw black skilled craftsmenas a positive force for lfXoRE than one hundredand thirty years and partici- abolition. In July of 1853 at the Colored ago Douglass was organizing Men's Convention, held in Rochester, pating in sit-inson trains and railroads in Massachusetts.Later, he was actively inDouglass reversed his position of 1847 where he was opposed to establishing a volved in protests against segregation of vocational college for blacks. He foresaw black children in the Rochester, New of getting and frustration the difficulties York,public schools. He faced squarelythe in the apprentice system. issues of separate (complexional) institu- blacks included This is still a major problem for black tions and organizations.He advocated and workers today. Douglass saw separatism fought unequivocally for complete inclusion of blacks in the public life but when (determined and controlledby blacks) as a defense against segregation and not as and the whiteracistpoliticalmanipulations of it. Blacks or extension an implementation legal evasions prohibited this, he would lives and their about make decisions would institutions. immediately demand special of a so from do initial Douglass the These were in many respects position strength. knew this could lead to a higher level of steps towardlocal control.He taughtblack amiable race relations if blacks were in people that the fourthof Julyhad a very control of their communitiesand instituspecial meaning and significance which tions. could not be overlooked. In an address Afterthe South had begun the bloody 4th and The Negro," deliventitled"Juty of the Civil War therewas a widely conflict ered on July5, 1852, he said of the black secheld belief in Northerngovernmental man, "it is a day that reveals to him,more be could tors that the union of the states than all other days in the year the gross maintained and the slave power could be injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration contained and controlled without violent an unholy is a sham, your boasted liberty, militarybattles. From 1860 to 1863 the war was conducted in a manner that which crimes cover to thin a veil license seemed to favor this kind of thinking. of nation a would disgrace savages." real and in most Douglass assumed the task of defining Douglass was a man the concise meaningof the word. His presence clearly and explainingfullyforblacks and the whole of America that the ultimateregave rise to the belief that a people who sultof the war would have to be the ending can produce a Douglass, no matter how of chattel slaveryin all of the states. This few their numbers,have all of the essentials to triumph over their oppressors. position was considered ridiculous at the time. Frederick Douglass knew and taught that There were strongcompromiseforcesat manhood is founded on self-respectand work in the Union who were determined He taught that the black peoself-esteem. that Douglass' predictions would never ple in and out of slavery were chained was directed togetherand there would not be freedom materialize.SecretarySeward to have our foreign representativesand forone until all were liberated. He added racist whites to the anxietyof pro-slavery, diplomats say to the various governments of There are no reductionsin the intensity these merelybecause there may be visible residual effectsof Anglo-Saxonlust in the skin coloring and hair texture of some black people. Blackness is the commonality and the basis for communalityfor black folks no matterwhat the variations may be in their appearances.
THE BLACK SCHOLAR MARCH-APRIL,1972 PAGE I3
to which theywere accreditedthatno matthat ter how the rebellionmightterminate "The status of no class of people of the United States would be changed . . . slaves would be slaves stilland the masterswould be masters still/'Generals McClellan and Butler informed slaves that any efforts put forthby them to become free would be suppressed with force. In addition to this the Union government would not employ under any conditionsblack slaves who escaped to the Union Armylines; theywere returned to their masters. Union troops were stationedon many plantationsin Virginia to protectmasterswho continued to hold theirslaves. These troops were much more active in ousting black men from their camps than in fighting against confederate troops. J/rederick Douglass interpreted the Civil War to mean the intentionof the Northto extendthe benefitsof democracy. He knew this could never be done unless slave owning power was destroyed. Because of the mannerin which this country had come into being, slaverywas an integral part of its creation and development and the extractingof this evil sore from the body of this nation would require the most skilled and determinedsocial, political, economic, and militarysurgery. He was well aware that the systemof life in both the North and the South that flourished from the sale, purchaseand unlimited free labor of black human bodies was not about to preside peacefully over its own demise. Douglass regarded the Emancipation Proclamationas a significant milestoneto be reached by blacks. He said the war was now "invested with sanctity" and many celebrations were held. Black people all over the countrywere jubilant over the and those in the slaveholding proclamation south shared their elation, secretly, in cabins and other gatherings. Congress authorizedthe use of the first black troops in Julyof 1862 and in January of 1863, the War Department gave
PAGS I4
the order for Massachusettsto accept persons of African descent into a separate corp for combat duty. Black leaders acted as recruiting agents and Douglass was His son Charles was the firstto foremost. enlist in the Massachusetts regimentand soon afterward his otherson, Lewis, signed up. Douglass discovered in his recruiting travelsthatblacks did not fullyunderstand why they should join the Union Army.He wrote trenchantly and spoke widely, exManhood plaining: "(1) required black to take The black man sides; (2) people was now a citizen of the United States and mustservehis country when it was in peril; of blacks would be a calamity (3) Arming to pro-slavery supporters; (4) Blacks should learn the use of firearms;(5) It would provide self-respectand establish the rightto citizenship; (6) The war was now foremancipation, no matterwhat else it mightbe; and (7) It would frustrate the country from a pro-slavery compromise when hostilitiesshould cease." Militarily the North suffered frequent reverses and pressures mounted for more vigorous military performances.General McClellan was replaced by General Grant and PresidentLincoln invited Douglass to the executivemansion for a conferenceon planning for inducing slaves in the rebel states to come within the federal lines. Lincoln requested Douglass to organize black scouts to go into the rebel states and inform the slaves that freedomwas offered them if they would escape to the Union Armylines. This was a methodof guerrilla warfare which appealed to Douglass and he accepted withouthesitancy. Blacks throughout the countrywere aggrieved at the unjust treatmentof black troops in the Union Army. There were in pay and overwhelmglaringdifferences ing assignmentsof blacks to servant and laboring types of activity.Color discrimination was in evidence everywhere. Black soldiers were paid at laborers wages and in turn they exhibited overt and vigorous objection to these discriminations.
.LJouGLASS advocatedactiveparticipation of blacktroops in themilitary and actions said thatblackpeople mustexpectannoyances but mustnot hold back on thisaccount. For them there was a doublebattle: must They fightagainst slaveryin the Southand mustchallenge and prejudices in He believed proscriptions the North. the black soldierwas the foundation of black citizenship. There was no exchangeof prisoners whenblack soldiers werecaptured by the South. All blacksoldiers, freeor otherwise, were considered and were insurrectionists sentenced to deathfor subversive activities. The slave codes of the Southapplied to their punishment. Douglass saw black people as a functional in thepubliclifeoftheUnited entity States. Beginning with the close of the Civil War theywere in every way a new He was awarethatrepresenconstituency. tation from hispeoplein thegovernmental and institutional areas would be difficult to provide,and even more difficult for blacks and whitesto comprehend. The wholearea of publicrelations would constitute a dilemmaof the utmost magnitude. Tremendous of organizaproblems tionwould present themselves just in the black communities alone. In his speech to the Convention of ColoredMen in September of 1883,Douglass pointedout that the oppression of To people makescowardsof the victims. reverse he explained thenecessity for this, black people to hold black meetings and conventions to deal withtheiroppression. Thiswas in response to thoseNegroes who wantedto includewhites at thesecret liberation assemblies whichblacksneededso outthatwhite life badly.Douglasspointed in America is a convention of whites blackpeople.He saw thelaws,cusagainst toms and attitudes of whiteAmericaas hostile to blackpeopleand serving to preventblacksfrom free. being In reference to the blacks resorting to to remove themselves from emigration proin the UnitedStates,Douglass scriptions
said the "impossibility of finding any part of the globe free fromthe presenceof white men, conspireto keep the Negro hereand compelhimto adjusthimself to American civilization/' On the occasionof the Twenty-Fourth of Emancipation (1886), Anniversary a speechon "Southern Douglassdelivered in whichhe gave exhaustive Barbarism" attention to thecompatibility oftheDemocraticand Republican in all things parties thatworkto continue and the suppression of black This analysis subjugation people. made it clear thatthe UnitedStatesConstitution was deliberately structured to the and of black disregard rights people to lend support to thosewho would treat blacks as sub-humans. Afteradding the and fifteenth thirteenth, fourteenth, the was destined Constitution amendments, to remainmeaningless to blacks for as are the ones to prolong as whiteracists vide interpretation and enforcement of its provisions. Douglass assailed the governmentforits failure to establish legal and humane forblacksand focused guarantees attention upon the graveneed forjustice forhis people. "According to the highest legal authorities, justiceis the perpetual to secureto every man,by due disposition of his person, processof law, protection his property and his politicalrights." In the UnitedStatesjusticeis notyetone of the components of the black experience. Uouglass was the completeand dedicated libertarian. the WomIn addressing an's SuffrageMovementAssociationin 1888 he said, "I believeno man,however withthought and speech,can voice gifted the wrongsand presentthe demandsof womenwiththe skilland effect, withthe and of woman herself." power authority thousand black people By 1893 fifteen were residing in Chicago,a cityfounded De Sable by a blackman - JeanBaptiste - ironically. Thiswas theyearof the first World's Fair. The blacksappealedto Confor the rightto participate in this gress
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event to show theirprogresssince the end of slavery.Douglass was presentedas part of the programssponsored by the blacks under the auspices of the Prudence Crandall Club. He spoke in his usual spiritof struggle and protest exhortingblacks to fight on to overcome the vicissitudes of white prejudice. In 1895, not long beforehe died, Douglass stated, "If the American church and clergy were only half Christianized, if were not hardAmericanmoral sensibility ened by persistent infliction of outrageand crime against black people, a scream of horror,shame and indignationwould rise to Heaven." Kelly Miller, a distinguished black scholar wrote in 1908 that, "Frederick Douglass was the moral leader and spiritual prophetof his race." The historical significanceof Douglass has importanceto the whole sequence of education and how it must be made relevant to the needs of black people and serve as a contribution to the social development and dehumanizingof whites. The life of Douglass provides an example of straight and unfettered and how to view thinking the facts as they really are and that facts out of fearor because mustnot be distorted one becomes more so temporarily by doing
comfortable;it furnishesinstructionthat it is cowardly to abandon a belief or an opinion solely because it contradicts established preconceived practice; it communicates the importanceof standing by and defendingone's convictions.This nais in tion,in spite of its material strength, general short supply of those qualities which would convey to the majorityof its members the critical importanceof every citizen respectingthe abilities and rights of others. .Frederick Douglass was a black man, accepted and respected by black people. He was the preceptor and the advocate for millions of blacks who sought and seek liberation. Douglass was the voice and teacher of blackness and the personification of protest and agitation. White America could not avoid him or what he represented and was compelled to give attention. Douglass took black people with him through every door that he opened. This probably accounts for whites conto select,designate,and place Negro triving leaders ever since his death. Indisputably, Frederick Douglass must be included among those who served and preserved black people in the United States.
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THE BLACK SCHOLAR
MARCH-APRIL,1972

Life of Frederick Dougls

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Life of Frederick Dougls

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THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS Author(s): WILLIAM H. MC CLENDON Source: The Black Scholar, Vol. 3, No.

THE BLACK PERSPECTIVE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

THE BLACK SCHOLAR

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