Frederick Douglass: “I did not know I was a slave until I found out I couldn't do the things I wanted”
Without a doubt, one of the most influential speakers during the 19th century was a former slave and Abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Some hear of his name and learn about him in school, but what he courageously details for us that we commonly don’t read about, can help free us in total from all our restraints today. From not knowing how to read and write, and believing that it was normal to be a slave, to seeing how important freedom was and urging others to see the same, educating fellow slaves who fearfully remained ignorant, his struggle parallels the struggle modern day whistle-blowers and truth-seekers have in sharing their message with others who would rather stay close-minded. He tells us, “I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.” Perhaps Douglass has chilling words relevant for today when he stated, “America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future.” This is not all that he has said, however, that may be relevant for today and the struggles we all face. “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” You may see why people speak of tyranny as synonymous with slavery. Is the man’s law-abiding order-follower using their own conscience or following God’s law? Are they responsible for their own lives? Are they claiming the authority over others’ own lives? Are they giving away responsibility for their own actions to order-givers?
Douglass explicitly tells us how slavery manifests. “The first work of slavery is to mar and deface those characteristics of its victims which distinguish men from things, and persons from property. Its first aim is to destroy all sense of high moral and religious responsibility. It reduces man to a mere machine. It cuts him off from his Maker, it hides from him the laws of God, and leaves him to grope his way from time to eternity in the dark, under the arbitrary and despotic control of a frail, depraved, and sinful fellow-man.” “It is, then, the first business of the enslaver of men to blunt, deaden, and destroy the central principle of human responsibility. Conscience is, to the individual soul, and to society, what the law of gravitation is to the universe. It holds society together; it is the basis of all trust and confidence; it is the pillar of all moral rectitude. Without it, suspicion would take the place of trust; vice would be more than a match for virtue; men would prey upon each other, like the wild beasts of the desert; and earth would become a hell.” “To make a contented slave, you must make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision, and, as far as possible, to annihilate his power of reason. He must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. The man that takes his earnings, must be able to convince him that he has a perfect right to do so. It must not depend upon mere force; the slave must know no Higher Law than his master's will. The whole relationship must not only demonstrate, to his mind, its necessity, but its absolute rightfulness.”
Douglass explores the nature of liberty and it’s demands. “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." "Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one’s thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down." “I was just as well aware of the unjust, unnatural and murderous character of slavery, when nine years old, as I am now. Without any appeal to books, to laws, or to authorities of any kind, it was enough to accept God as a father, to regard slavery as a crime.” “The morality of the act I dispose of as follows: I am myself; you are yourself; we are two distinct persons, equal persons. What you are, I am. You are a man, and so am I. God created both, and made us separate beings. I am not by nature bond to you, or you to me. Nature does not make your existence depend upon me, or mine to depend upon yours. I cannot walk upon your legs, or you upon mine. I cannot breathe for you, or you for me; I must breathe for myself, and you for yourself. We are distinct persons, and are each equally provided with faculties necessary to our individual existence. In leaving you, I took nothing but what belonged to me, and in no way lessened your means for obtaining an honest living. Your faculties remained yours, and mine became useful to their rightful owner. I therefore see no wrong in any part of the transaction.” “It is only when we contemplate the slave as a moral and intellectual being, that we can adequately comprehend the unparalleled enormity of slavery, and the intense criminality of the slaveholder.” “To be a slave-holder is to be a propagandist from necessity; for slavery can only live by keeping down the under-growth morality which nature supplies.” “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
Douglass shares with us his source of inspiration, from which he appeals to abolish slavery. “I have never placed my opposition to slavery on a basis so narrow as my own enslavement, but rather upon the indestructible and unchangeable laws of human nature, every one of which is perpetually and flagrantly violated by the slave system.” “It is the nature of slavery to beget a state of things all around it favorable to its own continuance. This fact, connected with the system of bondage, is beginning to be more fully realized.” "No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck."
Douglass helps us see the requirements to end slavery. “We must get character for ourselves, as a people... With character, we shall be powerful. Nothing can harm us long when we get character... Industry, sobriety, honesty, combined with intelligence and a due self-respect, find them where you will, among black or white, must be looked up to ~ can never be looked down upon.” “Abolition of slavery had been the deepest desire and the great labor of my life” “I expose slavery in this country, because to expose it is to kill it. Slavery is one of those monsters of darkness to whom the light of truth is death.” “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” “I prayed for freedom for twenty years, but received no answer until I prayed with my legs” “Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.” “Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” “It is the righteous of the cause—the humanity of the cause—which constitutes its potency.”
Douglass shares his own story. “It is the duty of a master occasionally to whip a slave, to remind him of his master’s authority. Such was his theory, and such his practice. Mr. Hopkins was even worse than Mr. Weeden. His chief boast was his ability to manage slaves. The peculiar feature of his government was that of whipping slaves in advance of deserving it. He always managed to have one or more of his slaves to whip every Monday morning. He did this to alarm their fears, and strike terror into those who escaped. His plan was to whip for the smallest offences, to prevent the commission of large ones. Mr. Hopkins could always find some excuse for whipping a slave. It would astonish one, unaccustomed to a slaveholding life, to see with what wonderful ease a slaveholder can find things, of which to make occasion to whip a slave. A mere look, word, or motion,—a mistake, accident, or want of power,—are all matters for which a slave may be whipped at any time. Does a slave look dissatisfied? It is said, he has the devil in him, and it must be whipped out. Does he speak loudly when spoken to by his master? Then he is getting high-minded, and should be taken down a button-hole lower. Does he forget to pull off his hat at the approach of a white person? Then he is wanting in reverence, and should be whipped for it. Does he ever venture to vindicate his conduct, when censured for it? Then he is guilty of impudence,—one of the greatest crimes of which a slave can be guilty. Does he ever venture to suggest a different mode of doing things from that pointed out by his master? He is indeed presumptuous, and getting above himself; and nothing less than a flogging will do for him. Does he, while ploughing, break a plough,—or, while hoeing, break a hoe? It is owing to his carelessness, and for it a slave must always be whipped... I will give Mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had, till I became my own master... For my part, I should prefer death to hopeless bondage.” “I was now getting, as I have said, one dollar and fifty cents per day. I contracted for it; I earned it; it was paid to me; it was rightfully my own; yet, upon each returning Saturday night, I was compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh. And why? Not because he earned it,—not because he had any hand in earning it,—not because I owed it to him,—nor because he possessed the slightest shadow of a right to it; but solely because he had the power to compel me to give it up... This is the same man who gave me the roots to prevent my being whipped by Mr. Covey. He was ‘a clever soul.’ We used frequently to talk about the fight with Covey, and as often as we did so, he would claim my success as the result of the roots which he gave me. This superstition is very common among the more ignorant slaves.”
In response to those who made excuses not to end slavery, he stated, “What shall be done with the four million slaves if they are emancipated?... Primarily, it is a question less for man than for God – less for human intellect than for the laws of nature to solve. It assumes that nature has erred; that the law of liberty is a mistake; that freedom, though a natural want of the human soul, can only be enjoyed at the expense of human welfare, and that men are better off in slavery than they would or could be in freedom; that slavery is the natural order of human relations, and that liberty is an experiment. What shall be done with them? Our answer is, do nothing with them; mind your business, and let them mind theirs. Your doing with them is their greatest misfortune. They have been undone by your doings, and all they now ask, and really have need of at your hands, is just to let them alone. They suffer by every interference, and succeed best by being let alone.”
Are we allowing people to live their own lives? Are we educating the servile, instead of having them remain ignorant? In such case, we would be promoting voluntaryism, for which were abolitionists like Charles Lane or William Lloyd Garrison. It was Garrison who helped Douglass become part of the abolitionist movement, and though they later may have differed on politics and strategy, their cause for slavery was based in the same basic intent. Most people want freedom in our world and a life full of goodness, love, family and health, the question and problem lives with how they go about in living it. Douglass and Garrison both went to the greatest ends they saw fit in order to attain it. The question remains, do you go to your fullest extent for the truth you know? Express your humanity and your concerns, it is your potency and people need to hear it; as Douglass states, “To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”
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