Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

When Sophia Auld teaches Douglass to read, she unwittingly starts a revolution. Just as her husband warns her, teaching an enslaved person to read causes problems for the slaveholder. Even after Sophia stops his lessons, Douglass continues learning on his own. He is a quick study who immediately grasps the crucial connection between a free mind and a free body. He knows that literacy is the key that will unlock his shackles.

Over the course of his life, Douglass exploits the power of the written and spoken word in a variety of ways. He first comes to Garrison’s attention as a public speaker. Douglass is blessed with charisma, an attractive appearance, and the ability to articulate the experience of an enslaved person in words that a White, educated audience can understand. He immediately creates a bridge of words that connects him with a group of people whose life experiences are foreign to his own.

Having established a reputation as a sought-after speaker, Douglass moves into print. He publishes multiple newspapers in his lifetime, which allow him to explore topics other than those his lecture audiences might want to hear about. He is an avid letter writer, leaving behind a legacy of correspondence which give rich insight into his thought processes. His three biographies and one work of fiction expand upon the short-form prose of a newspaper or letter.

One of the great ironies of Douglass’s life is that he marries a woman who shows absolutely no interest in literacy. Conversely, the other women to whom he becomes attached all demonstrate remarkable skill as authors and editors in their own right. From his childhood, Douglass seems to attract literate women. One might be tempted to speculate how different Douglass’s life would have been if Sophia Auld had never offered to teach him to read.

During his decades as the spokesman for Black Americans, Douglass is torn regarding the best course to raise his fellow enslaved people out of the quagmire of reliance on their masters. He oscillates between two contradictory positions. On the one hand, he repeatedly exhorts the government to offer material compensation for the wrongs of the enslaved. On the other hand, he insists on Black self-sufficiency. Douglass has no wish to create a new kind of dependency in the ex-enslaved population.

Despite his frequent harangues on the topic of self-sufficiency, Douglass does not always project confidence in the willingness of freedmen to better themselves. He preaches against sloth and ignorance as the great foes of progress, but he frequently complains about the lack of initiative that he sees the newly freed displaying. To Douglass, such behavior does nothing but reinforce racial stereotypes, signaling to White Americans that Black Americans need to be told what to do.

Douglass finds himself caught between an ideological rock and a hard place. Although he is a shining example of the principle of the self-made man, he believes that many other Black Americans are unwilling or unable to follow his lead. At the same time, Douglass is unwilling to advise the government to step back completely and let African Americans shift for themselves. He sees all too clearly that the Slave Power is actively trying to regain a foothold in the South after emancipation. Without federal support, freed Black individuals will be just as oppressed as before.

Douglass finds himself in a similar conceptual trap during his time in Haiti. He loudly praises the fact that the country was founded by freed slaves yet is embarrassed by the political instability of the region. He falls into the trap of believing the White supremacist stereotype that Black communities cannot govern themselves. Further, Douglass supports American imperialism in the Caribbean, fully realizing that his own country might annex the little island nation that fought for its independence. Throughout his life, Douglass attempts to reconcile these opposing philosophies of paternalistic government intervention and self-reliance. He never succeeds in striking a balance.

Douglass’s duality is also amplified on a national scale when he refuses to support the female vote as part of the Fifteenth Amendment while wanting to maintain the goodwill of the suffragettes. His decision is based on political expediency rather than social justice. After this betrayal, it will be years before feminist leaders Elizabeth Cady Stanton or Susan B. Anthony trust him enough to regard him as an ally or a friend.