“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than be false, and incur my own abhorrence.” – Frederick Douglass
The greatest African-American of the mid-19th Century, Frederick Douglass, died this week (Feb. 20) in 1895. Born a slave in Maryland, Douglass served many masters, and made many aborted escapes to freedom, before finally escaping to a safe house in New York City in 1838. He then married Anna Murray, a free black woman he met in Baltimore, and they settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where Douglass immersed himself in the abolitionist movement. He soon became a popular writer and lecturer on the hypocrisy of an America that was supposedly founded on freedom and equality for all, yet countenanced human bondage.
That dichotomy was clearly expressed in Douglass’s autobiography, published in 1845, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. A best-seller, it made him not only the most famous African-American in America, but among its most famous citizens.
And then, in 1861, the Civil War came, and Douglass became the leading proponent of making that war a fight to end slavery. This put him somewhat at odds with President Lincoln, who sympathized with Douglass, but considered his chief war aim to preserve the Union. Lincoln knew that publicly stating that slavery’s abolition was a war aim would be politically problematic — many northerners would balk at that — and it might dampen the enthusiasm of the Union soldiers who thought they were fighting for home and country, not black freedom. Still, Lincoln did issue the Emancipation Proclamation, and once the war was won he secured passage of the 13th Amendment, outlawing slavery.
Interestingly, while Douglass would be considered an icon in America’s black community today, he defied political characterization. His belief in equality for all mirrored the Declaration of Independence’s focus on equality of opportunity, not outcome, and his opinion of today’s affirmative action programs might be summed up in a revealing statement he once made: “Everybody has asked the question ‘What shall we do with the Negro?’ I have had but one answer from the beginning. 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 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!”
