American Enterprise Institute

Slavery, Equality, and the American Revolution

Frederick Douglass’s Civic Education Notes

  1. Frederick Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, ed. Philip S. Foner, vol. 2, Pre–Civil War Decade: 1850–1860 (International Publishers, 1950), 183.
  2. See Eighth Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the Mass. Anti-Slavery Society (Boston, 1840), 94. Garrison began publishing the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator in 1831 and founded the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833.
  3. Frederick Douglass, “The Right to Criticize American Institutions,” speech, American Anti-Slavery Society, New York, May 11, 1847, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, vol. 1, Early Years, 1817–1849 (International Publishers, 1950), 236.
  4. An illustrative but mortifying example from my own classroom: a student caught shoe shopping online during a class devoted to Jefferson’s fears of a postrevolutionary descent into consumerism.
  5. Frederick Douglass to William Lloyd Garrison, January 1, 1846, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:126.
  6. Douglass to Garrison.
  7. Thomas Jefferson, “Manners,” query 18 in Notes on the State of Virginia, in The Portable Thomas Jefferson, ed. Merrill D. Peterson (Penguin Books, 1977), 214–15.
  8. Jefferson, “Manners,” 215.
  9. Jefferson, “Manners,” 214.
  10. Frederick Douglass, “Comments on Gerrit Smith’s Address,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:375.
  11. Douglass to Garrison.
  12. Douglass to Garrison.
  13. Frederick Douglass to Horace Greeley, April 15, 1846, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:144–47. It is unclear whether the letter gained editorial favor. In Douglass’s collected works, this letter shows as having been published in The Liberator, not the Tribune.
  14. Douglass to Greeley, 1:161.
  15. Douglass to Greeley, 1:144–49.
  16. Douglass to Greeley, 1:148.
  17. Frederick Douglass to William A. White, July 30, 1846, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:182.
  18. To raise money for the cause, abolitionist-minded women created items decorated with antislavery emblems, such as the Wedgwood medallion “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?”
  19. Frederick Douglass to Lynn Anti-Slavery Sewing Circle, August 18, 1846, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:187–88.
  20. Frederick Douglass, “Farewell Speech to the British People,” speech, London, March 30, 1847, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:206–33.
  21. Douglass, “Farewell Speech to the British People,” 1:207.
  22. Douglass, “Farewell Speech to the British People.”
  23. Douglass, “Farewell Speech to the British People,” 1:229.
  24. Douglass, “Farewell Speech to the British People,” 1:232.
  25. Douglass, “The Right to Criticize American Institutions,” 1:236.
  26. Frederick Douglass, “American Slavery,” speech, Syracuse, NY, September 24, 1847, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:275–76.
  27. Douglass, “American Slavery,” 1:276.
  28. Douglass, “American Slavery,” 1:274.
  29. Douglass, “American Slavery,” 1:278.
  30. Frederick Douglass, “To Our Oppressed Countrymen,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:282–83.
  31. Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, in Douglass: Autobiographies, ed. Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Literary Classics of the United States, 1994), 391.
  32. Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 392.
  33. Frederick Douglass to C. H. Chase, February 9, 1849, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:353–54.
  34. John C. Calhoun, “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents,” The Charleston Courier, February 1, 1849, http://civilwarcauses.org/address.htm.
  35. Frederick Douglass, “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents; or, the Address of John C. Calhoun and Forty Other Thieves,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:353–60.
  36. Calhoun, “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents.”
  37. Douglass, “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents,” 1:355.
  38. Douglass, “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents.”
  39. Douglass, “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents,” 1:356.
  40. Douglass, “The Address of Southern Delegates in Congress to Their Constituents,” 1:355.
  41. Frederick Douglass, “The Constitution and Slavery,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:361–67.
  42. Douglass, “The Constitution and Slavery,” 1:361.
  43. Douglass, “The Constitution and Slavery,” 1:366.
  44. Douglass, “The Constitution and Slavery.”
  45. Douglass, “The Constitution and Slavery.”
  46. Douglass, “The Constitution and Slavery.”
  47. Douglass, “Comments on Gerrit Smith’s Address,” 1:374–79.
  48. Douglass, “Comments on Gerrit Smith’s Address,” 1:377.
  49. Douglass, “Comments on Gerrit Smith’s Address,” 1:379.
  50. Douglass, “Comments on Gerrit Smith’s Address,” 1:378.
  51. Frederick Douglass, “Henry Clay and Slavery,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:105–9; and Frederick Douglass, “Weekly Review of Congress,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:109–15.
  52. See Virginia General Assembly, Report of the Committee of Revisors Appointed by the General Assembly of Virginia in MDCCLXXVI (Richmond, VA, 1779). For Jefferson’s summary and justification of the plan, see Thomas Jefferson, “Laws,” query 14 in Notes on the State of Virginia, 185.
  53. Jefferson was influenced by his belief that a biracial society of former masters and former slaves was impossible and his doubts about black intellectual capacities.
  54. William Lloyd Garrison, Thoughts on African Colonization [. . .] (Boston, 1832).
  55. The Liberator, “Great Anti-Colonization Meeting in New-Bedford,” March 29, 1839, https://fair-use.org/the-liberator/1839/03/29/the-liberator-09-13.pdf.
  56. The Liberator, “Great Anti-Colonization Meeting in New-Bedford.”
  57. The Liberator, “Great Anti-Colonization Meeting in New-Bedford.”
  58. Frederick Douglass, “The American Colonization Society,” speech, Faneuil Hall, Boston, May 31, 1849, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:387–99.
  59. Frederick Douglass, “To Henry Clay,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:284–90. Newly elected to the House of Representatives and on his way east, Lincoln was in attendance at this speech by the man he termed his “beau ideal of a statesman” and in whom Douglass saw “so much of Satan dressed in the livery of Heaven.” Abraham Lincoln, “Eulogy on Henry Clay,” Springfield, IL, July 6, 1852, https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/clay.htm; and Douglass, “To Henry Clay,” 1:289. Lincoln’s and Douglass’s contrary assessments of Clay (and, one might add, Brown) are food for thought.
  60. Douglass, “To Henry Clay,” 1:290.
  61. Frederick Douglass, “Colonization,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:352.
  62. Douglass, “The American Colonization Society.”
  63. Douglass, “The American Colonization Society,” 1:399.
  64. Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 591.
  65. Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 301–2.
  66. Douglass, “Oath to Support the Constitution,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:115–19.
  67. Douglass, “Oath to Support the Constitution,” 2:117, 140.
  68. Frederick Douglass, “Lecture on Slavery, No. 2,” lecture, Corinthian Hall, Rochester, NY, December 8, 1850, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:140.
  69. Douglass, “Oath to Support the Constitution,” 2:118.
  70. Douglass, “Oath to Support the Constitution.”
  71. Douglass, “Oath to Support the Constitution,” 2:119.
  72. Douglass, “Oath to Support the Constitution.”
  73. Douglass, “Lecture on Slavery, No. 2,” 2:148.
  74. Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, January 21, 1851, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:149.
  75. Douglass to Smith, January 21, 1851.
  76. Douglass to Smith, January 21, 1851, 2:150.
  77. Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, May 1, 1851, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:152–53.
  78. Frederick Douglass, “Change of Opinion Announced,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:155–56.
  79. Douglass, “Change of Opinion Announced,” 1:156.
  80. Douglass, “Change of Opinion Announced”; and Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, April 15, 1852, Frederick Douglass Papers, https://frederickdouglasspapersproject.com/s/digitaledition/item/5600.
  81. This is what Douglass says Smith does. The description is accurate with respect to Spooner as well. Douglass to Smith, January 21, 1851, 2:150.
  82. Douglass to Smith, January 21, 1851. So, for instance, insight into the choices made by the Constitutional Convention could not be sought through study of the Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787 Reported by James Madison, first published in 1840.
  83. Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, May 21, 1851, in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:157.
  84. Abraham Lincoln, “Address at Cooper Institute, New York City,” speech, Cooper Institute, New York, February 27, 1860, in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler, vol. 3, 1858–1860 (Rutgers University Press, 1953), 550.
  85. For Douglass’s final assessment of the troublesome clauses of the Constitution, see Frederick Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?” (speech, Glasgow, Scotland, March 26, 1860), in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:467–80.
  86. Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States,” 2:472.
  87. Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States.”
  88. Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States,” 2:471.
  89. Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States,” 2:473.
  90. Douglass, “The Constitution of the United States,” 2:467.
  91. Frederick Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 2:181–204.
  92. Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” 2:201.
  93. Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” 2:185.
  94. Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” 2:186–87.
  95. Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” 2:186.
  96. Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” 2:187–88.
  97. Interestingly, Douglass does talk about equality whenever he discusses the phenomenon of “prejudice against color.” He points out that the term is not accurate, since whites have no objection to proximity to blacks so long as blacks are in a subordinate role. The objection is to the “colored gentleman.” Thus, what is called color prejudice is “no less than a murderous, hell-born hatred of every virtue which may adorn the character of a black man.” (Emphasis in original.) To overcome prejudice, the “doctrine of human equality” must be established. Here is how Douglass defines that doctrine: “We believe in human equality; that character, not color, should be the criterion by which to choose associates; and we pity the pride of the poor pale dust and ashes which would erect any other standard of social fellowship.” Clearly, equality properly understood does not threaten discriminations based on virtue. Frederick Douglass, “Prejudice Against Color,” in The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, 1:127–30.
  98. Douglass, “The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro,” 2:185.