Source: Frederick Douglass, Douglass’ Monthly, April 1863 This question has been repeatedly put to us while raising men for the 54th Massachusetts regiment during the past five weeks, and perhaps we cannot at present do a better service to the cause of our people or to the cause of the country than by giving a few of the many reasons why a colored man should enlist. First. You are a man, although a colored man. If you were only a horse or an ox, incapable of deciding whether the rebels are right or wrong, you would have no responsibility, and…
Author: Staff writer
Broadside, Rochester, March 21, 1863 When first the rebel cannon shattered the walls of Sumter and drove away its starving garrison, I predicted that the war then and there inaugurated would not be fought out entirely by white men. Every month’s experience during these dreary years has confirmed that opinion. A war undertaken and brazenly carried on for the perpetual enslavement of colored men, calls logically and loudly for colored men to help suppress it. Only a moderate share of sagacity was needed to see that the arm of the slave was the best defense against the arm of the…
Source: Douglass Monthly, April 1863 Let me sound once more the trump of war. We should have blast on blast from that trumpet, till thrilled with its notes every brave black men of the North, capable of bearing arms, shall come forth, clad in complete steel, ready to make the twin monsters, slavery and rebellion, crumble together in the dust. The white man’s soul was tried in 1776. The black man’s soul is tried in 1863. The first stood the test, and is received as genuine-so may the last. The brad eye of the nation is fixed upon the black…
“A war undertaken and brazenly carried for the perpetual enslavement of the colored men, calls logically and loudly for the colored men to help suppress it.” Growing political tensions over the spread of slavery started a decade before the beginning of the war. As a preamble to the Civil War, between 1854 and 1861, there were a series of violent political confrontations known as Bloody Kansas or Bleeding Kansas as a result of the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The conflict arouse primarily on the subject of Kansas being accepted into the Union as a slave-free or slave state. The election of…
“Freedom of choice is the essence of all accountability” When Frederick Douglass was about 15 years old he moved to St Michael to live with his new master Thomas Auld and his new wife, Rowena. Rowena was mean and cruel, Thomas was stingy and selfish and never fed his slaves enough. Reading School – Sabbath Douglass was not allowed to read or teach under the Aulds. One Sunday while in church, Frederick was asked to assist in a Sabbath school to teach slaves to read the scriptures. He was naturally very excited and honored as he was the only black…
“Give him a bad master and he aspires to a good master; give him a good master, and he wishes to become his own master” Baltimore After Douglass’ first failed attempt to escape he was sent to Baltimore to live with Hugh Auld, brother of Thomas Auld. His master never found prove that he intended to run away but he was not a welcome slave in St Michael. Baltimore had a large ship building industry and Douglass was hired as an apprentice to William Gardner. He learned how to caulk ships and worked side by side with white workers for…
As a slave in Baltimore, Frederick Douglass worked as a ship caulker. It was suggested to him by David Ruggles that the best place for him to settle would be New Bedford, Massachusetts as it had a flourishing ship building industry. In New Bedford they were received by Nathan Johnson and his wife. The couple helped Frederick and Ana get settled and taught them how to make an honest living. Starting a new life as a free man required a new name. Nathan Johnson had been reading the Lady of the Lake and suggested he took the name of its…
“The Civil War was not a mere strife for territory and dominion, but a contest of civilization against barbarism” The reconstruction years cover the period immediately after the end of the Civil War in 1865 until 1877. The south lost the war and its social structure based on the slave system. Its people, white and black, suffered a radical social and economic revolution with the emancipation of four million slaves. Reconstruction Policies 1865 Reconstruction policies were set up by President Abraham Lincoln and implemented by the new state governments in the former confederate states. When Lincoln was assassinated on April…
Speech by Frederick Douglass written in 1872. The subject announced for this evening’s entertainment is not new. Man in one form or another, has been a frequent and fruitful subject for the press, the pulpit and the platform. This subject has come up for consideration under a variety of attractive titles, such as “Great Men,” “Representative Men,” “Peculiar Men,” “Scientific Men,” “Literary Men,” “Successful Men,” “Men of Genius,” and “Men of the World;” but under whatever name or designation, the vital point of interest in the discussion has ever been the same, and that is, manhood itself, and this…
“Going to Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened the gateway to all my subsequent prosperity” Click here for free e-book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave Written by himself Boston: Antislavery Office, 1845. Frederick Douglass wrote his first autobiography as a means to prove that he was who he claimed he was, a fugitive slave. As an he toured the country giving . He was a natural born orator and his skills improved in a short period of time. Because of his eloquence and intellect people started to doubt if Frederick had ever or if he…