Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

Once Douglass hits the lecture circuit in New England, his audiences are enthralled. He combines polished oratorical skills with an attractive and commanding physical appearance unlike anything that his White listeners have ever seen in a Black man before. Garrison continues to function as his mentor, which creates a dilemma for the young Douglass. The brand of abolitionism that Garrison preaches is radical and absolutist. In advocating for political withdrawal from government, the dissolution of churches, and full emancipation of women along with slaves, he alienates many who might otherwise be sympathetic to his cause. The movement fractures into various factions; some are moderate and some radical. During this time, Douglass remains steadfastly committed to Garrison’s doctrine.

While traveling by train to reach various speaking engagements, Douglass is subjected to the Yankee version of what would later become Jim Crow laws in the South. He uses these humiliating experiences in segregated cars to garner more sympathy from the local press. At the same time, he realizes that his extensive travels will require him to relocate to a more convenient departure point. Now the father of three, Douglass moves his family to Lynn, Massachusetts, where he builds a cottage for their residence in late 1841. The people of Lynn welcome their new local celebrity with open arms.

After his clan is settled, Douglass once again goes on the lecture circuit with a group of seasoned speakers. According to Blight, “Douglass learned much from his road-savvy older colleagues; but whatever resolutions they addressed, only he brought the living story of the scarred and surviving slave to pulpits and lecterns” (108).

Between 1842 and 1845, Douglass participates in a number of lecture tours that gradually branch out of New England and move westward. Even as the abolition cause gains traction with the American public, factionalism within the movement threatens to split it apart. Blight writes, “By any measure, the Garrisonians were uncompromising in their goals and tactics. Theirs was a biblically driven approach to the social and personal sin of slaveholding” (126). Douglass remains firmly committed to Garrison’s pacifist doctrine, but a number of encounters with pro-slavery forces while on tour test his resolve.

During a lecture in Indiana, Douglass is beaten by a mob and gets his right hand broken, which never heals properly in years to come. Later, Douglass’s advocacy of nonviolence is actively challenged by ex-slave activist Henry Highland Garnet. When Garnet takes the podium, he preaches a more radical doctrine and calls for outright slave rebellion. He argues that if slave owners will not grant freedom, then the time has come for enslaved people to liberate themselves. Douglass dismisses Garnet’s views as unformed and idealistic since the latter never offers a practical plan by which enslaved people are supposed to gain their freedom. The two speakers maintain an uneasy truce during their time as co-lecturers. However, in later years, Douglass will reject Garrisonian pacifism in favor of a more militant approach.

By May 1845, Douglass writes his first autobiography. With backing from Garrison’s Liberator, it becomes an instant success. Of the autobiography, Blight writes, “The Narrative soon caused an extraordinary literary jingle in the United States; words had now become for [Douglass] a source of magic, truth, influence, and power” (138).

By the fall of that year, Douglass is sent on a lecture tour of Ireland and Britain. An ugly altercation on shipboard with pro-slavery passengers unintentionally creates a favorable media stir even before Douglass lands. Once in Ireland, he is struck by the complete lack of racial discrimination. Everywhere he goes, he is welcomed without any distinctions regarding his race or slave status. No one forbids him to ride in a first-class train car or stay in an upscale hotel.

Douglass’s principal complaint during this idyllic time is the control that Garrison and the abolitionist’s organization exert over him. His handler Buffum, his Irish publisher Webb, and Boston abolitionist Maria Weston Chapman all draw Douglass’s ire. He begins to chafe at their attempts to manage his public image through every word he speaks.

During his lectures, Douglass takes great pains to draw a distinction between the extreme horrors of American slavery and the British oppression of the Irish. However, the American orator’s views change as he tours the countryside at the beginning of the Great Potato Famine. Douglass begins to recognize that abject human suffering comes in many forms.

After impressing British and Irish audiences alike, the young man is lauded as an international literary sensation: “Douglass had indeed accomplished that most wondrous of things for a slave: he had written a book the world would read!” (155).