Investor's Business Daily, June 13th, 2007
A defining moment had arrived for young Frederick Douglass.
Before he would go on to fight for slavery's abolition and for human rights with his eloquent words, he was hired out at 15 to Edward Covey, a local Maryland farmer.
Covey had a reputation for breaking the will of slaves who questioned their lot in life, as Douglass had. He whipped Douglass regularly for months until one day Douglass fought back. The two went at it, and in the end Covey gained a grudging respect for the young man, leading to Douglass' awakening.
"It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood. ... It inspired me again with a determination to be free," he wrote in "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," the first of his three autobiographies.
Determination was a powerful force in Douglass (1818-95). He had an advantage over most slaves because he was taught to read by the wife of his white master when he was a child.
He continued to educate himself on his own. He bought his first book, one filled with great speeches, with 50 cents he had earned.
After an escape try failed in 1834, his master promised him emancipation by age 25.
But Douglass had other plans. In 1838 he escaped to the free North and settled in Boston.
He soon subscribed to the Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery newspaper.
Upon meeting Garrison and being called unexpectedly to speak at an abolitionist meeting in 1841, Douglass showed a passion that moved his audience and launched his career as an orator.
Douglass became the most important and influential black leader in America and perhaps the world in the 19th century.
He also was a great writer, a counselor to presidents and a forerunner to leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.
President Lincoln referred to Douglass as "my friend" and said to him, "There is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours."
"The core of his success as a speaker, as an orator, was he fully understood the power of ethos, the power of credibility. There were a lot of people talking against slavery, but there was no really eloquent former slave who could capture the experience and try to persuade people that slavery was wrong," Greg Lampe, author of "Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice, 1818-1845," told IBD.
John Marszalek, a history professor emeritus at Mississippi State University, said, "In the midst of a very racist society and century, Douglass is able to survive and make real contributions while challenging society about its racist attitudes."
Douglass was more than an abolitionist; he was a strong supporter of all human rights. He was a prominent supporter of women's rights and the suffrage movement.
Douglass spoke out against hypocrisy in general, but specifically pointed to America's celebration of freedom while 4 million blacks where enslaved.
Arguably his greatest speech was called "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" He gave it on July 4, 1852, and answered: "A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustices and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a shame. ... For revolting barbarity, and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival."
To succeed as an orator, Douglass studied the many great ones of his day and read their speeches. He refined his skills through private practice and public application.
"He spoke every chance he got. He joined a debate society in Baltimore while still a slave," Lampe said. "His great strength was he blended secular documents, like the Declaration of Independence, which was his favorite U.S. document, with religious phraseology. He memorized the Bible so he could he draw from the morality of the Old Testament and blend it, for example, with Thomas Paine's writings."
"Douglass prepared very well," Marszalek said.
Also, Douglass cultivated an impressive physical presence. He stood 6 feet tall and was always dressed and groomed immaculately. "He took excellent care of himself and even had a regular exercise program," Lampe said. It wasn't uncommon for orators to speak for two or three hours in Douglass' era, so stamina was necessary.
With his intellect, passion from firsthand knowledge of the evils of slavery, and the substance of his speeches, Douglass drew kudos. Women's rights pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton said after hearing his oratory that he was "majestic in his wrath."
Douglass said of abolition: "For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced."
Douglass was used to facing mobs that would hurl things at him. People would also try to drown him out, but he would not waver.
"Every time he went out and gave a speech someplace, his life was on the line, because mobs attacking speakers and especially black people was accepted practice during that time. Douglass was a man of tremendous courage," Marszalek said.
The other danger Douglass faced was that until 1845, he was a high-profile fugitive slave who could be captured. He went to England and returned to the U.S. in 1847 after he was able to purchase his freedom.
"His persistence over time was amazing," Lampe said. "No matter what happened to him, no matter how bad things would go around him, he never stopped. He spoke two or three times a day, every day. He never lost faith."
After slavery in America ended in 1865 after the Civil War, Douglass focused even more on civil rights and black suffrage.
He believed without the right to vote, black Americans were powerless. The 15th Amendment to Constitution gave black men that right in 1870.
Douglass was tireless in his fight against injustice of any kind. "Agitate, agitate, agitate," he advised.
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress," he said. "Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."
