Transcriber’s Note: Italic text is enclosed in _underscores_.
Additional notes will be found near the end of this ebook.
[Illustration: Eng^d. by Augustus Robin. N.Y.
_Fred^k. Douglass._]
LIFE AND TIMES
OF
FREDERICK DOUGLASS,
WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.
HIS EARLY LIFE AS A SLAVE, HIS ESCAPE FROM BONDAGE,
AND HIS COMPLETE HISTORY
TO THE
PRESENT TIME
INCLUDING HIS CONNECTION WITH THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT; HIS LABORS IN
GREAT BRITAIN AS WELL AS IN HIS OWN COUNTRY; HIS EXPERIENCE IN THE
CONDUCT OF AN INFLUENTIAL NEWSPAPER; HIS CONNECTION WITH THE
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD; HIS RELATIONS WITH JOHN BROWN AND
THE HARPER’S FERRY RAID; HIS RECRUITING THE 54th AND
55th MASS. COLORED REGIMENTS; HIS INTERVIEWS
WITH PRESIDENTS LINCOLN
AND JOHNSON;
HIS APPOINTMENT BY GEN. GRANT TO ACCOMPANY THE SANTO DOMINGO
COMMISSION; ALSO TO A SEAT IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT
OF COLUMBIA; HIS APPOINTMENT AS UNITED STATES MARSHAL
BY PRESIDENT R. B. HAYES; ALSO HIS APPOINTMENT BY
PRESIDENT J. A. GARFIELD TO BE RECORDER OF
DEEDS IN WASHINGTON; WITH MANY OTHER
INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT EVENTS
OF HIS MOST EVENTFUL LIFE;
WITH AN INTRODUCTION,
BY MR. GEORGE L. RUFFIN,
OF BOSTON.
HARTFORD, CONN.:
PARK PUBLISHING CO.
GEO. M. REWELL & CO., CLEVELAND, OHIO; J. S. GOODMAN
& CO., CHICAGO, ILL.; SUN PUBLISHING CO.,
ST. LOUIS, MO.; PHILLIPS & HUNT,
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
1882
COPYRIGHTED BY
PARK PUBLISHING CO.,
1881.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
AUTHOR’S BIRTH.
Author’s place of birth--Description of country--Its
inhabitants--Genealogical trees--Method of counting time
in slave districts--Date of author’s birth--Names of
grandparents--Their cabin--Home with them--Slave practice of
separating mothers from their children--Author’s recollections
of his mother--Who was his father? 25
CHAPTER II.
REMOVAL FROM GRANDMOTHER’S.
Author’s early home--Its charms--Author’s ignorance of “old
master”--His gradual perception of the truth concerning him--
His relations to Col. Edward Lloyd--Author’s removal to “old
master’s” home--His journey thence--His separation from his
grandmother--His grief 28
CHAPTER III.
TROUBLES OF CHILDHOOD.
Col. Lloyd’s plantation--Aunt Katy--Her cruelty and ill-nature--
Capt. Anthony’s partiality to Aunt Katy--Allowance of food--
Author’s hunger--Unexpected rescue by his mother--The reproof
of Aunt Katy--Sleep--A slave-mother’s love--Author’s
inheritance--His mother’s acquirements--Her death 33
CHAPTER IV.
A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SLAVE PLANTATION.
Home plantation of Colonel Lloyd--Its isolation--Its industries--
The slave rule--Power of overseers--Author finds some
enjoyment--Natural scenery--Sloop “Sally Lloyd”--Wind
mill--Slave quarter--“Old master’s” house--Stables, store
houses, etc., etc.--The great house--Its surroundings--Lloyd
Burial-place--Superstition of slaves--Colonel Lloyd’s wealth--
Negro politeness--Doctor Copper--Captain Anthony--His family--
Master Daniel Lloyd--His brothers--Social etiquette 39
CHAPTER V.
A SLAVEHOLDER’S CHARACTER.
Increasing acquaintance with old master--Evils of unresisted
passion--Apparent tenderness--A man of trouble--Custom of
muttering to himself--Brutal outrage--A drunken overseer--
Slaveholder’s impatience--Wisdom of appeal--A base and selfish
attempt to break up a courtship 48
CHAPTER VI.
A CHILD’S REASONING.
The author’s early reflections on slavery--Aunt Jennie and Uncle
Noah--Presentiment of one day becoming a freeman--Conflict
between an overseer and a slave woman--Advantage of resistance--
Death of an overseer--Col. Lloyd’s plantation home--Monthly
distribution of food--Singing of slaves--An explanation--
The slaves’ food and clothing--Naked children--Life in the
quarter--Sleeping places--not beds--Deprivation of sleep--
Care of nursing babies--Ash cake--Contrast 53
CHAPTER VII.
LUXURIES AT THE GREAT HOUSE.
Contrasts--Great House luxuries--Its hospitality--
Entertainments--Fault-finding--Shameful humiliation of an
old and faithful coachman--William Wilks--Curious incident--
Expressed satisfaction not always genuine--Reasons for
suppressing the truth 61
CHAPTER VIII.
CHARACTERISTICS OF OVERSEERS.
Austin Gore--Sketch of his character--Overseers as a class--
Their peculiar characteristics--The marked individuality
of Austin Gore--His sense of duty--Murder of poor Denby--
Sensation--How Gore made his peace with Col. Lloyd--Other
horrible murders--No laws for the protection of slaves possible
of being enforced 71
CHAPTER IX.
CHANGE OF LOCATION.
Miss Lucretia--Her kindness--How it was manifested--“Ike”--
A battle with him--Miss Lucretia’s balsam--Bread--How it
was obtained--Gleams of sunset amidst the general darkness--
Suffering from cold--How we took our meal mush--Preparations
for going to Baltimore--Delight at the change--Cousin Tom’s
opinion of Baltimore--Arrival there--Kind reception--Mr. and
Mrs. Hugh Auld--Their son Tommy--My relations to them--My
duties--A turning-point in my life 78
CHAPTER X.
LEARNING TO READ.
City annoyances--Plantation regrets--My mistress--Her history--
Her kindness--My master--His sourness--My comforts--Increased
sensitiveness--My occupation--Learning to read--Baneful
effects of slaveholding on my dear, good mistress--Mr. Hugh
forbids Mrs. Sophia to teach me further--Clouds gather on my
bright prospects--Master Auld’s exposition of the Philosophy of
Slavery--City slaves--Country slaves--Contrasts--Exceptions--
Mr. Hamilton’s two slaves--Mrs. Hamilton’s cruel treatment
of them--Piteous aspect presented by them--No power to come
between the slave and slaveholder 85
CHAPTER XI.
GROWING IN KNOWLEDGE.
My mistress--Her slaveholding duties--Their effects on her
originally noble nature--The conflict in her mind--She opposes
my learning to read--Too late--She had given me the “inch,” I
was resolved to take the “ell”--How I pursued my study to read--
My tutors--What progress I made--Slavery--What I heard said
about it--Thirteen years old--Columbian orator--Dialogue--
Speeches--Sheridan--Pitt--Lords Chatham and Fox--Knowledge
increasing--Liberty--Singing--Sadness--Unhappiness of Mrs.
Sophia--My hatred of slavery--One Upas tree overshadows us all 92
CHAPTER XII.
RELIGIOUS NATURE AWAKENED.
Abolitionists spoken of--Eagerness to know the meaning of the
word--Consults the dictionary--Incendiary information--The
enigma solved--“Nat Turner” insurrection--Cholera--Religion--
Methodist Minister--Religious impressions--Father Lawson--His
character and occupation--His influence over me--Our mutual
attachment--New hopes and aspirations--Heavenly light--Two
Irishmen on wharf--Conversation with them--Learning to write--
My aims 100
CHAPTER XIII.
THE VICISSITUDES OF SLAVE LIFE.
Death of old Master’s son Richard, speedily followed by that of old
Master--Valuation and division of all the property, including
the slaves--Sent for to come to Hillsborough to be valued and
divided--Sad prospects and grief--Parting--Slaves have no
voice in deciding their own destinies--General dread of falling
into Master Andrew’s hands--His drunkenness--Good fortune in
falling to Miss Lucretia--She allows my return to Baltimore--
Joy at Master Hugh’s--Death of Miss Lucretia--Master Thomas
Auld’s second marriage--The new wife unlike the old--Again
removed from Master Hugh’s--Reasons for regret--Plan of escape 107
CHAPTER XIV.
EXPERIENCE IN ST. MICHAELS.
St. Michaels and its inhabitants--Capt. Auld--His new wife--
Sufferings from hunger--Forced to steal--Argument in
vindication thereof--Southern camp-meeting--What Capt. Auld
did there--Hopes--Suspicions--The result--Faith and works at
variance--Position in the church--Poor Cousin Henny--Methodist
preachers--Their disregard of the slaves--One exception--
Sabbath-school--How and by whom broken up--Sad change in my
prospects--Covey, the negro-breaker 116
CHAPTER XV.
COVEY, THE NEGRO BREAKER.
Journey to Covey’s--Meditations by the way--Covey’s house--
Family--Awkwardness as a field hand--A cruel beating--Why
given--Description of Covey--First attempt at driving oxen--
Hair-breadth escape--Ox and man alike property--Hard labor more
effective than the whip for breaking down the spirit--Cunning
and trickery of Covey--Family worship--Shocking and indecent
contempt for chastity--Great mental agitation--Anguish beyond
description 129
CHAPTER XVI.
ANOTHER PRESSURE OF THE TYRANT’S VICE.
Experience at Covey’s summed up--First six months severer than
the remaining six--Preliminaries to the change--Reasons for
narrating the circumstances--Scene in the treading-yard--Author
taken ill--Escapes to St. Michaels--The pursuit--Suffering in
the woods--Talk with Master Thomas--His beating--Driven back
to Covey’s--The slaves never sick--Natural to expect them to
feign sickness--Laziness of slaveholders 142
CHAPTER XVII.
THE LAST FLOGGING.
A sleepless night--Return to Covey’s--Punished by him--The
chase defeated--Vengeance postponed--Musings in the woods--
The alternative--Deplorable spectacle--Night in the woods--
Expected attack--Arrested by Sandy--A friend, not a master--
Sandy’s hospitality--The ash-cake supper--Interview with
Sandy--His advice--Sandy a conjuror as well as a Christian--
The magic root--Strange meeting with Covey--His manner--
Covey’s Sunday face--Author’s defensive resolve--The fight--
The victory, and its results 150
CHAPTER XVIII.
NEW RELATIONS AND DUTIES.
Change of masters--Benefits derived by change--Fame of the fight
with Covey--Reckless unconcern--Author’s abhorence of slavery--
Ability to read a cause of prejudice--The holidays--How
spent--Sharp hit at slavery--Effects of holidays--Difference
between Covey and Freeland--An irreligious master preferred to
a religious one--Hard life at Covey’s useful to the author--
Improved condition does not bring contentment--Congenial society
at Freeland’s--Author’s Sabbath-school--Secresy necessary--
Affectionate relations of tutor and pupils--Confidence and
friendship among slaves--Slavery the inviter of vengeance 164
CHAPTER XIX.
THE RUNAWAY PLOT.
New Year’s thoughts and meditations--Again hired by Freeland--
Kindness no compensation for slavery--Incipient steps toward
escape--Considerations leading thereto--Hostility to slavery--
Solemn vow taken--Plan divulged to slaves--Columbian Orator
again--Scheme gains favor--Danger of discovery--Skill of
slaveholders--Suspicion and coercion--Hymns with double
meaning--Consultation--Password--Hope and fear--Ignorance
of Geography--Imaginary difficulties--Patrick Henry--Sandy a
dreamer--Route to the north mapped out--Objections--Frauds--
Passes--Anxieties--Fear of failure--Strange presentiment--
Coincidence--Betrayal--Arrests--Resistance--Mrs. Freeland--
Prison--Brutal jests--Passes eaten--Denial--Sandy--Dragged
behind horses--Slave traders--Alone in prison--Sent to
Baltimore 174
CHAPTER XX.
APPRENTICESHIP LIFE.
Nothing lost in my attempt to run away--Comrades at home--Reasons
for sending me away--Return to Baltimore--Tommy changed--
Caulking in Gardiner’s ship yard--Desperate fight--Its causes--
Conflict between white and black labor--Outrage--Testimony--
Master Hugh--Slavery in Baltimore--My condition improves--New
associations--Slaveholder’s right to the slave’s wages--How to
make a discontented slave 200
CHAPTER XXI.
ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY.
Closing incidents in my “Life as a Slave”--Discontent--
Suspicions--Master’s generosity--Difficulties in the way of
escape--Plan to obtain money--Allowed to hire my time--A
gleam of hope--Attend camp-meeting--Anger of Master Hugh--The
result--Plans of escape--Day for departure fixed--Harassing
doubts and fears--Painful thoughts of separation from friends 212
SECOND PART.
CHAPTER I.
ESCAPE FROM SLAVERY.
Reasons for not having revealed the manner of escape--Nothing
of romance in the method--Danger--Free Papers--Unjust tax--
Protection papers--“Free trade and sailors’ rights”--American
eagle--Railroad train--Unobserving conductor--Capt. McGowan--
Honest German--Fears--Safe arrival in Philadelphia--Ditto in
New York 220
CHAPTER II.
LIFE AS A FREEMAN.
Loneliness and insecurity--“Allender’s Jake”--Succored by a
sailor--David Ruggles--Marriage--Steamer J. W. Richmond--
Stage to New Bedford--Arrival there--Driver’s detention
of baggage--Nathan Johnson--Change of Name--Why called
“Douglass”--Obtaining Work--The _Liberator_ and its Editor 228
CHAPTER III.
INTRODUCED TO THE ABOLITIONISTS.
Anti-Slavery Convention at Nantucket--First Speech--Much
Sensation--Extraordinary Speech of Mr. Garrison--Anti-Slavery
Agency--Youthful Enthusiasm--Fugitive Slaveship Doubted--
Experience in Slavery Written--Danger of Recapture 244
CHAPTER IV.
RECOLLECTIONS OF OLD FRIENDS.
Work in Rhode Island--Dorr War--Recollections of old friends--
Further labors in Rhode Island and elsewhere in New England 250
CHAPTER V.
ONE HUNDRED CONVENTIONS.
Anti-Slavery Conventions held in parts of New England, and in some
of the Middle and Western States--Mobs--Incidents, etc. 257
CHAPTER VI.
IMPRESSIONS ABROAD.
Danger to be averted--A refuge sought abroad--Voyage on the
steamship Cambria--Refusal of first-class passage--Attractions
of the forecastle-deck--Hutchinson family--Invited to make
a speech--Southerners feel insulted--Captain threatens to
put them in irons--Experiences abroad--Attentions received--
Impressions of different members of Parliament, and of other
public men--Contrast with life in America--Kindness of
friends--Their purchase of my person, and the gift of the same
to myself--My return 266
CHAPTER VII.
TRIUMPHS AND TRIALS.
New Experiences--Painful Disagreement of Opinion with old
Friends--Final Decision to Publish my Paper in Rochester--Its
Fortunes and its Friends--Change in my own Views Regarding the
Constitution of the United States--Fidelity to Conviction--Loss
of Old Friends--Support of New Ones--Loss of House, etc., by
Fire--Triumphs and Trials--Under-ground Railroad--Incidents 294
CHAPTER VIII.
JOHN BROWN AND MRS. STOWE.
My First Meeting with Capt John Brown--The Free Soil Movement--
Colored Convention--Uncle Tom’s Cabin--Industrial School for
Colored People--Letter to Mrs. H. B. Stowe 309
CHAPTER IX.
INCREASING DEMANDS OF THE SLAVE POWER.
Increased demands of slavery--War in Kansas--John Brown’s raid--
His capture and execution--My escape to England from United
States marshals 329
CHAPTER X.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.
My connection with John Brown--To and from England--Presidential
contest--Election of Abraham Lincoln 350
CHAPTER XI.
SECESSION AND WAR.
Recruiting of the 54th and 55th Colored Regiments--Visit to
President Lincoln and Secretary Stanton--Promised a Commission
as Adjutant General to General Thomas--Disappointment 373
CHAPTER XII.
HOPE FOR THE NATION.
Proclamation of emancipation--Its reception in Boston--Objections
brought against it--Its effect on the country--Interview with
President Lincoln--New York riots--Re-election of Mr. Lincoln--
His inauguration, and inaugural--Vice-President Johnson--
Presidential reception--The fall of Richmond--Fanueil Hall--
The assassination--Condolence 390
CHAPTER XIII.
VAST CHANGES.
Satisfaction and anxiety, new fields of labor opening--Lyceums and
colleges soliciting addresses--Literary attractions--Pecuniary
gain--Still pleading for human rights--President Andy Johnson--
Colored delegation--Their reply to him--National Loyalist
Convention, 1866, and its procession--Not Wanted--Meeting with
an old friend--Joy and surprise--The old master’s welcome,
and Miss Amanda’s friendship--Enfranchisement debated and
accomplished--The Negro a citizen 414
CHAPTER XIV.
LIVING AND LEARNING.
Inducements to a political career--Objections--A newspaper
enterprise--The New National Era--Its abandonment--The
Freedman’s Saving and Trust Company--Sad experience--
Vindication 442
CHAPTER XV.
WEIGHED IN THE BALANCE.
The Santo Domingo controversy--Decoration day at Arlington,
1871--Speech delivered there--National colored convention at
New Orleans, 1872--Elector at large for the State of New York--
Death of Hon. Henry Wilson 451
CHAPTER XVI.
“TIME MAKES ALL THINGS EVEN.”
Return to the “old master”--A last interview--Capt. Auld’s
admission “had I been in your place, I should have done as you
did”--Speech at Easton--The old jail there--Invited to a sail
on the revenue cutter Guthrie--Hon. John L. Thomas--Visit to
the old plantation--Home of Col. Lloyd--Kind reception and
attentions--Familiar scenes--Old memories--Burial-ground--
Hospitality--Gracious reception from Mrs. Buchanan--A little
girl’s floral gift--A promise of a “good time coming”--Speech
at Harper’s Ferry, Decoration day, 1881--Storer College--Hon.
A. J. Hunter 487
CHAPTER XVII.
INCIDENTS AND EVENTS.
Hon. Gerrit Smith and Mr. E. C. Delevan--Experiences at Hotels and
on Steamboats and other modes of travel--Hon. Edward Marshall--
Grace Greenwood--Hon. Moses Norris--Rob’t J. Ingersoll--
Reflections and conclusions--Compensations 503
CHAPTER XVIII.
“HONOR TO WHOM HONOR.”
Grateful recognition--Friends in need--Lucretia Mott--Lydia
Maria Child--Sarah and Angelina Grimke--Abby Kelly--H. Beecher
Stowe--Other Friends--Woman Suffrage 517
CHAPTER XIX.
RETROSPECTION.
Meeting of colored citizens in Washington to express their sympathy
at the great national bereavement, the death of President
Garfield--Concluding reflections and convictions 527
APPENDIX.
Oration at the unveiling of the Freedmen’s monument, at Lincoln
Park, Washington, D. C., April 14, 1876--Extract from a speech
delivered at Elmira, N. Y., August 1, 1880 533
[Illustration: ILLUSTRATIONS.]
PAGE.
1. PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR ON STEEL, Frontispiece
2. THE LAST TIME HE SAW HIS MOTHER, 36
3. WHIPPING OF OLD BARNEY, 66
4. GORE SHOOTING DENBY, 74
5. MRS. AULD TEACHING HIM TO READ, 89
6. FOUND IN THE WOODS BY SANDY, 153
7. DRIVEN TO JAIL FOR RUNNING AWAY, 191
8. HIS PRESENT HOME IN WASHINGTON, 221
9. AT THE WHARF IN NEWPORT, 233
10. FIGHTING THE MOB IN INDIANA, 263
11. PORTRAIT OF JOHN BROWN, 308
12. PORTRAIT OF WM. LLOYD GARRISON, 369
13. PORTRAIT OF WENDELL PHILLIPS, 422
14. PORTRAIT OF CHARLES SUMNER, 453
15. COMMISSIONERS TO SANTO DOMINGO, 459
16. MARSHAL AT PRESIDENT GARFIELD’S INAUGURATION, 475
17. REVISITS HIS OLD HOME, 497
18. PORTRAIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN ON STEEL, 547
INTRODUCTION.
Just what this country has in store to benefit or to startle the world
in the future, no tongue can tell. We know full well the wonderful
things which have occurred or have been accomplished here in the
past, but the still more wonderful things which we may well say will
happen in the centuries of development which lie before us, is vain
conjecture, it lies in the domain of speculation.
America will be the field for the demonstration of truths not now
accepted and the establishment of a new and higher civilization. Horace
Walpole’s prophecy will be verified when there shall be a Xenophon
at New York and a Thucydides at Boston. Up to this time the most
remarkable contribution this country has given to the world is the
Author and subject of this book, now being introduced to the public--
Frederick Douglass. The contribution comes naturally and legitimately
and to some not unexpectedly, nevertheless it is altogether unique and
must be regarded as truly remarkable. Our Pantheon contains many that
are illustrious and worthy, but Douglass is unlike all others, he is
_sui generis_. For every other great character we can bring forward,
Europe can produce another equally as great; when we bring forward
Douglass, he cannot be matched.
Douglass was born a slave, he won his liberty; he is of negro
extraction, and consequently was despised and outraged; he has by
his own energy and force of character commanded the respect of the
Nation; he was ignorant, he has, against law and by stealth and
entirely unaided, educated himself; he was poor, he has by honest
toil and industry become rich and independent, so to speak; he, a
chattel slave of a hated and cruelly wronged race, in the teeth of
American prejudice and in face of nearly every kind of hindrance and
draw-back, has come to be one of the foremost orators of the age, with
a reputation established on both sides of the Atlantic; a writer of
power and elegance of expression; a thinker whose views are potent in
controlling and shaping public opinion; a high officer in the National
Government; a cultivated gentleman whose virtues as a husband, father,
and citizen are the highest honor a man can have.
Frederick Douglass stands upon a pedestal; he has reached this lofty
height through years of toil and strife, but it has been the strife of
moral ideas; strife in the battle for human rights. No bitter memories
come from this strife; no feelings of remorse can rise to cast their
gloomy shadows over his soul; Douglass has now reached and passed the
meridian of life, his co-laborers in the strife have now nearly all
passed away. Garrison has gone, Gerritt Smith has gone, Giddings and
Sumner have gone,--nearly all the early abolitionists are gone to
their reward. The culmination of his life work has been reached; the
object dear to his heart--the Emancipation of the slaves--has been
accomplished, through the blessings of God; he stands facing the goal,
already reached by his co-laborers, with a halo of peace about him,
and nothing but serenity and gratitude must fill his breast. To those,
who in the past--in _ante-bellum_ days--in any degree shared with
Douglass his hopes and feelings on the slavery question, this serenity
of mind, this gratitude, can be understood and felt. All Americans,
no matter what may have been their views on slavery, now that freedom
has come and slavery is ended, must have a restful feeling and be glad
that the source of bitterness and trouble is removed. The man who is
sorry because of the abolition of slavery, has outlived his day and
generation; he should have insisted upon being buried with the “lost
cause” at Appomattox.
We rejoice that Douglass has attained unto this exalted position--this
pedestal. It has been honorably reached; it is a just recognition of
talent and effort; it is another proof that success attends high and
noble aim. With this example, the black boy as well as the white boy
can take hope and courage in the race of life.
Douglass’ life has been a romance--and a fragrance--to the age. There
has been just enough mystery about his origin and escape from slavery
to throw a charm about them. The odd proceedings in the purchase of his
freedom after his escape from slavery; his movements in connection with
the John Brown raid at Harper’s Ferry and his subsequent flight across
the ocean are romantic as anything which took place among the crags
and cliffs, the Roderick Dhus and Douglasses of the Lady of the Lake;
while the pure life he has led and his spotless character are sweet by
contrast with the lives of mere politicians and time serving statesmen.
It is well to contemplate one like him, who has had “hair breadth
escapes.” It is inspiring to know that the day of self-sacrifice and
self-development are not passed.
To say that his life has been eventful, is hardly the word. From the
time when he first saw the light on the Tuckahoe plantation up to the
time he was called to fill a high official position, his life has been
crowded with events which in some sense may be called miracles, and now
since his autobiography has come to be written, we must understand the
hour of retrospect has come--for casting up and balancing accounts as
to work done or left undone.
It is more than forty years now that he has been before the world as
a writer and speaker--busy, active, wonderful years to him--and we
are called upon to pass judgment upon his labors. What can we say? Can
he claim the well done good and faithful? The record shows this, and
we must state it, generally speaking, his life has been devoted to his
race and the cause of his race. The freedom and elevation of his people
has been his life work, and it has been done well and faithfully. That
is the record, and that is sufficient. No higher eulogium can be
pronounced than that Longfellow says of the Village Blacksmith:--
“Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose.”
Douglass found his people enslaved and oppressed. He has given the best
years of his life to the improvement of their condition, and, now that
he looks back upon his labors, may he not say he has “attempted” and
“done” something? and may he not claim the “repose” which ought to come
in the evening of a well spent life?
The first twenty-three years of Douglass’ life were twenty-three years
of slavery, obscurity, and degradation, yet doubtless in time to
come these years will be regarded by the student of history the most
interesting portion of his life; to those who in the future would know
the inside history of American slavery, this part of his life will be
specially instructive. Plantation life at Tuckahoe as related by him
is not fiction, it is fact; it is not the historian’s dissertation on
slavery, it is slavery itself, the slave’s life, acts, and thoughts,
and the life, acts, and thoughts of those around him. It is Macauley (I
think) who says that a copy of a daily newspaper [if there were such]
published at Rome would give more information and be of more value than
any history we have. So, too, this photographic view of slave life as
given to us in the autobiography of an ex-slave will give to the reader
a clearer insight of the system of slavery than can be gained from the
examination of general history.
Col. Lloyd’s plantation, where Douglass belonged, was very much like
other plantations of the south. Here was the great house and the
cabins, the old Aunties and patriarchal Uncles, little picanninies and
picanninies not so little, of every shade of complexion, from ebony
black to whiteness of the master race; mules, overseers, and broken
down fences. Here was the negro Doctor learned in the science of roots
and herbs; also the black conjurer with his divination. Here was
slave-breeding and slave-selling, whipping, torturing, and beating to
death. All this came under the observation of Douglass and is a part of
the education he received while under the yoke of bondage. He was there
in the midst of this confusion, ignorance, and brutality. Little did
the overseer on this plantation think that he had in his gang a man of
superior order and undaunted spirit, whose mind, far above the minds
of the grovelling creatures about him, was at that very time plotting
schemes for his liberty; nor did the thought ever enter the mind of
Col. Lloyd, the rich slaveholder, that he had upon his estate one who
was destined to assail the system of slavery with more power and effect
than any other person.
Douglass’ fame will rest mainly, no doubt, upon his oratory. His powers
in this direction are very great and in some respects unparalleled by
our living speakers. His oratory is his own and apparently formed after
the model of no single person. It is not after the Edmund Burke style,
which has been so closely followed by Everett, Sumner, and others,
and which has resulted in giving us splendid and highly embellished
essays rather than natural and not overwrought speeches. If his oratory
must be classified, it should be placed somewhere between the Fox
and Henry Clay schools. Like Clay, Douglass’ greatest effect is upon
his immediate hearers, those who see him and feel his presence, and
like Clay a good part of his oratorical fame will be tradition. The
most striking feature of Douglass’ oratory is his fire, not the quick
and flashy kind, but the steady and intense kind. Years ago on the
anti-slavery platform, in some sudden and unbidden outburst of passion
and indignation he has been known to awe-inspire his listeners as
though Ætna were there.
If oratory consists of the power to move men by spoken words, Douglass
is a complete orator. He can make men laugh or cry, at his will. He
has power of statement, logic, withering denunciation, pathos, humor,
and inimitable wit. Daniel Webster with his immense intellectuality
had no humor, not a particle. It does not appear that he could even
see the point of a joke. Douglass is brim full of humor at times, of
the dryest kind. It is of a quiet kind. You can see it coming a long
way off in a peculiar twitch of his mouth; it increases and broadens
gradually until it becomes irresistible and all-pervading with his
audience.
Douglass’ rank as a writer is high, and justly so. His writings, if
anything, are more meritorious than his speaking. For many years he
was the editor of newspapers, doing all of the editorial work. He has
contributed largely to magazines. He is a forcible and thoughtful
writer. His style is pure and graceful, and he has great felicity of
expression. His written productions in finish compare favorably with
the written productions of our most cultivated writers. His style
comes partly, no doubt, from his long and constant practice, but
the true source is his clear mind, which is well stored by a close
acquaintance with the best authors. His range of reading has been wide
and extensive. He has been a hard student. In every sense of the word
he is a self-made man. By dint of hard study he has educated himself,
and to-day it may be said he has a well-trained intellect. He has
surmounted the disadvantage of not having an university education,
by application and well-directed effort. He seems to have realized
the fact that to one who is anxious to become educated and is really
in earnest, it is not positively necessary to go to college, and
that information may be had outside of college walks; books may be
obtained and read elsewhere, they are not chained to desks in college
libraries as they were in early times at Oxford; Professors’ lectures
may be bought already printed; learned doctors may be listened to in
the Lyceum; and the printing press has made it easy and cheap to get
information on every subject and topic that is discussed and taught in
the University. Douglass never made the great mistake (a common one) of
considering that his education was finished. He has continued to study,
he studies now, and is a growing man, and at this present moment he is
a stronger man intellectually than ever before.
Soon after Douglass’ escape from Maryland to the Northern States, he
commenced his public career. It was at New Bedford as a local Methodist
preacher and by taking part in small public meetings held by colored
people, wherein anti-slavery and other matters were discussed. There he
laid the foundation of the splendid career which is now about drawing
to a close. In these meetings Douglass gave evidence that he possessed
uncommon powers, and it was plainly to be seen that he needed only a
field and opportunity to display them. That field and opportunity soon
came, as it always does to possessors of genius. He became a member and
agent of the American Anti-Slavery society. Then commenced his great
crusade against slavery in behalf of his oppressed brethren at the
South.
He waged violent and unceasing war against slavery. He went through
every town and hamlet in the Free States, raising his voice against the
iniquitous system.
Just escaped from the prison-house himself, to tear down the walls
of the same and to let the oppressed go free, was the mission which
engaged the powers of his soul and body. North, East, and West, all
through the land went this escaped slave delivering his warning
message against the doomed cities of the South. The ocean did not
stop nor hinder him. Across the Atlantic he went, through England,
Ireland, and Scotland. Wherever people could be found to listen to
his story, he pleaded the cause of his enslaved and down-trodden
brethren with vehemence and great power. From 1840 to 1861, the time
of the commencement of the civil war, which extirpated slavery in this
country, Douglass was continuously speaking on the platform, writing
for his newspaper and for magazines, or working in conventions for the
abolition of slavery.
The life and work of Douglass has been a complete vindication of the
colored people in this respect; it has refuted and overthrown the
position taken by some writers that colored people were deficient in
mental qualifications and were incapable of attaining high intellectual
position. We may reasonably expect to hear no more of this now, the
argument is exploded. Douglass has settled the fact the right way, and
it is something to settle a fact.
That Douglass is a brave man there can be little doubt. He has physical
as well as moral courage. His encounter with the overseer of the
eastern shore plantation attests his pluck. There the odds were against
him, everything was against him--there the unwritten rule of law was,
that the negro who dared to strike a white man, must be killed, but
Douglass fought the overseer and whipped him. His plotting with other
slaves to escape, writing and giving them passes, and the unequal and
desperate fight maintained by him in the Baltimore ship yard, where law
and public sentiment were against him, also show that he has courage.
But since the day of his slavery, while living here at the North, many
instances have happened which show very plainly that he is a man of
courage and determination; if he had not been, he would have long since
succumbed to the brutality and violence of the low and mean spirited
people found in the Free States.
Up to a very recent date it has been deemed quite safe even here in
the North to insult and impose on inoffensive colored people, to
elbow a colored man from the sidewalk, to jeer at him and apply vile
epithets to him, in some localities this has been the rule and not the
exception, and to put him out of public conveyances and public places
by force, was of common occurrence. It made little difference that the
colored man was decent, civil, and respectably clad, and had paid his
fare, if the proprietor of the place or his patrons took the notion
that the presence of the colored man was an affront to their dignity
or inconsistent with their notions of self-respect, out he must go.
Nor must he stand upon the order of his going, but go at once. It was
against this feeling that Douglass had to contend. He met it often; he
was a prominent colored man traveling from place to place. A good part
of the time he was in strange cities stopping at strange taverns--that
is, when he was allowed to stop. Time and again has he been refused
accommodation in hotels. Time and again has he been in a strange place
with nowhere to lay his head until some kind anti-slavery person would
come forward and give him shelter.
The writer of this remembers well, because he was present and saw the
transaction,--the John Brown meeting in Tremont Temple in 1860, when a
violent mob composed of the rough element from the slums of the city,
led and encouraged by bankers and brokers, came into the hall to break
up the meeting. Douglass was presiding; the mob was armed; the police
were powerless; the mayor could not or would not do anything. On came
the mob surging through the aisles over benches and upon the platform;
the women in the audience became alarmed and fled. The hirelings were
prepared to do anything, they had the power and could with impunity.
Douglass sat upon the platform with a few chosen spirits, cool and
undaunted; the mob had got about and around him; he did not heed their
howling nor was he moved by their threats. It was not until their
leader, a rich banker, with his followers, had mounted the platform and
wrenched the chair from under him that he was dispossessed, by main
force and personal violence (Douglass resisting all the time) they
removed him from the platform.
It affords me great pleasure to introduce to the public this book, “The
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.” I am glad of the opportunity to
present a work which tells the story of the rise and progress of our
most celebrated colored man. To the names of Toussaint L’Overture and
Alexander Dumas is to be added that of Frederick Douglass. We point
with pride to this trio of illustrious names. I bid my fellow country
men take new hope and courage; the near future will bring us other men
of worth and genius, and our list of illustrious names will become
lengthened. Until that time the duty is to work and wait.
Respectfully,
GEORGE L. RUFFIN.
LIFE AS A SLAVE.
CHAPTER I.
AUTHOR’S BIRTH.
Author’s place of birth--Description of country--Its Inhabitants--
Genealogical trees--Method of counting time in slave districts--
Date of author’s birth--Names of grandparents--Their cabin--
Home with them--Slave practice of separating mothers from their
children--Author’s recollections of his mother--Who was his father?
In Talbot County, Eastern Shore, State of Maryland, near Easton, the
county town, there is a small district of country, thinly populated,
and remarkable for nothing that I know of more than for the worn-out,
sandy, desert-like appearance of its soil, the general dilapidation
of its farms and fences, the indigent and spiritless character of its
inhabitants, and the prevalence of ague and fever. It was in this dull,
flat, and unthrifty district or neighborhood, bordered by the Choptank
river, among the laziest and muddiest of streams surrounded by a white
population of the lowest order, indolent and drunken to a proverb, and
among slaves who, in point of ignorance and indolence, were fully in
accord with their surroundings, that I, without any fault of my own,
was born, and spent the first years of my childhood.
The reader must not expect me to say much of my family. Genealogical
trees did not flourish among slaves. A person of some consequence
in civilized society, sometimes designated as father, was literally
unknown to slave law and slave practice. I never met with a slave in
that part of the country who could tell me with any certainty how old
he was. Few at that time knew anything of the months of the year or
of the days of the month. They measured the ages of their children by
spring-time, winter-time, harvest-time, planting-time, and the like.
Masters allowed no questions to be put to them by slaves concerning
their ages. Such questions were regarded by the masters as evidence of
an impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, the dates of which
I have since learned, I suppose myself to have been born in February,
1817.
My first experience of life, as I now remember it, and I remember it
but hazily, began in the family of my grandmother and grandfather,
Betsey and Isaac Bailey. They were considered old settlers in
the neighborhood, and from certain circumstances I infer that my
grandmother, especially, was held in high esteem, far higher than was
the lot of most colored persons in that region. She was a good nurse,
and a capital hand at making nets used for catching shad and herring,
and was, withal, somewhat famous as a fisherwoman. I have known her
to be in the water waist deep, for hours, seine-hauling. She was a
gardener as well as a fisherwoman, and remarkable for her success in
keeping her seedling sweet potatoes through the months of winter, and
easily got the reputation of being born to “good luck.” In planting
time Grandmother Betsey was sent for in all directions, simply to place
the seedling potatoes in the hills or drills; for superstition had it
that her touch was needed to make them grow. This reputation was full
of advantage to her and her grandchildren, for a good crop, after her
planting for the neighbors, brought her a share of the harvest.
Whether because she was too old for field service, or because she had
so faithfully discharged the duties of her station in early life, I
know not, but she enjoyed the high privilege of living in a cabin
separate from the quarters, having only the charge of the young
children and the burden of her own support imposed upon her. She
esteemed it great good fortune to live so, and took much comfort in
having the children. The practice of separating mothers from their
children and hiring them out at distances too great to admit of their
meeting, save at long intervals, was a marked feature of the cruelty
and barbarity of the slave system; but it was in harmony with the grand
aim of that system, which always and everywhere sought to reduce man to
a level with the brute. It had no interest in recognizing or preserving
any of the ties that bind families together or to their homes.
My grandmother’s five daughters were hired out in this way, and my only
recollections of my own mother are of a few hasty visits made in the
night on foot, after the daily tasks were over, and when she was under
the necessity of returning in time to respond to the driver’s call to
the field in the early morning. These little glimpses of my mother,
obtained under such circumstances and against such odds, meager as they
were, are ineffaceably stamped upon my memory. She was tall and finely
proportioned, of dark glossy complexion, with regular features, and
amongst the slaves was remarkably sedate and dignified. There is, in
“Prichard’s Natural History of Man,” the head of a figure, on page 157,
the features of which so resemble my mother that I often recur to it
with something of the feelings which I suppose others experience when
looking upon the likenesses of their own dear departed ones.
Of my father I know nothing. Slavery had no recognition of fathers, as
none of families. That the mother was a slave was enough for its deadly
purpose. By its law the child followed the condition of its mother. The
father might be a freeman and the child a slave. The father might be
a white man, glorying in the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, and his
child ranked with the blackest slaves. Father he might be, and not be
husband, and could sell his own child without incurring reproach, if in
its veins coursed one drop of African blood.