The Story of Frederick Douglass

Smoke curls from chimneys, and the sharp, cold winds sweep across the city.  Inside the modest home in Rochester, New York, a man sits scanning the pages of his abolitionist paper, The North Star.  It is 1860 and the country teeters on the brink of a civil war that will bring freedom to millions of enslaved people.  The man has dedicated years to this fight – speaking, writing and helping fugitives find freedom on the Underground Railroad.  Over four hundred escaped slaves have passed through his home.  They have been fed, clothed and sent north.  Born into slavery, he became free at 20, the man is called Frederick Douglass and is he is about to pen another editorial. 

Even in the North danger lurks for Frederick Douglass.  Just one year ago, in 1859, a fiery abolitionist called John Brown came to him with a plan to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry to spark a rebellion to sweep the South.  Douglass listened intently.  He foresaw disaster.  “You will never get out alive”, he said.  John Brown went ahead with his rebellion.  He was captured and hung. 

In 1861 the Civil War begins sparked by the election of Abraham Lincoln as President in November 1860, although tension was building for years, as the South demands more state rights.  South Carolina is the first to secede.  The two sides are the Union and the Confederates.  At first, Black men are prohibited to fight for the Union.  Douglass is frustrated.  He knows until Black men are allowed to fight, this war is not truly for them.  “Is he not a man?” Douglass writes, “Can he not wield a sword, fire a gun, march and countermarch and obey orders like any other?” His words echo across the North.  Lincoln is sympathetic but slow to respond.  “Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull,” Douglass reflects. 

On 14th January 1862, Douglass returns to the photography studio.  John White Hurn takes his photo – the first of nine photos.  Douglass, with 160 photos, will be the most photographed person of the 19th century.  He knows the power of photography to empower other Black people.  He sees it as a social leveller.  Image is everything. 

Slowly, the tides turn.  In July 1862 the Militia Act allows Black men to fight for the Union.  Then, on the 1st January 1863, The Emancipation Proclamation legally frees all enslaved people in the South (although they will need to wait for the end of the war to be physically set free).  Douglass writes with fire in his heart, penning his famous “Men of Colour, to Arms” broadside.  It calls for Black men to fight for the Union.  Two of his sons join up.  Douglass knows Black soldiers are paid 3 dollars less than white soldiers.  They are not treated equally.  He is furious.  He demands an audience with the President and presses him for equal pay.  Lincoln agrees, but the black soldiers still do the worst jobs.  Less than a year later, Douglass is enraged by the torture and slaughter of Black captives by the Confederacy.  He bitterly reflects the stories affect Lincoln “as little as the slaughter of beeves (cows)”. 

By July 1863, the civil war touches the North in a new, horrifying way.  The Draft Riots hit New York City.  White mobs attack the Black community.  They blame them for the war and for the draft that forces white men to fight.  White mobs burn the homes of Black people.  They lynch Black men in the streets.  Douglass watches on in horror. 

Douglass’s relationship with President Lincoln deepens.  In August 1864 a weary Lincoln asks him to encourage Black men in the south to cross the border and fight for the Union.  Later that year, at Lincoln”s second inauguration ceremony, Lincoln spots Douglass in the crowd.  He proudly points him out exclaiming- “There is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours!”. 

As 1865 dawns the Civil War is ending.  Lincoln seeks to reconstruct the country and secure rights for Black people in what will later be called Presidential Reconstruction.  In January 1865, the 13th Amendment is passed which ends slavery.  The Freedmen’s Bureau is set up to support ex-slaves.  Douglass has great hope for the future.  Then, just five days after the Union victory in the Civil War, tragedy strikes. 

Whilst watching a theatre performance at Ford’s Theater in Washington, Lincoln is shot by Confederate John Wilkes Booth who is angry at slavery ending.  Lincoln cannot be saved.  He dies the next day.  Douglass, his voice heavy with grief for his friend and for the cause he has been fighting for will reflect, “This is a day for silence and meditation”. 

Cracks in securing the rights for Black people soon appear after Lincoln’s death.  The Vice-President, Andrew Johnson becomes President.  Douglass has written that Johnson is “no friend to Black Americans” and that “he looks at us with bitter contempt”.  White mobs begin to terrorise the streets.  Johnson ends the Freedmen’s Bureau.  When Douglass meets with Johnson, he is blunt: “You enfranchise your enemies and disenfranchise your friends”, he tells the new President. 

By 1869, a former Union general Ulysses S Grant is elected President.  Grant signs the Civil Rights Act of 1871 to tackle a white racist group called the Ku Klux Klan.  Grant sends federal troops to the South to crush the KKK’s reign of terror resulting in over five thousand arrests.  Douglass praises the decisive action, believing real progress is being made.  But violence and prejudice are there striking at Douglass himself.  In June 1872, he stands outside the smouldering ruins of his home, destroyed in an arson attack. 

By 1877, after years of decreasing support, Reconstruction is over.  Federal troops are pulled out of the South as part of a deal that makes Rutherford B Hayes president.  Without the military to enforce the laws, the gains of Reconstruction begin to crumble.  Douglass watches in despair as the progress made for Black rights over the past decade slips away.  Segregation and prejudice begin to return. 

In 1881, Douglass publishes the final edition of his autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.  He reflects and glances proudly at the long wooden walking stick hanging on the wall, a gift from Abraham Lincoln’s wife.  It serves as a reminder of their relationship and the hope that change is always possible, even in the face of setbacks.  Douglass will continue to work for justice and equality for all Black people right up to his death in 1895.