H. FORD DOUGLAS¹Hezekiah Ford Douglas (1831–65) was the son of William Douglas, a white man, and Mary Douglas, a slave woman. After escaping from slavery in Virginia, Douglas settled in Cleveland, where he became a barber and a leader in the Ohio free black community. At the 1851 Ohio State Convention, which supported suffrage for black men, Douglas declared the U.S. Constitution to be a proslavery document and claimed that black men should not vote under a constitution that condoned slavery. He endorsed antislavery emigrationism and encouraged black settlement in Canada, where he had lived for two years. He returned to live in Chicago in 1858, where in February 1859 he shared a speaking platform with Frederick Douglass, who was lecturing on the changing phases of the antislavery struggle. After Douglass’s lecture, the audience demanded to hear H. Ford Douglas speak. Although they embraced opposite ideologies, Douglass and H. Ford Douglas traveled together for much of Douglass’s Illinois lecture tour. Douglas lectured throughout New England, beginning in 1860, and advocated a violent overthrow of slavery, frequently praising John Brown in his speeches. In 1861 he returned to Chicago and became an agent for James Redpath’s Haitian Bureau. His job was to persuade people of African and Indian descent to immigrate to Haiti. , 1:40 (March 1859); Robert L. Harris, Jr., “H. Ford Douglas: Afro-American Antislavery Emigrationist,” , 62:217–34 (July 1977). TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Colliersville[, Tenn.] 8 Jan[uary] 1863

MY DEAR DOUGLASS:—

My wife²A mulatto born in Illinois to Alfred and Maria Steele, Statira Steele (c. 1840–?) married H. Ford Douglas on 26 October 1857 in Racine, Wisconsin. She worked as a teacher, and they had one daughter, Helen Ford Douglas. The family lived with her parents in a Chicago home that included other boarders. Ripley, , 2:338; Harris, “H. Ford Douglas,” 233. sent me this morning the Monthly for December containing your appeal to England³“The Slave's Appeal to Great Britain,” New York Independent, 20 November 1862. to “” in this fearful conflict for freedom. It was indeed gratifying to me who have always felt more than a friendly interest in you and yours to read your eloquent and manly words of admonition to the old Saxon mother States to give no moral or legal countenance to the claims of the impious Confederate States of America in their attempt to set up a Government established upon the idea of the perpetual bondage of the Negro. England has wisely withstood every temptation to do so—Abraham Lincoln has crossed the Rubicon⁴To take irreversible action. The phrase refers to Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon River, which marked the boundary of his territory, to invade Italy in 49 B.C.E. and begin a war with Pompey. Brewer, , 336. and by one simple act of Justice to the slave links his memory with immortality.

The slaves are ! How can I write these precious words? And yet it is so unless twenty millions of people cradled in christianity and civilization for a thousand years commits the foulest perjury that ever blackened the pages of history. In anticipation of this result I enlisted six Months ago⁵The Civil War ultimately became Douglas’s hope for an end to slavery. He was one of the few black men to join a white regiment, one of fewer than thirty black commissioned officers, and the only black officer to command his own company. He contracted malaria in Mississippi in 1863, but began speaking and recruiting again in 1864, receiving a commission as captain in February 1865. His unit experienced only five months of active duty, however, and Douglas, too weak for strenuous activity after leaving the Union army, died in November of that year. , 1:40 (March 1859); Harris, “H. Ford Douglas,” 217–34. in order to be better prepared to play my part in the great drama of the Negroe’s redemption. I wanted its drill, its practical details for mere theory does not make a good soldier. I have learned something of war for have I have seen war in its brightest as well as its bloodiest phase and yet I have nothing to regret. For since the stern necessities of this struggle have laid bare the naked issue of freedom on one side and slavery on the other—freedom shall have in the future of this conflict if necessary my blood as it has had in the past my earnest and best words. It seems to me that you can have no good reason for withholding from the government your hearty co operation. This war will educate Mr Lincoln out of his idea of the deportation of the Negro⁶Lincoln first publicly endorsed the idea of African colonization during his eulogy for Henry Clay in 1852. Clay had supported colonization, and it was possibly Lincoln’s idolization of the Kentucky politician led him to endorse that policy, too. In 1853 and again in 1855, Lincoln addressed the Illinois Colonization Society, and in 1858 his name appeared on the list of the society’s Board of Managers. Although a believer in the natural rights of blacks, Lincoln did not accept full equality between the races before the Civil War. He often argued that the only way blacks could enjoy their rights was for them to emigrate, and he believed that many would welcome the opportunity. Lincoln continued to support colonization well into the Civil War period. In an effort to promote gradual emancipation in the border states, Lincoln tied it to colonization, which would curb slaveholders’ fears of a society made up of free blacks. In July 1862 he established the Emigration Office in the Department of the Interior and directed the State Department to begin searching for territories appropriate for a colony. Douglass criticized the president’s support of colonization, claiming that it demonstrated “his pride of race and blood, his contempt for negroes and his canting hypocrisy.” Although Lincoln did not publicly address colonization after issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, on 1 January 1863, he did not completely desert the idea until later that year. The ultimate abandonment of colonization efforts by Lincoln and his administration followed the failed attempt by a group of 450 men, women, and children to establish a colony at Île-à-Vache, an island off the coast of Haiti, in late 1863. Lincoln might have continued to support voluntary emigration, but he no longer endorsed extensive colonization. , 5:707 (September 1862); Eric Foner, (New York, 2010), 61, 127, 184, 258–59; Phillip W. Magness and Sebastian N. Page, (Columbia, Mo., 2011), 1, 3–4, 24. quite as fast as it has some of his other pro slavery ideas with respect to employing them as soldiers.

Hitherto they have been socially and politically ignored by this government, but now by the fortunes of war they are cast morally and mentally helpless (so to speak) into the broad sunlight of our Republican civilization there, to be educated and lifted to a higher and nobler life. National duties and responsibilities are not to be colonized, they must be heroically met and religiously performed. This mighty waste of manhood resulting from the dehumanizing character of slave institutions of America is now to be given back to the world through the patient toil and self denial of this proud and haughty race. They must now pay back to the negro in Spiritual culture in opportunities for self improvement what they have taken from him for two hundred years by the constant over-taxing of his physical nature. This law of supply and demand regulates itself. And so this question of the colonization of the negro it will be settled by laws over which war has no control. Now is the time for you to finish the crowning work of your life. Go to work at once and raise a Regiment and offer your services to the government and I am confident they will be accepted. They say we will not fight. I want to see it tried on. You are the one to me of all others, to demonstrate this fact.

I belong to company G, 95th Regiment Illinois volunteers—Captain Eliot N. Bush⁷Elliott N. Bush (c. 1826–1864) served as the captain in Company G of the Ninety-fifth Illinois Infantry Regiment. He was killed at the Battle of Brice’s Crossroads in Guntown, Mississippi, on 10 June 1864. 1860 U.S. Census, Illinois, Boone County, 482; Bobby Roberts and Carl Moneyhon, (Fayetteville, Ark., 1993), 323, 354; Wales W. Wood, (Chicago, 1865), 16, 215.—a christian and a gentleman. You must pardon my miserable chirography. There is not in me one particle of mechanical genius, and it does seem to me that I can learn almost any thing but to write a decent hand. If you can by what you see marked on this paper decipher my meaning, I shall be content.

Very truly your friend,

H. FORD DOUGLASDouglas, Hezekiah Ford

Hezekiah Ford Douglas (1831-65) was the son of William and Mary Douglas, a white man and a slave woman. After escaping from slavery in Virginia, Douglas settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he became a barber and a leader in the Ohio free black community. At the 1851 Ohio state convention supporting suffrage for black men, Douglas declared the U.S. Constitution a proslavery document and claimed that black men should not vote under a constitution that condoned slavery. He endorsed antislavery emigrationism, encouraging black settlement in Canada, where he lived for two years. In 1858 he returned to live in Chicago, where in February 1859 he shared a lecture platform with Frederick Douglass, who lectured on the changing phases of the antislavery struggle. After Douglass's lecture, the audience demanded to hear H. Ford Douglas speak. Although they embraced opposite ideologies, Douglass and H. Ford Douglas traveled together for much of Douglass's Illinois lecture tour. Douglas lectured throughout New England beginning in 1860 and increasingly advocated a violent overthrow of slavery, frequently praising John Brown in his speeches. In 1861 he returned to Chicago and became an agent for James Redpath's Haitian Bureau, attempting to persuade individuals of African and Indian descent to immigrate to Haiti. The Civil War ultimately became Douglas's hope for an end to slavery, and he was one of the few black men to join a white regiment, one of fewer than thirty black commissioned officers, and was the only black officer to command his own company. He contracted malaria in Mississippi in 1863, but began speaking and recruiting again in 1864, receiving a commission as captain in February 1865. His unit experienced only five months of active duty, however, and Douglas, too weak for strenuous activity after leaving the Union army, died in November of that year. DM, 1:40 (March 1859); Robert L. Harris, Jr., "H. Ford Douglas: AfroAmerican Antislavery Emigrationist," JNH, 62:217-34 (July 1977). .

PLSr: , 5:786 (February 1863).