Speeches Volume 2 Front Matter
THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPERS
Series One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews
VOLUME 2: 1847-54
Engraving by J. C. Buttre, from Julia Griffiths, ed., Autographs for Freedom
(Rochester, 1854).
THE
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
PAPERS
John W. Blassingame, Editor
Yale University Press New Haven and London
The preparation of this volume of the Frederick Douglass Papers was made possible through
grants from the Editing Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National
Historical Publications and Records Commission, and Yale University.
Published with assistance from the Louis Stern Memorial Fund
Copyright © 1982 by Yale University.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole
or in part, in any form (beyond that
copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108
of the U.S. Copyright Law and except by
reviewers for the public press), without
written permission from the publishers.
Designed by John O. C. McCrillis
and set in Times Roman type, by the Composing Room of Michigan.
Printed in the United States of America by
The Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, New York.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Douglass, Frederick, 18177-1895.
The Frederick Douglass papers.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
CONTENTS: Series one, Speeches, debates, and
interviews, v.
1 . Slavery United States Anti-slavery movements
Sources. 2. Afro- Americans History Sources.
I. Blassingame, John W., 1940E449.D733
326'.092'4
78-16687
ISBN 0-300-02661-7 (v. 2)
David B. Davis
Carl Degler
Helen G. Edmonds
Philip S. Foner
John Hope Franklin
Louis R. Harlan
Howard Lamar
Elsie M. Lewis
Augustus Low
David Montgomery
Dorothy Porter
Benjamin Quarles
George Shepperson
Clare Taylor
Howard Temperley
George B. Tindall
Charles H. Wesley
C. Vann Woodward
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction to Volume 2
Abbreviations
Partial Speaking Itinerary, 1847-54
SPEECHES
2 February
25 March
30 March
1 April
11 May
2 August
5-6 August
6 August
24 September
5 March
6 March
13 March
27 April
1847
The Skin Aristocracy in America
Coventry, Eng.
American Slavery is America's Disgrace
Sheffield, Eng.
Farewell to the British People
London, Eng.
Monarchies and Freedom, Republics and Slavery
Bristol, Eng.
Country, Conscience, and the Anti-Slavery Cause
New York, N.Y.
Pioneers in a Holy Cause
Canandaigua, N.Y.
The Material and Moral Requirements of Antislavery
Work
Nomstown, Pa.
Brethren, Rouse the Church
Philadelphia, Pa.
Love of God, Love of Man, Love of Country
Syracuse, N.Y.
1848
Principles of Temperance Reform
Rochester, N.Y.
The Folly of Racially Exclusive Organizations
Rochester, N.Y.
Colored People Must Command Respect
Rochester, N.Y.
The 1848 Revolution in France
Rochester, N.Y.
3
8
19
52
57
69
84
90
93
106
109
112
115
CONTENTS
viii
9 May
10 May
30 May
1 August
25 January
23 April
24 April
7 May
8 May
8 May
9 May
11 May
30 May
31 May
17 January
7 May
14 October
The Triumphs and Challenges of the Abolitionist
Crusade
New York, N.Y.
Suppose You Yourselves Were Black
New York, N.Y.
The Slaves' Right to Revolt
Boston, Mass.
A Day, A Deed, An Event, Glorious in the Annals of
Philanthropy
Rochester, N.Y.
1849
On Robert Burns and Scotland
Rochester, N.Y.
Slavery, The Slumbering Volcano
New York, N.Y.
Colonizationist Measures
New York, N.Y.
Self-Help
New York, N.Y.
Of Morals and Men
New York, N.Y.
Shalt Thou Steal?
New York, N.Y.
Too Much Religion, Too Little Humanity
New York, N.Y.
Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States,
in Letter, Spirit, and Design, Is Essentially
Antislavery
New York, N.Y.
An Abolitionist Measure of American Churches and
the Free Soil Party
Boston, Mass.
The Colonizationist Revival
Boston, Mass.
1850
Is the Constitution Pro-Slavery?
Syracuse, N.Y.
Men and Brothers
New York, N.Y.
Do Not Send Back the Fugitive
Boston, Mass.
117
128
130
132
147
148
158
167
170
174
176
193
198
203
217
235
243
ix
CONTENTS
24 October
1 December
8 December
7-8 January
12 January
26 January
2 February
3 April
7 May
18 September
27-29 April
2 May
5 July
11 August
23 August
14 October
11 May
Let Woman Take Her Rights
Worcester, Mass.
Slavery and the Slave Power
Rochester, N.Y.
An Antislavery Tocsin
Rochester, N.Y.
1851
Resistance to Blood-Houndism
Syracuse, N.Y.
Slavery's Northern Bulwarks
Rochester, N.Y.
Persecution on Account of Faith, Persecution on
Account of Color
Rochester, N.Y.
Henry Clay and Colonization Cant, Sophistry, and
Falsehood
Rochester, N.Y.
An Appeal to Canada
Toronto, Canada West
The American Slave's Plea to Mankind
Syracuse, N.Y.
The Free Negro's Place Is in America
Buffalo, N.Y.
7852
Antislavery Principles and Antislavery Acts
Cincinnati, Ohio
Freedom, The Eternal Truth
Harveysburg, Ohio
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
Rochester, N.Y.
Let All Soil Be Free Soil
Pittsburgh, Pa.
Agitate, Agitate
Salem, Ohio
Northern Ballots and the Election of 1852
Ithaca, N.Y.
1853
No Peace for the Slaveholder
New York, N.Y.
248
249
260
272
279
291
311
326
330
337
341
352
359
388
393
397
420
CONTENTS
11 May
2-4 August
1 December
5 January
24 January
11-13 April
14 April
10 May
21 June
12 July
3 August
30 October
Appendix
Index
A Nation in the Midst of a Nation
New York, N.Y.
Prejudice and Opportunity
Boston, Mass.
The Property Rights of Women
Rochester, N.Y.
1854
Trust,The Basis of Charity
Rochester, N.Y.
God's Law Outlawed
Manchester, N.H.
Slavery the Live Issue
Cincinnati, Ohio
Work and Self-Elevation
Cincinnati, Ohio
We Are in the Midst of a Moral Revolution
New York, N.Y.
Bound Together in a Grand League of Freedom
Toronto, Canada West
The Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered
Hudson, Ohio
Advice to My Canadian Brothers and Sisters
Chatham, Canada West
Slavery, Freedom, and the Kansas-Nebraska Act
Chicago, 111.
423
440
451
451
454
460
475
479
490
497
525
538
561
567
Acknowledgments
We have benefited, in our work on Volume Two of the Frederick Douglass
Papers, from the dedicated labor of several individuals. Before returning to
full-time teaching or research, Lawrence N. Powell of Tulane University
and Vincent Franklin of Yale University served respectively as Associate
Editor and Managing Editor of the project. Former Assistant Editor Fiona
Spiers continued to supply valuable material on Douglass's activities in the
United Kingdom. Jason H. Silverman (National Historical Publications
and Records Commission Editing Fellow in 1980-81) assisted in the final
preparation of the volume. Research Assistant Jill Katz prepared the index.
Yale graduate students Karen Greenberg, Dominic J. Parisi, Roger
Smith, David Heim, Lori Ginzberg, and Carla B. Carr spent several months
helping us to refine the speaking itinerary, locate elusive sources, proofread documents, and write drafts of annotation notes. Among our undergraduate research assistants, An-Ping Hsieh, Bahira Sherif, Nan Helm,
Cameron Bardrick, Cephas Ocloo, and Steven Hill performed a multitude
of bibliographical tasks. Jessica Dunn, Lois Jameson, Carolyn Cott, and
Joel Corn well helped to expand the data base used in our annotation.
Dolores Canty, Janet Giarratano, Camille Jordan, Fortunada Jefferson , and Jean M. Conklin typed all of our notes, drafts, and documents. We
benefited greatly from their proofreading skill and understanding of our
foibles.
Introduction to Volume 2
From 1847 to 1854, the years covered in this volume, Douglass delivered
approximately 650 speeches in the United States, Great Britain, and
Canada. Fifty-nine, or about 9 percent, of those speeches are printed
herein.
Douglass's successful tour of the British Isles strengthened his reputation as a skilled and effective antislavery orator. When he returned to the
United States in 1847, he was not only a free man but a celebrity. Committed after December 1847 to editing the North Star in Rochester, New York,
Douglass remained in demand as a lecturer and continued to accept speaking engagements, in part to raise money for his newspaper. A regular
participant at abolitionist gatherings in and around Rochester, he also spent
days, often weeks, away from his office attending antislavery meetings,
black conventions, and ceremonial events throughout the North and in
Canada.
His growing prominence as a social critic and black leader ensured
Douglass greater press coverage than he had previously enjoyed in the
United States. Although most of his public appearances, particularly those
in small towns or before predominantly black audiences, were only sketchily reported, general-circulation as well as antislavery journals increasingly
carried detailed reports of his speeches, many of which were stenographically recorded. Douglass frequently published these in his own paper,
sometimes including corrections or additions to accounts appearing elsewhere. Texts for thirty-seven of the speeches in Volume 2 can be found in
either the North Star or Frederick Douglass' Paper. Major addresses were
occasionally reprinted as pamphlets.
Douglass's primary objective between 1847 and 1854 was to hasten the
overthrow of American slavery, although his view on how that should be
accomplished changed. The speeches and two debates in this volume trace
both his shift in allegiance from strict Garrisonianism to political
abolitionism and the antagonisms that it engendered. Compared to his
earlier speeches, less was said after 1847 about his personal experiences in
bondage, more about the prejudice and discrimination that he and other free
blacks daily encountered in the northern states. Douglass argued against
colonization and voluntary emigration, urging instead that blacks work
together to create improved educational and employment opportunities. As he had since the beginning of his career, Douglass continued to fuse other
political and social reforms with his campaign against slavery and racism.
He attacked intemperance, war, and the hypocrisy that infiltrated American religion and politics, approved foreign revolutions attempting to implement the ideals of liberty and equality, and supported the domestic
women's rights movement. Speaking extemporaneously or from prepared
texts, in open fields or in spacious auditoriums, Douglass personally delivered his message of freedom and justice to thousands of people.
List of Abbreviations
| AAP | |
| ACAB | |
| ADS | Autograph Document Signed |
| AFASR | |
| AHR | |
| ASB | |
| BDAC | |
| BFASR | |
| CIB | |
| CtY | Yale University |
| DAB | |
| DLC | Library of Congress |
| DNB | |
| FDP | |
| ICHi | Chicago Historical Society |
| JAH | |
| JNH | |
| JSH | |
| Lib. | |
| LNArc | Amistad Research Center |
| LNX | Xavier University of Louisiana |
| MVHR | |
| NASS | |
| NCAB | |
| NHB | |
| NS | |
| NSyU | Syracuse University |
| NYH | New York History |
| PaF | |
| PaH |
Partial Speaking Itinerary, 1847-54
| 1-2 January | Carlisle, Eng. |
| 4 January | Shields, Eng. |
| 11 January | Darlington, Eng. Assembly Room, Sun Inn. |
| 13 January | Kirkstall, Eng. |
| 14 January | Leeds, Eng. Music Hall. |
| 18-19 January | Manchester, Eng. |
| 21, 24 January | Coventry, Eng. |
| 2 February | Coventry, Eng. St. Mary's Hall. |
| 10 February | London, Eng. Hall of Commerce. |
| 12 February | Pentonville, Eng. British School Room. |
| 17 February | London, Eng. Hall of Commerce. |
| 23 February | Leamington, Eng. Music Hall and Spencer Street Chapel. With George Thompson. |
| 25 February | Winchester, Eng. Independent Chapel. With Robert Smith. |
| 26 February | Camberwell, Eng. Mansion House Chapel. With Smith. |
| 4 March | London, Eng. Finsbury Chapel. Anti-Slavery League, public meeting. |
| 5 March | Camberwell, Eng. Mansion House Chapel. Anti-Slavery League, public meeting. |
| c.6-10 March | Colchester, Eng. Nottingham, Eng. |
| 9 March | Warrington, Eng. Mechanics 1 Institution Lecture Hall. |
| 25 March | Sheffield, Eng. |
| 29 March | Northampton, Eng. New Hall. |
| 30 March | London, Eng. London Tavern. Farewell. With Thompson. |
| 31 March | Huddersfield, Eng. Philosophical Hall. |
| 1 April | Bristol, Eng. Broadmead Rooms. Bristol Auxiliary Anti-Slavery League meeting. Farewell. |
| 3 April | Arrives in Liverpool, Eng. |
THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS PAPERS
VOLUME 2: 1847-54