The Bible Opposes Oppression, Fraud, and Wrong: A Speech Delivered in Belfast, Ireland, January 6, 1846
THE BIBLE OPPOSES OPPRESSION, FRAUD, AND WRONG: AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN BELFAST, IRELAND, ON 6 JANUARY 1846
Belfast News Letter, 9 January 1846. Other texts in Belfast Northern Whig, 8 January 1846; Glasgow Argus, 12 January 1846; London Enquirer, 17 January 1846; National Anti-Slavery Standard, 26 February 1846; Anti-Slavery Bugle, 13 March 1846; Speech File, reel 13, frames 530-34, FD Papers, DLC.
Douglass delivered the last major speech of his Irish tour on the morning of 6 January 1846, when the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society honored him with a public breakfast. William Sharman Crawford, a member of Parliament, presided over the unexpectedly large gathering assembled in the "large upper room of the Commercial Buildings." The Belfast News Letter reported that at least 250 people attended, "the greater portion of them ladies." Chairman Crawford opened the meeting with a lengthy antislavery speech, after which the Reverend Isaac Nelson, acting on behalf of the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society, presented Douglass with a small but "elegantly bound" and "beautifully gilt" Bible. A lengthy inscription on the first page assured Douglass of the Society's "respect and esteem" for his "personal character" and urged him to continue to expose "by the torch of Divine truth" all who attempted to "defend or palliate slavery." After Douglass's acceptance speech, only two substantive items remained on the agenda. The Reverend Nelson, after "some observations very complimentary to the ladies," obtained official approval for the newly constituted Belfast Auxiliary Female Anti-Slavery Society. The meeting also approved a motion by James Standfield denouncing "inconsistent professors" of Christianity who claimed biblical sanction for the "wild and guilty phantasy that man can hold property in man."
Mr. Douglass, in rising to return thanks, was greeted with enthusiastic applause. He said—Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, it would be useless for me to attempt to conceal my embarrassment in rising to respond to the eloquent and highly complimentary address, together with the golden gift with which I have just been presented, by the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society. (Cheers.) I am unequal to the work, my feelings are too deep, too strong, too big for easy utterance. I have often, in the course of my short though not uneventful life, been called upon to respond in accents of warm and heartfelt gratitude for noble deeds and generous favours conferred upon me by the magnanimous friends of my long-enslaved and deeply-outraged fellow-countrymen in chains, but
never have I been more at a loss for language to fulfil that duty than on the present thrilling and deeply interesting occasion. (Applause.)
The incidents of this morning will form a period in my humble history—a period to which, with all my hopes and aspirations, I never looked forward; but one to which, while memory holds its place, I shall ever look back with the most grateful emotion. I accept, thankfully, this Bible; and while it shall have the best place in my house, I trust, also, to give its precepts a place in my heart. (Great applause.) The happy incidents of this morning, have called into remembrance some of my early struggles after knowledge, and the difficulties that then lay in the way of its attainment. I remember the first time I ever heard the Bible read, and I tell you the truth when I tell you, that from that time I trace my first desire to learn to read. I was over seven years old; my master had gone out one Sunday night, the children had gone to bed, I had crawled under the centre table and had fallen asleep, when my mistress commenced to read the Bible aloud, so loud that she waked me—she waked me to sleep no more! I have found, since I learned to read, that the chapter which she then read was the 1st chapter of Job. I remember my sympathy for the good old man; and my great anxiety to know more about him led me to ask my mistress—who was at this time a kind lady—to teach me to read. She commenced, and would have, but for the opposition of her husband, taught me to read. She ceased to instruct me,1Sophia Auld (c. 1797-1880) was the wife of Hugh Auld, with whom Douglass lived in Baltimore. She was a weaver by trade and was unaccustomed to the etiquette of slavery, never having had charge of a slave before. Though Sophia Auld did gradually learn her new role of slave-owner, she remembered Douglass warmly long after he escaped to the North and made a name for himself. "Mother would always speak in the kindest terms of you, whenever your name was mentioned," Sophia Auld's son told Douglass many years after she died. Apparently Douglass's attitude toward her also softened with time. He seems to have tried to visit her in Baltimore during the Civil War. Douglass, Narrative, 48-49; idem, Bondage and Freedom, 142-46; Baltimore Sun, 5 July 1880; Benjamin F. Auld to Douglass, 11 September 1891, reel 6, frame 240, FD Papers, DLC. but my desire to read continued, and, instead of decreasing, increased; and, by the aid of little boys, obtained at different times, I finally succeeded in learning to read. (Applause.)
After learning to read, my desire for books was equal to my early desire to learn how to read. I have frequently with these fingers, from the mud and filth of the gutter, raked leaves of the sacred volume. These I have washed and dried, and read the words of heavenly wisdom which they contained with a glad heart, considering myself fortunate to enjoy such a privilege. (Cheers.)
I trust I shall not be deemed presumptuous or egotistical when I say, that, from my present position, I see points in my humble history which seem marked by the finger of God. (Applause.) Twenty years ago, while lying, not unlike a pet dog, at the feet of my mistress, in her house in Philpot-street, Fell's Point, Baltimore, I was roused from the sweet sleep of childhood, to hear the narrative of Job. A few years afterwards found m e searching for the Scriptures in the muddy street gutters, and rescuing its pages from the filth into which neglect and wastefulness had plunged them. A few years later, I escaped from my chains, gained partial freedom, and became an advocate for the emancipation of my race. During this advocacy, a suspicion obtains that I am not what I profess to be, to silence which it is necessary to write out my experience in slavery, and give the names of my enslavers. This endangers my liberty. Persecuted, hunted, and outraged in America, I have come to England, and behold the change! The chattel becomes a man. (Applause.) I breathe, and I am free. (Applause.) Instead of culling the Scriptures from the mud , they come to me dressed in polished gold, as the free and unsolicited gift of devoted friends. (Applause.) I will take it, and while I live preserve it, and long after I have gone hence to my reward, if my will is carried out, it will be preserved by my children, and remain a memento in the house of Douglass till time shall melt it into dust. (Applause.)
I assure you, gentlemen of the committee, you have selected a proper mode of expressing your regard for me. What could be better than the Bible to me, contending against oppression, fraud, and wrong? (Applause.) It is full of wisdom and goodness—faith, hope , and charity sparkle on every page, all of which deal death to slavery. I was happy to hear, Mr. Chairman, your allusions to the words of inspired wisdom being in opposition to the system of slavery.2In his opening remarks William S. Crawford alluded several times to the blasphemy of slaveholding. He could not comprehend "how any minister could go into the pulpit and read the Word of eternal truth, and not denounce slavery as opposed to the Word." Belfast News Letter, 9 January 1846.
An attempt has been made by wresting the words of God from their original meaning and intent to uphold that system in America. We have, probably, met with no greater opposition to our enterprize from any quarter than from the professed expounders of this Word. An attempt, gross and infernal, has been made by Doctors of Divinity in the United States, so to expound this Word as to shelter the dark and daring system
of slavery under its hallowed pages. (Cheers.) But, thank God! the light is breaking, and the Bible is being wrested from the hands of its perverters. (Cheers.) Slavery is at length being denounced. A truer—a purer—a higher grade of ministers is taking the place of the former, and the denunciations of the Gospel are being dealt on the heads of this monster of iniquity. (Hear, and cheers.) This (holding the presentation Bible in his hands)—this is an excellent token of your regard. It is just what I want from you. It contains all the Words of Heavenly Wisdom—it is opposed to every thing that is wrong , and is in favor of all that is right. It is filled with that Wisdom from above, which is pure, and peaceable, and full of mercies and good fruits, without prolixity, and without hyprocisy. It knows no one by the color of his skin. It confers no privilege upon one class, which it does not confer upon another. The fundamental principle running through and underlying the whole, is this— "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do you even so unto them."3Matt. 7 : 12. (Cheers.) If you claim liberty for yourself, grant it to your neighbour. If you, yourself, were a slave, and would desire the aid of your fellow-man to rescue you from the clutch of the enslaver, you surely are bound by that very desire to labor for the freedom of those whom you know to be in bonds. But I will not enlarge on this.
You have placed m e in a singular position this morning. Indeed, I feel quite unprepared for the occasion. But a few months ago, I stood in a land, where I was hated and abhorred—a mere fugitive slave, liable to be hunted down. No part of the country would secure m e in my right of freedom, and the bloodhounds of the white man might be set upon my track. (Hear.) A voyage of eleven days and a-half—over three thousand miles of the billowy deep—and I land on the soil of Britain,—(cheers)—but, instead of being hated, maligned, scorned, abused, and trampled upon with impunity, I find myself surrounded by the kindly expression of countenances which I see before me this morning. (Loud
cheering.) It quite overcomes me. I can say as my friend Mr. Buffum says—I can encounter the mob—I can encounter the fierce conflicts which the advocate of the abolition of slavery has to endure on the other side of the Atlantic, and grow warm in the struggle;4In his speeches in Ireland, James N. Buffum frequently described the abuse abolitionists encountered in America. See, for example, Cork Southern Reporter, 16 October 1845 (Supplement). but I am not equal, I am not equal, I am not equal to the work of addressing those
who are already by their sympathies, their expressions, their convictions, on the side of the oppressed. (Cheers.)
I shall remember this morning wherever I go — I shall remember the kind treatment and reception you have given m e; and, wherever else I may be a stranger and sojourner, I shall ever feel that here I have a home—(cheers)—that here I shall find protection—that here I shall find sympathy. (Cheers.) The allusion of the committee to my return, is grateful to my feelings. I shall look forward with pleasure to the day that shall see me among you again. (Cheers.) But, meanwhile, you shall hear of me; I shall try by some means, at least, to communicate with the Committee of the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society. I shall feel myself partly delegated by them in this land to go forth and plead the cause of my brethren; and, relying on them for their counsel, their aid, and their cooperation, I shall feel a degree of strength I could not otherwise have felt. (Cheers.)
Let me thank you, Sir (addressing M r . Standfield),5Although James Standfield, secretary of the Belfast Anti-Slavery Society, was one of the city's most active abolitionists during the 1840s, little is known about him. A member of the Established Church of Ireland, Standfield as early as 1843 urged Irish Presbyterians to exclude proslavery foreign churchmen from their pulpits, but well into 1844 he refrained from attacking the Free Church of Scotland for accepting donations from the U.S. South. In 1845, however, he helped bring Douglass into the thick of the Free Church controversy. Early in 1846 Standfield publicly rebuked a Belfast Presbyterian minister for criticizing Douglass and defending the Free Church. Later that same year he engaged legal counsel for Douglass's threatened libel suit against visiting American clergyman Thomas Smyth. As late as June 1860, Standfield criticized Belfast Presbyterians for collecting money in the American slave states. Riach, "Campaign Against American Slavery," 130-31, 276-7 8, 297-303, 332-33, 531; James Standfield to Editor of Belfast Commercial Chronicle, 6 June 1845, in Lib., 1 August 1845. for the manner with which you have discharged the duties of the committee and the society, whose feelings and sympathies you represent. On my arrival here, I was met at the depot (railway station) by the Committee; I was taken by the hand, and I will say that they have not ceased to hold my hand since I entered the town. (Hear, hear, and applause.) In season and out of season you have labored night after night—day after day—to give to my efforts that power and energy which is necessary to the effect which has been produced. I do not take all this to myself. I have not the arrogance and egotism to take to myself the result or the praise that has followed my labors. Without you they would have had little or no effect. Receive my thanks once more for this bright and brilliant testimonial, and for the eloquent and complimentary address you have been pleased to present me with. I shall add no more, but bid my anti-Slavery friends in Belfast farewell until we meet again in July. (Applause.)