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The Self-Made Freeman Frederick Douglass’s American Rhetoric of “Liberty and Justice for All” Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) • Representative ______ man – Or, exception to the rule? • The “Newtonian problem” – best PR gets the credit – Is he really “black” in the same sense as Sojourner Truth et al? • Succeeds by modeling self on schoolbook for whites – Columbian Orator – “Dialogue Between a Master & a Slave” Remanufacturing the Representative Man • Named himself at age 20 • Orator in a new American tradition – Commanding presence – “It could speak.” – Willing to risk public fugitive status, & low birth • 1845 (age 27): 1st edition of Narrative – “Written by Himself”: self-mythologizer like Franklin – Unlike Franklin, not member of the “club” – Attacked, beaten, dragged from whites-only railcar • Fled to Europe after publication; almost tossed overboard – “Prejudice against color is stronger North than South” • Met little prejudice in Europe – almost color-blind The “Tool” of the White Abolitionists? • 1841: Garrison hears him speak on Nantucket • 1848: FD moves family to Rochester NY – Garrison viewed him as hired performer, not equal – not trusted with money, responsibility – Home becomes underground rail station, 1872 arson – Attends Seneca Falls convention, votes for suffrage • Founds newspaper, North Star – Business run by white Englishwoman – Refuses to denounce U.S. Constitution Lincoln’s gadfly • Stops short of advocating open rebellion – Invited to join John Brown’s 1859 raid, declines – I could live for slaves; John Brown could die for them” • Denounced Lincoln for putting Union over ending slavery – “moral blindness . . . Helpless imbecility” – Recruited 100 soldiers for 54th Mass regiment – Met w/Lincoln to complain about ½-pay & no black officers, risk of death and enslavement • Works for 15th Amendment against “murderous South” & “malignant North” Douglass Postbellum • 1872: Moves to Washington DC – – – – President of failed Freedman’s Bank City marshal, hires blacks Buys house formerly off limits to “blacks & Irishmen” Returns to Eastern Shore, reunites with Lloyds • Apologizes to Thomas Auld for story about grandmother – not an Auld slave. – 1882: Wife dies, marries Helen Pitts, white – 1889: ambassador to Haiti Precursor of Rosa Parks, MLK • With Ida B. Wells, speaking tour against lynching in South – 1890-92: 850 Southern blacks killed by mobs – Makes her his protégée – 1894: “Lessons of the Hour” speech at DC church • “when a black man commits a crime the whole race is made to suffer” • “the rights of the humblest citizen are as worthy of protection as are those of the highest . . . Put away your race prejudice, banish class prejudice . . . Your Republic will stand forever” • 1895: dies at home while telling wife of women’s rights rally he had just attended