Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice, 1818-1845

367 Pages·1998·15.528 MB·English

by  Gregory P. Lampe

FREEDOM'S VOICE, 1818-1845
Gregory P. Lampe
Michigan State University Press
East Lansing
Copyright © Gregory P. Lampe
All Michigan State University Press books are produced on paper which meets the
requirements of American National Standard of Information Sciences-Permanence
of paper for printed materials ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Michigan State University Press
East Lansing, Michigan 48823
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lampe, Gregory P.
Frederick Douglass-freedom's voice, 1818-1845/ Gregory P. Lampe.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 087013485x Calk. paper)/cloth
ISBN 0870134809 Calk. paper)/paperback
1. Douglass, Frederick, 1817?-1895-0ratory.
E449.D75 L36 1998
98000601
04030201009998 1 234 5 678
Rhetoric and Public Mfair Series
Frederick Douglass photograph: Brown Brothers, Sterling, PA.
Senior Editor: Martin J. Medhurst
Editorial Board:
G. Thomas Goodnight
Richard B. Gregg
Robert Hariman
David Henry
Robert L. Ivie
Jay Mechling
Kathleen J. Turner
Preface • vii
Acknowledgments • xv
Chapter One • 1
Frederick Douglass' Maryland Plantation Education: His Discovery of Oratory
Chapter '!\vo • 33
Frederick Douglass' New Bedford Experience: Oratory, Preaching, and
Abolitionism, September 1838 -July 1841
Chapter Three • 57
The Emergence of an Orator from Slavery: Southern Slavery, Northern
Prejudice, and the Church, August -December 1841
Chapter Four • 97
Oratory of Power and Eloquence: From Local Notoriety to Regional
Prominence, January -August 1842
Chapter Five • 135
Tumultuous Times: Douglass as Abolitionist Orator, Agitator, Reformer, and
Optimist, August 1842 -June 1843
Chapter Six • 171
The Hundred Conventions Tour of the West: Independence and Restlessness,
June - December 1843
Chapter Seven • 207
The Hundred Conventions Tour of Massachusetts: Torrents of Eloquence,
January -May 1844
Chapter Eight • 227
No Union With Slaveholders: The Proslavery Character of the United States
Constitution, May -August 1844
v
Chapter Nine • 255
Douglass the Imposter: I Am a Slave, September 1844 -August 1845
Epilogue • 287
Appendix A • 293
Douglass' Speaking Itinerary: 1839-1845
Appendix B • 309
Frederick Douglass in Behalf of George Latimer. Lynn, Massachusetts, 8
November 1842
Appendix C • 315
No Union With Slaveholders: An Address Delivered in Boston, Massachusetts,
28 May 1844
Appendix D • 321
The Progress of the Cause: An Address Delivered in Norristown, Pennsylvania, 12
August 1844
Bibliography • 323
Index • 341
ON 3 SEPTEMBER 1838 an unknown slave, Frederick Augustus
Washington Bailey, escaped Maryland slavery. The twenty-year-old fugitive
fled first to New York City and then to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where
he changed his last name to Douglass. Three years later, he emerged on the
public platform as a Garrisonian abolitionist with an electrifying speech at
Nantucket, Massachusetts. For the next fifty-four years he devoted his life
to the cause of his people-agitating for an end to slavery before the Civil
War, working to define war aims and to enlist black soldiers during the con
flict, and continuing the struggle for equal rights after the war was over.
From 1841 until his death in 1895, this formerly unknown slave earned a
reputation as the most distinguished and celebrated Mrican American
leader and orator of the nineteenth century.l
From the beginning of his career as an abolitionist lecturer, Douglass
committed himself to using the power of oratory to destroy the institution
of slavery. From 1841 through 1845, he campaigned tirelessly through
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New
Hampshire, Maine, Vermont, Ohio, and Indiana. He spoke nearly every
day-often several times a day-to audiences large and small in public
parks, town squares, churches, schoolhouses, abandoned buildings, and
lecture halls. He endured all the day-to-day hardships, loneliness, and
physical demands faced by an itinerant abolitionist lecturer. He traveled
by foot, horseback, railroad, stagecoach, and steamboat in an effort to
vitalize local and county antislavery societies. Often braving bricks, rotten
eggs, verbal attacks, racist remarks, and threats of physical assault, he at
times risked his life speaking against the peculiar institution. Day and
night he told listeners about his slave experiences and addressed such
issues as the injustice of racial prejudice, the proslavery character of the
clergy, the superiority of moral suasion over political action, and the
proslavery nature of the U. S. Constitution. Undaunted by hostile and apa
thetic audiences, he ventured into hamlets where the rhetoric of aboli
tionism had never been preached.
vii
viii • Frederick Douglass
From the outset, Douglass overwhelmed white audiences with his ora
torical brilliance and his intellectual capacity. As he spoke at one antislav
ery meeting after another, his fame spread rapidly among abolitionists
throughout the North. His reputation rested chiefly upon the passionate
streams of rhetoric by which he gave vent to an unyielding hostility toward
slavery and racial prejudice. Accounts of his early speeches show that he
elicited powerful, positive reactions from almost all white abolitionist audi
ences. Tall and physically imposing, he presented himself with dignity and
self-assurance. Listeners conSistently commented on his powerful physical
presence, his captivating delivery, his rich and melodious voice, his clear
and precise diction. His impassioned bursts of wit, satire, sarcasm, humor,
invective, and anecdotes made powerful impressions upon his auditors. In
addition, he often used time-honored rhetorical devices such as anaphora,
metaphor, simile, allegory, alliteration, parallelism, mimicry, and antithe
sis. Those who heard him speak were astonished that such eloquence
could come from a fugitive slave. Typical is the comment of a correspon
dent for the Salem Register who heard Douglass speak in November 1842:
The most wonderful performance of the evening was the address
of Frederick Douglass, himself a slave only four years ago! His
remarks and his manner created the most indescribable sensa
tions in the minds of those unaccustomed to hear freemen of his
color speak in public, much more to regard a slave as capable of
such an effort. He was a liVing, speaking, startling proof of the
folly, absurdity and inconsistency ... of slavery. Fluent, graceful,
eloquent, shrewd, sarcastic, he was without making any
allowances, a fine specimen of an orator. He seemed to move the
audience at his will, and they at times would hang upon his lips
with staring eyes and open mouths, as eager to catch every word,
as any "sea of upturned faces" that ever rolled at the feet of Everett
or Webster to revel in their classic eloquence.2
As with the people of Salem, Douglass' contemporaries were often at a
loss to explain his rhetorical proficiency; they could not reconcile his
genius with the nineteenth-century stereotype that blacks were genetical
ly and culturally inferior. Indeed, African Americans were perceived as
being inherently irrational, unalterable beings who were morally and intel
lectually inferior to whites.3 As one auditor declared after hearing Douglass
speak at Nantucket in August 1841, "It seemed almost miraculous, how he
had been prepared to tell his story with so much power."4 In fact, Douglass
did nothing to discourage the view that his performance was miraculous.
He declared in his second autobiography that he "had had no preparation"
for his speech at Nantucket or for his succeeding work as a lecturer for the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.5 This view has become the standard
Preface • ix
lore of Douglass scholars, most of whom uncritically repeat what he said in
his autobiography. 6
When I began this study, I, too, was prepared to accept this view. As I
examined Douglass' early life, however, I discovered that as a slave in
Maryland he had gained valuable experiences that contributed powerfully
to his understanding of rhetoric and to his development as an orator. When
he addressed the meeting of abolitionists at Nantucket in August 1841, he
did not come to the platform ignorant of the art of oratory and without
knowledge of the antislavery movement. His interest in oratory and aboli
tionism began early in his life. As a slave, he experienced the power of the
spoken word in a variety of ways, including secular storytelling, religious
preaching, and slave songs and spirituals. At age twelve, he discovered
Caleb Bingham's Columbian Orator, which had a profound impact on his
life. This book formally introduced Douglass to the rules of oratory, sup
plied him with the words to meet proslavery arguments, and inspired him
to master the art of oratory as a way to further the cause of liberty.7 During
the same period, Douglass learned of the abolitionists and immediately
declared himself one. He also underwent a religious conversion to
Christianity, a conversion that inspired him with hope and allowed him to
pursue opportunities for oral expression such as conducting Sabbath
schools and preaching to his fellow slaves. In addition, his religious con
version set him on a path to become a preacher.
As I examined the years Douglass spent in New Bedford from 1838 to
1841, I discovered that they, too, were of immeasurable importance to his
growth as a speaker and to his development as an abolitionist. During this
three-year period, Douglass moved primarily within New Bedford's large
and thriving black community, where he found a wealth of opportunities
to cultivate his understanding of oratory and abolitionism. Within weeks
after his escape from slavery in 1838, he joined New Bedford's A. M. E. Zion
Church, in which he advanced his public speaking skills as an exhorter,
class leader, and licensed lay preacher. As a preacher, he received his first
formal training as an orator and preached to the New Bedford A.M.E. Zion
congregation on a regular basis. He also played a significant part in New
Bedford's black abolitionist community. He attended and partiCipated in
many of their meetings and rapidly distinguished himself as one of their
leaders. During this same period, Douglass was exposed to William Lloyd
Garrison and his brand of abolitionism. These activities combined to pre
pare Douglass for the work he began as a lecturer for the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society in 184l.
In short, before Douglass' emergence at Nantucket, he had been attract
ed Simultaneously to two platforms, one rooted in religion, the other in
abolitionism. Both offered him numerous opportunities to address audi
ences and to develop his skills as an orator. Consequently, when he