Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

In the spring of 1861, Douglass plans a trip to Haiti with his daughter Rosetta and close friend, Ottilie. He seriously considers relocating his family to the island nation until the attack on Fort Sumter changes his plans. During the first year of the American Civil War, Douglass stirs up as much anti-Southern sentiment as he can in his newspaper. He believes that only through war can the nation be cleansed of the taint of slavery and find its salvation. Blight writes, “And he thus unveiled his apocalyptic sense of history—a belief in the occasional cosmic collision of forces, necessary rendings and bloodlettings when God chose to enter history and overturn it for the creation of a new age” (341).

Douglass soon grows impatient with the slowness of Northern military progress. Moreover, the federal government doesn’t know what to do with escaped enslaved people. It wrestles with whether to treat fugitives as property or allow them to enlist in the Union Army. These two issues consume Douglass, as shown by his journalism during this period.

Douglass is especially critical of Lincoln’s cautious behavior. According to Blight, Douglass fails to appreciate that the president needs to tread a fine line politically to effect change. Even though Lincoln secretly shares Douglass’s desire to free the slaves, he realizes that such a goal can only be accomplished through careful planning. While Lincoln works unobtrusively behind the scenes, Douglass fumes and frets in print.

A change gradually takes place in Douglass’s identification with America during the second year of the war, as he begins to find a glimmer of hope in the government’s actions. Lincoln proposes compensated emancipation for slaveholders in Washington D.C. who will surrender their slaves. Douglass views this as a hopeful indication of changes to come. The Confiscation Act, which allows the Union Army to seize all enslaved people of disloyal Southern owners, is another sign of the erosion of Slave Power.

Douglass previously defined himself as a man without a country. However, the Civil War leads him to identify as a participant in a war that may result in the freedom of his people. Douglass believes “a second American revolution was under way—more bloody, but perhaps more enduring and important than the first. He claimed his place among the founders of the second republic” (368).

In addition to compensated emancipation and confiscation, Lincoln is also a proponent of Black re-colonization. In August, he calls a meeting with Black leaders to suggest moving their people to Central America. The president asserts that the two races can never live in harmony together and must consequently separate. Douglass is outraged by this proposal and articulates his displeasure in print.

Despite the political and military uncertainties of 1862, the fall brings rumors that Lincoln has drafted a document to free the slaves. This rumor becomes a reality on January 1, 1863, when Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation. Douglass and a large group of abolitionists celebrate in Boston when the news first reaches them late that night via telegraph wire. Frederick Douglass has just realized the dream of a lifetime.