The eight selections in part 3 follow Douglass from his first known remarks on the Creole rebellion in 1845 to his last, in an 1861 essay applauding the resourceful militancy of William Stillman. Though his famous 1852 speech, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” does not refer to the Creole rebellion, it is included here for its evocation of the American Revolutionary violence that gave birth to a country that was founded on the egalitarian ideals of Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and yet had become a nation of slavery. Douglass drew on these ironies for his novella, published just six months later, about a black man with the American Revolutionary name of Madison Washington.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
from “American Prejudice against Color”
Douglass’s first extant remarks on Madison Washington came at the end of a lecture delivered in Cork, Ireland, on 23 October 1845. Still legally a slave, Douglass had fled the United States out of concern that his new celebrity status as the author of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (May 1845) would leave him vulnerable to capture by fugitive slave hunters. Embraced as an antislavery speaker in Great Britain, he identified with Washington as a fugitive who had wide support in antislavery circles in Great Britain, along with the tacit support of the British government. Douglass used the occasion of the speech to challenge U.S. whites’ antiblack racism and to support slaves’ right to resist all forms of tyranny. The speech was reported in the 27 October 1845 issue of the Cork Examiner; the excerpt below is taken from The Frederick Douglass Papers: Series One: Speeches, Debates, and Interviews: Volume 1: 1841–46, edited by John W. Blassingame et al. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979), which draws on the Cork Examiner printing.
My friends, there are charges brought against coloured men not alone of intellectual inferiority, but of want of affection for each other. I do know that their affections are exceedingly strong. Why, but a short time ago we had a glorious illustration of affection in the heart of a black man—Maddison1 Washington, he has made some noise in the world by that act of his, it has been made the ground of some diplomacy:—he fled from Virginia for his freedom—he ran from American republican slavery, to monarchical liberty, and preferred the one decidedly to the other—he left his wife and little ones in slavery—he made up his mind to leave them, for he felt that in Virginia he was always subject to be removed from them; he ran off to Canada, he was there for two years, but there in misery; for his wife was perpetually before him, he said within himself—I can’t be free while my wife’s a slave. He left Canada to make an effort to save his wife and children, he arrived at Troy where he met with Mr. Garrett;2 a highly intellectual black man, who admonished [him] not to go, it would be perfectly fruitless. He went on however to Virginia where he was immediately taken, put with a gang of slaves on board the brig Creole, destined for Southern America. After being out nine days, he could sometimes see the iron-hearted owners contemplating joyfully the amount of money they should gain by reaching the market before it was glutted.
On the 9th day Maddison Washington succeeded in getting off his irons, and reaching his head above the hatchway he seemed inspired with the love of freedom, with the determination to get it or die in the attempt. As he came to the resolution he darted out of the hatchway, seized a handspike, felled the Captain—and found himself with his companions masters of the ship. He saved a sufficient number of the lives of those who governed the ship to reach the British Islands; there they were emancipated. This soon was found out at the other side of the Atlantic and our Congress was thrown into an uproar that Maddison Washington had in imitation of George Washington gained liberty. They branded him as being a thief, robber and murderer; they insisted on the British Government giving him back. The British Lion refused to send the bondsmen back. They did send Lord Ashburton3 as politely as possible to tell them that they were not to be the mere watchdogs of American slaveowners; and Washington with his 130 brethren are free. We are branded as not loving our brother and race. Why did Maddison Washington leave Canada where he might be free, and run the risk of going to Virginia? It has been said that it is none but those persons who have a mixture of European blood who distinguish themselves. This is not true. I know that the most intellectual and moral colored man that is now in our country is a man in whose veins no European blood courses—’tis the Rev. Mr. Garrett; and there is the Rev. Theodore Wright4—people who have no taint of European blood, yet they are as respectable and intelligent, they possess as elegant manners as I see among almost any class of people. Indeed my friends those very Americans are indebted to us for their own liberty at the present time, the first blood that gushed at Lexington, at the battle field of Worcester, and Bunker Hill (applause).5 General Jackson has to own that he owes his farm on the banks of the Mobile to the strong hand of the Negro. I could read you General Jackson’s own account of the services of the blacks to him,6 and after having done this, the base ingrates enslave us. Mr. Douglas[s] here sat down amidst the warmest applause of the meeting.
1. This is the spelling adopted by the reporter for the Cork Examiner, the source of this text.
2. Douglass refers to the Reverend Henry Highland Garnet (1815–1882). Born a slave in Maryland, Garnet escaped slavery with his parents in 1824 and was educated at the African Free School in New York City. One of the founders of the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, he remains best known for his militant speech of 1843, “An Address to the Slaves of the United States of America,” which concludes with a peroration to the slaves: “Let your motto be RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE! RESISTANCE!” (See the excerpt from Garnet’s “Address” in part 2.)
3. The British diplomat and financier Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton (1774–1848).
4. Theodore Sedgwick Wright (1797–1847), who worked with Garnet to help found the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in 1840. Wright and Garnet both served as pastors at Shiloh Presbyterian Church in New York City.
5. Famous battles in Massachusetts during the Revolutionary War. Approximately 5,000 blacks fought on the side of the patriots, most famously Crispus Attucks, who died during the Boston Massacre on 5 August 1770.
6. During the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson (1767–1845), the seventh president of the United States (1829–37), issued a proclamation that was widely hailed by African Americans: praise for the African Americans who helped defend New Orleans in 1814. For many African American leaders, the proclamation legitimated blacks’ claims to U.S. citizenship. See William C. Nell’s influential Services of Colored Americans in the Wars of 1776 and 1812 (1851) and The Colored Patriots of the American Revolution (1855). (An excerpt from Colored Patriots can be found in part 4 below.)
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
from “America’s Compromise with Slavery and the Abolitionists’ Work”
On 6 April 1846, Douglass lectured at an antislavery meeting at the Secession Church, Abbey Close, in Paisley, Scotland. Among the topics he addressed was the diplomatic controversy between Great Britain and the United States over the Creole case. Like Joshua Giddings, William Ellery Channing, and William Jay, he feared that slave interests were driving U.S. politics. The speech was reported in the 11 April 1846 issue of the Renfrewshire Advertiser; the selection below, like the previous one, is taken from volume 1 of The Frederick Douglass Papers, which draws on the printing in the Advertiser.
The Northern States are but the tools of slaveholders; a man belonging to the Free States cannot go into the Southern or Slaveholding States, although the law says he shall enjoy equal rights in all states, he cannot go into these states with the Declaration in one hand and the word of God in the other to declare the rights of all men, but he makes himself liable to be hung at the first lamp post. People talk here of the political rights enjoyed by the Americans, suffrage, &c. I admit that they enjoy the suffrage to a considerable extent. Who are the voters of America? The slaves of slaves. Our history shows the entire power of government to have been under the domination of
slavery. It has elected our President, our senators, &c., and one of the first duties of our minister was to negotiate with Britain for the return to bondage of Maddison Washington,1 who braved the dangers of the deep; who, with one mighty effort, burst asunder the chains of one hundred and thirty-five fellow men, and after much fatigue and many severe struggles, steered them into a British port, and there found shelter under the British lion. Our whole country was thrown into confusion by the fact of him liberating himself and so many of his brethren, and Britain thus aiding them in their emancipation. I can well remember the speeches of Messrs. Clay, Calhoun,2 Webster, and others, on that occasion. Mr. Clay called attention to a most appalling occurrence on the high seas, and a breach of that law between nation and nation, &c.; but now Maddison Washington and his compeers are treading upon British soil, they have fled from a republican government and have chosen a monarchical, and are basking under the free sun amid the free hills and valleys of a free monarchical country.
1. Daniel Webster’s letter to Edward Everett, in part 2 of this volume, charged the U.S. minister to the United Kingdom to negotiate for the return of the Creole’s slaves.
2. The Kentucky politician Henry Clay (1777–1852) and the South Carolina politician John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) supported the rights of slave owners and took the side of the Creole’s owners; see Senate Documents, 27th Congress, 2nd session (1842), 46–47, 115–16, 203–4.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
from “American and Scottish Prejudice against the Slave”
During his antislavery travels in Great Britain, Douglass regularly conveyed his admiration for the British for supporting the right of Madison Washington and his fellow slaves to rise up against their oppressors. On 1 May 1846, Douglass took up this theme in a lecture at the Music Hall in Edinburgh before approximately 2,000 people. The speech was reported in the 7 May 1846 issue of the Edinburgh Caledonian Mercury and other newspapers in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The excerpt below is taken from volume 1 of The Frederick Douglass Papers, which draws on the printing in the Caledonian Mercury.
Mr. Douglas[s] was received with much applause. He said, that one of the greatest drawbacks to the progress of the Anti-Slavery cause in the United States was the inveterate prejudices which existed against the coloured population. They were looked on in every place as beasts rather than men; and to be connected in any manner with a slave—or even with a coloured freeman—was considered as humbling and degrading.
Amongst all ranks of society in that country, the poor outcast coloured man was not regarded as possessing a moral or intellectual sensibility, and all considered themselves entitled to insult and outrage his feelings with impunity. Thanks to the labours of the abolitionists, however, that feeling was now broken in upon, and was, to a certain extent, giving way; but the distinction was still so broad as to draw a visible line of demarcation between the two classes. If the coloured man went to the church to worship God, he must occupy a certain place assigned for him; as if the coloured skin was designed to be the mark of an inferior mind, and subject its possessor to the contumely, insult, and disdain of many a white man, with a heart as black as the exterior of the despised negro—(cheers).
Mr. Douglas[s] then alluded to the case of Maddison1 Washington, an American slave, who with some others escaped from bondage, but was retaken, and put on board the brig Creole. They had not been more than seven or eight days at sea when Maddison resolved to make another effort to regain his lost freedom. He communicated to some of his fellow-captives his plan of operations; and in the night following carried them into effect. He got on deck, and seizing a handspike, struck down the captain and mate, secured the crew, and cheered on his associates in the cause of liberty; and in ten minutes was master of the ship—(cheers). The vessel was then taken to a British port (New Providence), and when there the crew applied to the British resident for aid against the mutineers. The Government refused—(cheers)—they refused to take all the men as prisoners; but they gave them this aid—they kept 19 as prisoners, on the ground of mutiny, and gave the remaining 130 their liberty—(loud cheers). They were free men the moment they put their foot on British soil, and their freedom was acknowledged by the judicature of the land—(cheers).
But this was not relished by brother Jonathan2—he considered it as a grievous outrage—a national insult; and instructed Mr. Webster, who was then Secretary of State, to demand compensation from the British Government for the injury done; and characterised the noble Maddison Washington as being a murderer, a tyrant, and a mutineer. And all this for the punishment of an act, which, according to all the doctrines “professed” by Americans, ought to have been honoured and rewarded—(cheers). It was considered no crime for America, as a nation, to rise up and assert her freedom in the fields of fight; but when the poor African made a stroke for his liberty it was declared to be a crime, and he [was] punished as a villain—what was an outrage on the part of the black man was an honour and a glory to the white; and in the Senate of that country—”the home of the brave and the land of the free”—there were not wanting the Clays, the Prestons,3 and the Calhouns, to stand up and declare that it was a national insult to set the slaves at liberty, and demand reparation—these men who were at all times ready to weep tears of red hot iron—(cheers and laughter)—for the oppressed. Monarchical nations of Europe—now talked about being ready to go to all lengths in defence of the national honour and present an unbroken front to England’s might—(loud cheers). But the British Government, undismayed by the vapouring of the slaveholders, sent Lord Ashburton to tell them—just in a civil way—(laughter)—that they should have no compensation, and that the slaves should not be returned to them—(loud cheers)—thus giving practical effect to the great command—”Break the bonds, and let the oppressed go free”4—(great cheering).
1. This is the spelling adopted by the reporter for the Edinburgh Caledonian Mercury, the source of this text.
2. Fictional, folkloric character who personified the U.S. nation.
3. Like John C. Calhoun, William Campbell Preston (1794–1860), also a senator from South Carolina, was proslavery and angry about the British response to the Creole rebellion. At the urging of Calhoun, he demanded more information about what President Tyler was doing to compel the British to return the slaves (Senate Documents 27th Cong., 2nd session [1842], 47, 115–16, 204).
4. Isaiah 58:6.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS
from “Meeting in Faneuil Hall”
On the evening of 30 May 1848, Douglass addressed a meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall. His comments were reported in the 9 June 1848 issue of the Liberator, the source of the selection below. In his remarks, Douglass spoke about his continued belief, shared by William Lloyd Garrison and other abolitionists associated with the society, that the Constitution was a proslavery document (he would change his mind on that in 1851 when he publicly broke with Garrison). But in the company of a number of white abolitionists who championed moral suasion, Douglass celebrated black revolutionary violence, linking Madison Washington to Nat Turner (1800–1831), whose slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831 resulted in the deaths of approximately sixty whites and (in reprisal) over one hundred blacks.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS was warmly cheered on taking the platform. I am glad, said Mr. Douglass, to be once more in Faneuil Hall, and to address those whom I regard as among the enslavers of myself and my brethren. What I have to say may not be very pleasant to those who venerate the Constitution, but, nevertheless, I must say to you that, by the support you give to that instrument, you are the enslavers of my southern brethren and sisters. Now you say, through the Constitution,—’if you, slaves, dare to rise and assert your freedom, we of the North will come down upon you like an avalanche, and crush you to pieces.’ We are frequently taunted with cowardice for being slaves, and for enduring such indignities and sufferings. The taunt comes with an ill grace from you. You stand eighteen millions
strong, united, educated, armed, ready to put us down; we are weak, ignorant, degraded, unarmed, and three millions! Under these circumstances, what can we hope to effect? We call upon you to get out of this relation,—to stand away from the slaveholders’ side, and give us fair play. Say to the slaveholders—’If you will imbrue your hands in the blood of your brethren, if you will crush and chain your fellow-men, do it at your own risk and peril!’ Would you but do this, oh, men of the North, I know there is a spirit among the slaves which would not much longer brook their degradation and their bondage. There are many Madison Washingtons and Nathaniel Turners in the South, who would assert their right to liberty, if you would take your feet from their necks, and your sympathy and aid from their oppressors.