"FRED DOUGLASS."

Western Star, Issue 1339, 23 March 1889, Page 4

"FRED DOUGLASS."

The Rev. F. W. Isitt's lecture on Frod. Douglass, delivered in the Oddfellows' llajl on Tuesday last, was so instructive that we are sure the following particulars of tho noblje career of tho emancipated slave, as recorded by tho lecturer, will be read with interest: —

A paragraph recently had currency through the English-speaking world, says our lecturer, which stated that President Cleveland had rofused to occupy a olmrch pow adjoining one tenanted by Ft od. Douglass. This paragraph would not bo worth quoting oxcept to show how well and favourably known must that Frod. Douglass bo against wiiom an insult was invented in order to damage the reputation of the President of tho United States. Sixty years ago no greater improbability could have been imagined than that those names should over bo bracketed togethor; Fred.. Douglass wits then a naked slave boy too degradod to know himself a sb.ve ; of so little worth to others that "old master thought no more of his coming than of the arrival of an additional pig." Konnolled in a cupboard, through the chinks of which he could watch old master lash a fair-skinned slave girl as wo lash only tho worst of criminals; counting it a luxury when ho could creep into a oornsack before making his bed on the earthen door, and glad often to disputo with the house dog fo T r tho scraps from tho "great house" (able. Such, said the lecturer, were our earlier experiences of slavery. As it flourished in a congenial seclusion, be found it to be cruel without shuddering, indecent without shame, and murderous without f'ar of expnsuro or punishment. Gazing upon a splendour and opulence that intensified their misery, ovor 1000 of his fellows, withered beneath an oppression that reduced them below tho level of the brute. The happy, loving memories which are associated with childhood were wholly wanting. Fred's mother was only '" known to him through tho rare and brief visit.-* Bho could pay her boy at the cost of walking 24 miles between tho close of a hard day's toil in tho held and tho crack of the owner's whip at dawn. Douglass speaks proudly of the glcssy-complexioncd hand.-:omo woman who was unusually sodate and dignified for a slave, and tho only colored person in tho district able to read.' Of his father he nowhere speaks. Slave l-.w and practice recoguised no such relationship. Yet probably he knew bitterly whereof ho uroto when saying: " Under this deadly system tho father might bo a freeman, tho child a slave. Father he might be, yet not husband ; proud of the purity of his Anglo-Saxon blood, yet selling his own child without incurring ono tinge of reproach if in its veins there coursed one drop of despised African blood." Well might Whittier sing:

Is this the land our fathers loved? The freedom which they toiled to win 1 Is this the soil whereon they moved ? Are these the graves they slumber in! Shall tongues be mute when deeds are wrought, Which well might shame exfcemest hell': Shall free in en lack the iudignanfc thought! Shall Pily's bosom cease to swell I No! by each spot of sacred ground, Where Freedom weeps her children's woe, By all the memories of the past Be ours, the indignant answer, No! No ! guided by Divine laws, For Truth and Right and suffering man; Bo ours to strike in Freedom's cause As only Christ's own Freeman can. When still a mere child Fred was given to a nephew of bis master's, given as you would give a little boy a (leg. Degrading as such a transfer wa*,"it was a happy change for Fred, bringing him into contact with a new mistress, whose loving nature had never yet known tho hardening experience of a slave owner. Ignorant of the slaveowner's cruel code she tnughc him to read, and in proud report of her pupil's aptness informed her husband of this fact. Prompt enlightenment followed to teacher and to taught. •'' Learning will spoil tho best nigger in tho world. Teach him to read his Bibloandyou unfit him to be a slave. All he wants to know is how to obey." Such was her husband's cold and harsh verdict. She from that day gradually fell under the fatal spell of tho cursed systom Irresponsible power hardened her little by little into a harsh and suspicious despot, angered to tho point of fury at any fresh effort on Fred's part to acquire knowledge He, young as ho was, learned from tho iron sentences that tho path to freedom lay through knowledge. By asking the meaning of shop signs, by copying whatever little bo saw in clialk, and by hours of patient effort over his young master's discarded copy book, risking punishment at every step, he gained the knowledge that for ever unfitted him to beasiavo. Changes in his master's family caused Fred, to be subjected to valuation with the rest of the stock—men and horse?, cattle and children, pigs aud women, —and he became the property of a man who was cowardly, meaa and cruel. At a Methodist camp, however, the master was converted and became an ardent Methodist, and his house soon became the centre of zealous effort. Nay, when Fred himself emulated his mastor's pious zeal and joined with a young

white man iu conducting a Sunday school, but ono Sabbath of sacred enjoyment was permitted then. His muster (Captain Auld), the Methodist local preacher with two Methodist class leaders, armed with sticks and followed by a mob, broke in the door ami scattered the class with blows, wh.la fierce threats were made that if Fred persisted iu such work ho would he shot. No wonder that Fred ceased to meet in tho class of one of tho leaders in this riot. Tho wonder is that ha ehi-rishod any faith in a religion professed by a man who -tied up a poor lone woman and lashed her till the blood streamed, bliispue'iniouslv quoting scripture in support o f his brutal action. Fred's next experience o! spurious piety was even yet more bitter. S > ill did lu brook tho yoke of slavery that h'S.master determined to havo him "broken in," and chose for his purpose a celebrated beaker in of young negroes named Edward Covcv. Incredible as it may appear, this man wis also a prominent Methodist, with au ejual reputation for fervent piety and for S :ill as a " nigger breaker." ilo never Siourged or builied a slave on the Sabbath —'ong prayers, bland smiles and pious precepts were the order (,f the day. Bat from Mondays dawn 10 Saturday's disk ho played the fiend. In sis mjnths he had almost crushed and paralyser! poor Fred. But a climax was at hand. Exhausted by heat and toil Fred sank to the ground in the midst of his work an 1 received aj restoratives kicks from Covey's boot and a b'ow on the head wiih a hickory stick. Bleeding and bruised, he appealed to his master for protection, but while Fred, fiought ho aroused his owner's c-jmpassion, tiat"gnod" man walked tho door for some time in agitated indecision, and wound up by t ireato of lashing Fred, himself if ho did not return to work. Ho presented himself on Sunday morning to Covey. Ilia greeting was Sabbatic ; but long before Monday's daylight Fred was called and an attempt male to smuggle a ropo round his legs, lie was v obntly thrown, but the nest moment he had Covey by the throat, sque zin« till the blood spurted. A white assistant received a kick that doubled him up, but not a skive would r.:.=pond to the cries for assistance of the cowardly Covey. For two hours the struggle la-led until filing into tho sofi soil of the e..w-)ard. Covey prtserved his

dignity by iisiv.ii; a saying, " There, von rasoJ; go to your work. You wouldn't have caught it half ro hard if you hadn't resisted." From that day Fie I was novo thrashed by Uoviy or any other innstci. Fred was next hired out to :-. kind muster, but kind threa ir.cn t was not freodom, and in attempting to make Irs escape along with five others, he was betrayed and dragged oti' to prison and only escaped banishment to 11nfar South because Methodism was a little tender about it.? mcmlH-13 soiling their negroes to Geo'gi-:n traders. His master had, however, to !■:•;. rid i f him, and Fred was scut to Hali-imorc to work in the ship yards amongst whiti nn n. Jiere he was very roughly hnudled '•■■•, hit now companions who deemed it a degradation to have a nigger •working amongst them, on one ocrrsion being knocked down, sluuncd and terribly mangled by four of his fellow workmen. His master withdrew him from tbe yards, and alio-.rod him

to hire his time. As I his meant only bringing a certain fixed sum to bis mastor on Saturday, it became possible for him, by great industry, to save a small sum and thus bring liberty measurably «6ir. At leuyth one morning, when supposed to have gone t.> his wo r k, Fred, lonned seaman's ch'thc.-', and armed with the paper* of a five who nobly risked his own liberty to win anofcher'j, he Hepped at the moment of its starting on lie Northern tram, and bit shivery adieu for ever. Aft i r experi -iicing an agony of suspeoso and a number of narrow escapes of being discovered, in 24 hours he stood in the streets of Now York a slave no longer. Fred, was now free, but with what a freedom —free from bonds, hut free, ala v , from foot! and shelter. At first a very tumult of jojp possessed him, but a terrible sense of loneliness and danger soon followed. The city

was full of paid agents ever on the look out for fugitives. At this juncture a friendly seaman took him to the home of one of the members of Vigilance Committee which secretly aided escaping negroes. There ho was for the time being safo. Three choices had now to be made. Ist of a name, for slaves had no title to tho names that were flung at them. He took the name of Douglass, after Sir Walter Scott's hero, 2nd ho chose, or confirmed his choice of, a wife, by sending to Baltimore for a free wuman of his own race who came bravelv to share his poverty and his perils. 3rd ho made his home in New Bedford, Mass., being assured by his now friends that hundreds of negroes and some few whito men in that city would be ready to defend his liberty with their Uvea. For three y°ars Douglass earned a scanty pittanco by tho hardest of labor, yet deemed himself wealthy in that he could keep for his own spending what he then earned. Double wages would have been earned by him as a caulker, but the whito men employed threatened to leave off work if Fred, was engaged. It was as a Methodist preacher to his own people that Douglass made his first essays at public speaking. As a careful reader of an anti-slavery paper he was meanwhile fitting himself for his great life work. At a great anti-slavery convention he was introduced as one who carried his ' diploma on his back and asked to tell his scory. Hesitating, trembling, and stammering, yet cheered by the sympathy of his audience he managed to do so, and was • straightway offered a post as lecturer for the society. It was a perilous undertaking, as publicity increased the risk of capture; yet he ventured to accept it. Gathering confidence , to tread beyond mere narrative he let his ■ indignation swell out in denunciation of the cursed system under which he had suffered. • In strange places he wa3 denounced as an impostor, and pronounced too educated ever to have been a slave. Iu self-defence he published a narrative giving names, dates,

and places, aud now was his peril great. Avarice and vongeanco both prompted a desire for his capturo—not only had he dared to itecd himself from his lawful owner, but had proclaimed the secrots and crimes of tho prison house; other dangers threatened. Rabid Abortionists wero almost us unpopular in tho freo States as in the midst of slavery. Insults and violent usage wore daily offered them by all classes. Churchos and halls wero denied thorn for choir meetings, and on one occasion as Douglass fought his way through a ruffianly crowd ho was knocked down and had his fcr.ind so badly broken that it was almost useless ever after. Negroes wero treated like cattle when travelling by rail or steamboat, and many a tussle Douglass had to protest against this injustice. Even at revival service in a Baptist Church he was met in tho aisle with a polite but forcible "We don't allow niggers in here." From the scorn and the peril that pursuod him upon American soil. Douglass determined to seek refuge in Britain, Even undor the British flag as it floated upon a Cunard linor, ho was met at the saloon door with tho ever recurring " No Nigger admitted here." On landing iu England, Douglass atrendod a world convention on Temperance in Convent Garden Theatre, London, whero he offence to some American divines who had preceded him as speakers The lecturer then referred briefly to Douglass' other British experiences—his welcome by John Bright, Cobden and Dan O'Connell. An important outcome of Douglass' visit) to Britain was that ho again changed hands, two English ladies' raised and forwarded tho £l5O which his old master Capt. Auld demanded for his ransom, and ho was thus enabled to return without the dread of a second captivity. He also received £6OO to enable him to start a paper advocating the cause of tho oppressod people, lloturning to America he now spont 12 years as an editor and lecturer, subjected mtanwhile to daily insults from white faced expononts of man's equal rights. Sending his little girl to a ladies' school he found that tho child was placed in a room entirely by herself, that

her dusky color might nob contaminate ihe othor scholars, Douglass' house .was the constant refuge of runaway slaves passed from one post to another as they made their secret way to Canada. Aided with funds provided by English ladies, he helped many a score of these poor creatures to gain their liberty. Douglas'meeting with John Brown was then graphically describod by the lecturer, and how the latter unfolded Iris plan for the complete emancipation of the Slave States to his future comrade. The ilar/per's FeiTy engagement in which Brown suffered martyrdom in Freedom's cause was ilso faithfully depicted by Mr Isitt. The John Brown episode was, ne said, tho beginning of the end—tho seeming defeat was the presage of lasting victory. The eager hunt r'or Brown's accomplices drove Douglas to England for refuge, but six months later he returned when preparations were being made iior the tremendous conflict in which all lesser questions wore forgotten. Far-seeing nen heard in the outbreak of the war the ioioU of slavery, but it was by slow step that bs true mission was realised. Slaves vore warned by Federal generals that any attempt to gain their freedom would be repressed by an iron hand ; but at length the negro's opportunity came, regiments of black men wore raised and in a terrific assault on Airfc Wagner, the quality of negro manhood vas set at rest for ever. Tho mission of the war, liberation, still and slowly grew to a hbelopment. The day drew near, January Ist, 1883, was to hear the proclamation. An immense assemblage waited to hear the first

llnsh of tbo electric wires that should nnounce the fato of tho race. Dous>!ass was amongst the spoakors, who sought" not to arouse but to encouiage Iho waiters. After patiently waiting for some hours Judge ilussell entered, and in tonts that thrilled all hearts announced, " It's come!" Shouts, -o'ok, and lears followed in wild confusion until a coloured preacher led the vast throng in words that expressed the emotion r-f the hour as they sang— Sound Oil- loud limbic! o'e-: Egypt's dark-sea Jehov.di has triumphed ; his people are free.'' Tho lecturer briefly recounted'the honours that after tho close of tho Civil War wero showered upon his hero, A srafc as legislator wa-! coufc-ri-od upon him by President Grant giving him tho title of Hon Fred. Douglass! By President Hayes he was appointed Marshal of the district of Coluud-.ia, tn „m cc which dovolvdd upon him the duty of escorting Garfield, tho great and good to tho Presidential chair. The Hon Fred. Douglass afterwards revisited the sec-no of his former suffering, and received a kindly welcome from Cant. Anlrl, now a' I'rdsicd old man of 80 on his deathbed They clapped hands an J parted friends. By tho grave- of his former owner of the lecturer leaves bin), stirred by memories of a childhood I hat had no sunshine, a youth of suffering, a manhood of endurance of hoartreudoring wrongs, followed bv agonising struggles and a shadowed triumph.