The Lion of Anacostia / #criticalthinkers #theFreedomPapers #education #FrederickDouglass #God #AmericaFirst #AbrahamLincol

Every seventh day he was given a bottle of whisky; he sat under a tree; he would escape his reality, even if the truth of his chains of air would all return to him before midnight. Frederick Douglass had taught himself to read and write using two books and a dollop of determination: He read and studied The Columbian Orator; a compendium of essays and literary pieces wherein the practitioner gains articulate eloquence in character and pronunciation), and the Holy Bible. The latter gave Douglass profound ideas about what God intended, moral teachings on humanity, and intellectual upbringing through a God-Sanctioned understanding of human history. As a slave in the south, Douglass did not have a family experience, was not raised in a home with siblings, father and mother, did not have birthday parties, or attend school; there were no after school activities or playing catch with Dad in the late afternoon hours of the day. All he had was an inner spark kept alive that urged him to learn to read and write, to seek God’s face and to endure. The examples of the memorialized lives included in holy scripture had to qualify as the focal form of social development for him, grafting principles of kindness, Godly-inner strength, forgiveness, and love for others in spite of his station in life. These two books stood as pillars in his psyche creating mental models juxtaposed in contrast to his plantation life with the other slaves. I his formative life, there would be slave-singing and slave-dancing, slave-work, and slave-whippings, condescension and utter disregard for the humanity of the slaves, all of which would eventually bring greater beams of light upon the literature he had ingrained into his mind and etched into his soul. These were the beginnings of one of the greatest men to have ever lived; a soul resolutely on fire, a man after God’s heart.

After having fled for the second time. Mr. Douglass soon found himself in Massachusetts having gained the skills to be a professional caulker (mostly employed in and around shipyards) working for half-wages, all the while being a dormant intellectual powerhouse on the cusp of transforming the nation. As of yet, he was subjected to merciless beatings by envious white craftsmen startled at the notion of having to do the same work as a negro, and was socially isolated until the time came for him to begin his life’s work. Having acquired a genteel refining while as a slave in Baltimore; a time separated from his plantation life further down south, he was allowed to wear better clothing and enjoy partial freedoms to walk about the city without being watched and lorded over. In fact,  Mr. Douglass had become accustomed to addressing a growing number of white folk during his brief time in Baltimore, and this had prepared him, along with his study of The Columbian Orator, a book to sharpen paraverbal skills (how we say what we say), to eventually become the leading abolitionist, in the United States of America. 

So proficient in his eloquence was Frederick Douglass, that his audiences across a plethora of towns would routinely question if he ever was truly a slave, to which Douglass would simply turn around, raise his shirt, and show the striking ridges of his many whippings. People were astounded not just at his vocabulary, but in his ability to speak with sensibility, free of anger, filled with intellectual clarity and confident certitude in his calls for human rights and his invocation of what God-intended for America.

For all this, Douglass’s power was yet not complete, he was missing one final piece which would bring even the President of the United States of America, Abraham Lincoln, to listen to him repeatedly, even being affected by the moral character of Douglass and moved to action by his presence of heart and mind. This final piece would allow Douglass’s message to be inscribed into hearts and minds not just through the listening ear, but the seeing eye. We may be moved to see such articulate passion perform before us, calling for a realization of human rights, showing us his real scars, and hearing of his constant travel to and from American towns and cities prophesying for a better American experience, one where all men and women are free to live peacefully, enjoy inalienable, God-given rights and may pursue happiness as they see fit. But after a few days we will forget. Such is the brain’s working memory. It is as the late-poet Maya Angelou put forth, that we may forget what someone tells us, but we don’t forget how they made us feel. Douglass understood that he needed a form of historical production to scale his message in a physical format that it not soon be forgotten, but stand the test of time, remaining as powerful code to shift hearts and minds towards his altruistic vision of freedom and liberty. He needed to take his spiritual battle to the next level with a though-amplification machine which would allow him to distribute his ideas through a created network. Attaining such a contraption would make him more powerful than a standing army, complete with guns, cannons, and the mightiest warriors. Using the money given to him by a gracious community of people during a two year stint in England, Douglass acquired a printing press back in the United States. It was at this point that Douglass had become completely empowered to shift the balance of power in America, and yes affecting hearts and minds far beyond his physical reach.

Armed with critical thinking, eloquence, deep character, passion and an education that rivaled the best statesmen at the time, Douglass began to write essays, constructing mini-newspapers and growing a distribution network chain to send out copies of his work. He worked tirelessly with a zeal that could only be God-driven, little by little, like a drop of water causing ripples in a pond, bringing change to the intellectual conversation in the U.S.A. His writings were created a ‘left-field literary knockout’ when compared to the established forms of media production in that day. There was no one else who wrote like him. There was no black man who wrote like him. There was no one who was as intelligent as him having been a slave before. Douglass had, in effect, cornered the market, and he was a standing army of one man only. He became unstoppable simply because he refused to sink and he refused to compromise his integrity.

To better understand Mr. Frederick Douglass, we must read his words on Christianity. He argued that a true Christian, as he understood it from the holy scripture, had nothing to do with racism and prejudice, but was called forth to love God and love humanity, in so doing gently doing away with such narrow-mindedness and apathy. (This was a subject of his interest on which he spoke and wrote about profusely.) In the face of this ownership of the only available form of production of the time, a printing press, along with a system of distributing copies of his works, Douglass softly commanded room in a growing number of hearts and minds, and this translated into political power. At the time, President Lincoln did not have the foggiest idea on what to do with the slaves. He was trying all sorts of ideas, like the time he sent a boatload of African Americans to Haiti. About half died of disease on the way over and upon reaching shore, the rest realized that there was no infrastructure to support them. It was open land without means to build. Much more, the Haitians there asked these newcomers what they purposed in the possible creation of a colony. The boat went back to America. Lincoln was in the middle of the Civil War and was allowing himself to be politically hamstrung due to his hesitancy to make such a drastic move as calling for the emancipation of all African-Americans, a people not known under that term, but identified as financial commodities at the time. Lincoln feared rebellion in the North if he made such a sharp political move. The president had reached an impasse and could not see a way forward.

Enter God from Left Field

The Lord Jesus Christ uses people, even his children, as instruments to further his plans, according to his Word. God finds and creates solutions in all situations, and he raised up Frederick Douglass to enter the field precisely at the time needed, much like a wide receiver in a football game running and ready to catch a toss by Quarterback Lincoln, whom had no idea Douglass was on the team. But Douglass was on the America First team. Douglass’s printing press, a form of historical production, his distribution network, and his ability to write essays made it so that President Lincoln could not politically ignore him, unless he would be open to facing the journalistic opposition from the most outspoken voice on human rights at the time. Douglass could work to turn public opinion against the president, and the president understood this at a key time. This dynamic created the possibility of these two men forming a working relationship and Lincoln receiving greater moral strength and support to do the right thing; emancipate the slaves and have these fight for the northern Union.

Lincoln became ‘Lincoln’ after he had encountered Frederick Douglass, and Douglass, the open-minded, independent critical thinker served as a bridge of political support for Lincoln to take a stand and save the nation.

This year we celebrate Douglass’s 2ooth birthday (1818-2018). Happy Birthday, Frederick!