Frederick Douglass, the understated statesman, a colossus of intellect, refined passion, and force of God, was born exactly two hundred years ago, in 1818, straight into slavery. He was separated from his family, even purposefully bereft of the experience of knowing familial bond with his siblings, who for a time lived on the same plantation as him, and treated as less than a commodity. An anomaly of a human being was Frederick, in that he was inwardly driven to learn to read and write before he understood that those two attainments were the beginning of the passage toward his freedoms and liberty.
Intellectual freedom, for Frederick-the black American slave, was the first and third bridge to complete freedom. Many had escaped to the ‘North’ on foot, and if fortunate, through the ‘second bridge’ network known as the ‘Underground Railroad.’ It was Frederick Douglass’s increasing ability to read and write; which led to his growing ability to think critically, reflect, observe, deduce, and plan, that made him a peculiarly valuable slave over time. Albeit, his reading and writing was kept hidden from his slave masters, yet the effect of such intellectual refinement, afforded him a sophistication as a slave which set him apart in the eyes of his captors, who seeing to it that the wherewithal of such a slave was enough to entertain the possibility of new options, moved him from being a slave hand in the southern plantations to being a helper of sorts for the slave family in the city of Baltimore.
This physical movement from the sequestered plantation life, wherein culture and life was repetitive, constrained, and harsh, was replaced with the freedom of being able to walk about in the city without being tracked, or the imminent danger of being tied to a post and whipped. These passive guarantees allowed emotional healing to occur within Frederick, giving him time to breathe through his soul, even restore the good fire of a lively spirit that was within him. He was allowed to dress in proper clothing and given living quarters within the home of his city slave masters also; all of which allowed him to capitalize on his dream of complete individual freedom. A dream that would be purposefully dimmed at times, being kept out of the consciousness of his slave lords, in order to abide emotionally and physically in the conditions that were imposed on him, and thus, prepare for better times to carry out his basic desire of freedom.
What value does a critical thinker have to the foundation of individual human freedom and liberty, and what is the rendered work that is effectuated from critical thinking?
Currently, does our societal system in the United States of America predispose itself to love and protect the sustainment of a critical thinking class? If so, what are the examples of this, and if not, how are critical thinkers regarded then?
If it be not so that critical thinkers are regarded, valued, or understood, could it be that they can be subject to persecution? Why would our ‘modern’ societal system feel apprehension and hesitation to protect and value critical thinkers, if they be protectors of the individual freedoms and liberties of all?
For Frederick Douglass, the social norms of the city life were simply not predisposed to seeing such outright cruelty as was perpetrated in the southern plantation life, and Douglass found respite and opportunity in the newfound slivers of freedom he was enjoying.
“…if you teach that nigger how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”
Hugh Auld, Douglass’s master in Baltimore
This statement was all that Frederick had to hear, in order to ‘reverse engineer’ what the whole formula for his freedom and liberty was, and how it had to be created.
1. “These words sank deep into my heart, stirred up sentiments within that lay slumbering, and called into existence an entirely new train of thought.”
Frederick Douglass
At that time, as it is now, the societal-cultural system of America was not predisposed to understand or value the importance of raising up critical thinkers to be sentinels of freedom and liberty. Instead, during America’s 400 years of slave trade, it was the economic gains of making commodities out of human beings that was narrowly seen as the more valuable attribute, and yet it was Frederick Douglass’s solid, deep-rooted Christian understandings that said to him, ‘you are worthy of realizing your dreams,’ even if it means that your dreams upturn the entire nation from its demised trajectory of reaping the financial harvest of free, forced human labor.
Frederick Douglass was as a mustard seed, and the very new code in which Christianity was being rooted into the American soil deeper than ever before, only, he could not give up. He would have to endure with long suffering, through social and emotional isolation, through physical beatings, through years of economic stagnation, and through the uncertainty that he would be able to make a difference, not in that his goal was to upright a nation, but in that his desire to see the basic human rights of African-Americans be respected. He was a man with no guile, and no reverse racism. He was a critical thinker who discerned the hearts and minds of people, figuring out who was with God and who was in it for themselves. This critical thinking opened doors for him, allowing the creation of new relationships and experiences, if not adventures, which would eventually surge him face to face with the President of the United States of America.
2. “It was a new and special revelation, explaining dark and mysterious things, with which my youthful understanding had struggled, but struggled in vain. I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty—to wit, the white man’s power to enslave the black man…Though conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher, I set out with high hope, and a fixed purpose, at whatever cost of trouble, to learn how to read.”
Frederick Douglass
What value does a critical thinker have to the foundation of individual human freedom and liberty, and what is the rendered work that is effectuated from critical thinking?
The value of the Judeo-Christian critical thinker places the Judeo-Christian triune God as the lens through which to defend individual freedom and liberties. The value of these is of the utmost importance to a nation, for they are as little lights, and as the true gatekeepers of the soul of America. Their work can be found in the written and spoken word, as it can be found in the actions of countless American citizens practicing the wisdom of putting others first, of being their brothers and sisters keepers, and in maintaining, as best as it can be done, the freedoms and liberties we all enjoy. Like one body performing in unison, one writes, one speaks, one studies, one fights, one mends; all endure; all love, all return to God’s Word, again and again, putting on that invisible armor that puts the will of God first.
Critical thinkers, in their most intellectual and academic delegation, use their intellect and their system of life values as a sounding board that nets an understanding and analyzation of daily life, starting with all that happens on the local, national, and global level, and then resounding these events and realities with the effects it has on individual freedom of thought and physical liberty, onto their Judeo-Christian value system. Critical thinking is not merely the process in which comprehension of events, thoughts and ideas are correctly dissected and made sense of, but in the micro and macro process of processing the connections between that which happens on the local, national, and global level, and the reflection of how such events and realities affect or are also affected by the values we hold dear, according to our perspective. It then becomes important that critical thinkers routinely clarify what their driving perspective is, that their be no hint of hidden agenda, and that their aims be clearly and simply understood.
As it is, the United States of America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, which directly supported the view points of our founding doctrines, the ‘Declaration of Independence,’ and the ‘Constitution of the United States,’ which includes the ‘Bill of Rights’). Critical thinkers adhering to the Judeo-Christian perspective and value system stemming from God’s Word, will have different cultural underpinnings than those who originate from non Judeo-Christian cultures, and as such, will have at times parallel universal alignments in the defense of individual freedom and liberty, even as they may have very different thought processes in how to go about defending such freedoms and liberties.
Far from espousing evangelical promotion of Christianity at this time, or Frederick Douglass’s promoting Christianity in his time, the critical thinking Judeo-Christian perspective, as it allows itself, or is divinely drawn to align itself with God’s Word, will seek the gentle road of charity, which is love, and behave itself over the long-term accordingly, even uttering, from time to time, the foundational values that purpose forward his or her undertakings. It becomes not propagandization then, to clearly enunciate the foundation which is the fountain for the perspectives and purposes of the Judeo-Christian critical thinker, that the reader and bearer of the information clearly understand what is the hope and peace and good fire that drives such a one forward. That they themselves, as receivers of the information, may not be deluded as to the trajectory of a ship being its purpose, but know with a certainty, what is that spirit that drives its purpose forth.
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up. Doth not behave itself unseemingly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth…”
1 Corinthians 13:3-6
Young Frederick would give bread to kids on the street whom would trade it for the eventual purchase of a book, The Columbian Orator. A book of essays and short literary pieces for the edifying and building of American character. George Washington, William Pitt, and literature centuries old, yet ever so relevant and fresh as the ideas of individual freedom and liberty have always been. Douglass read the instructions found therein at the beginning. Learning to read, then reading to learn, he applied the metrics of oration to himself, he practiced, mused, spoke across what was then America, and then began to write with heart and soul, seeing that the sentiment of words may be captured in feeling, but the power of the written word, emblazoned in a visual format that could be read, taken in, and then re-read exactly as at the first, this, Douglass found as the means to political power. He was not helped at first, nor was appreciation for his work given any space to succeed from. No, he had to operate strictly on the power of his will, itself resting on the unalloyed Christianity that put his arms around him, one line and precept at a time.
If ever their was a societal system that did predispose itself to love, and value his critical thinking, it surely arrived from an unlikely place thousands of leagues from the turmoil of America, England. It was in London, that Frederick Douglass found himself to walk down the street and experiencing what it meant to simply be a human being without the precondition of being judged due to his skin color. It was amongst the English classes that Frederick Douglass found his ‘second wind.’ It was therapeutic for him to find community that engaged him on an intellectual level; a ready society that was clearly aghast on the issue of human slavery; validating and strengthening his understandings, deepening his resolve, and bringing a measure of rest to the wrongs done unto him as a slave. This, the London community of people who interacted with Frederick Douglass did for him, sustaining him, like a ship that rescued a man lost at sea, in the end of which of his two or so years with them finding himself to be blessed with monies put together for his re-establishment in the United States again. All the more a critical thinker, Douglass politely refuted the money for his personal gain, and instead took the money and placed it towards the purchase of a ‘thought amplification machine,’ a printing press.
Critical Thinkers Are Not Regarded
Because of his correct critical thinking, because of his actions in the abolitionist movement, because of his ability to not only read and write, but to write and speak on par with the most humble stately statesman, if ever there was one, Frederick proved the power of human intellect, when given the proper supports and accommodations. Amongst the leading abolitionist of the day, William Lloyd Garrison being one of them, and across the Atlantic Ocean with the London community of souls who connected with him, and then back in America through the political power of moving hearts and minds, he found the ability to make waves that cannot be seen with eyes. America was open to the reasonable charge that Frederick placed against it, and the sentiment of his writings found veins of energy reinforcing the universal appeal to the people of the land that slavery was wrong, and not in line with God’s will. So it is not that he or his work was accepted by all, but it was that his work was in line with God’s will, and so his purpose prospered.
The greater a nation’s current loss of freedom and liberty be in a static normalcy of complacency, the more adverse it becomes to allowing critical thinkers rectifying such a course direction. Consider all that Douglass had to experience. It is never so that a social prevailing order will be open to an outsider perspective changing its structure so fully as called for by a critical thinking class of individuals. If it be so that individual freedoms and liberty be in a current state of health far removed from the original vision God had for humanity, then is it not good to do as Frederick Douglass did in using the printing press, or in our time, a modern form of production, such as a computer and the internet, along with one’s intellect, in being a part of the conversation, in questioning how and why are society is as it is, and in calling for a better vision of how it can be?
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