Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn by Frederick Douglass

Douglass initially agreed as late as 1848, he was attending meetings of the Western New York Anti-Slavery Society, which endorsed 'No Union with Slave-Holders,' meaning it would be better to break up the country than remain allied with the slaveholding South.īut by the late 1840s, Douglass was taking a step that the radical Garrison rejected: He was beginning to support political candidates, so long as they favored abolition. He denounced the government and refused to take part in electoral politics. Constitution corrupt because it accommodated slavery. He became a protégé of William Lloyd Garrison, a fierce, white, antislavery editor based in Boston. We can begin the story soon after he escaped slavery in the 1830s. So it is instructive to observe how one of the greatest figures in American history wrestled with his decision in 1856 - especially because he changed his mind. (The choice is not necessarily either-or in 2016, Republicans chose the candidate who promised the biggest change, who also won.) Come November's general election, voters will have third-party options too. In 1856, leaders of Mobile, Ala., banished two booksellers who dared to offer it, saying the men risked execution if they stayed in town.ĭeciding how best to use his influence, Douglass faced a classic American political question: Should he vote for a radical or a moderate? He could support the big change he believed in - abolition of slavery - or settle for less sweeping change from a candidate better positioned to win.ĭemocrats in 2020 may find his dilemma familiar: They are scanning their large field, asking who can bring enough change, and also who can win. The power of his words could be measured by the efforts to silence him: White men with clubs and stones once chased him off a stage in Indiana, while his autobiography was banned in the slave states of the South. He was a newspaper editor, operating Frederick Douglass' Paper out of an office in Rochester, N.Y. He was famous - a man who had escaped slavery to become an influential speaker and writer.

He was an antislavery activist then, hoping to advance his cause by supporting a candidate in that fall's presidential election.ĭouglass' endorsement mattered. In 1856, Frederick Douglass made a decision. A portrait of 19th-century abolitionist Frederick Douglass is unveiled at the Maryland governor's residence in Annapolis on Sept.

Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn by Frederick Douglass