Frederick Douglass
(1817?-1895)
Calling Men to Arise and Make a Difference
“The day dawns; the morning star is bright upon the horizon! . . . The chance is now given you to end in a day the bondage of centuries, and to rise in one bound from social degradation to the place of common equality with all other varieties of men.”
—Frederick Douglass
Calling men of color to fight in the Civil War
Frederick Douglass: Hope for next generation
Frederick Douglass was born a slave on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in about 1817. The actual year of his birth can only be approximated, since few accurate records were kept of slaves. From the time he was a child of six, Douglass had been determined to run away.
His mother died when he was seven. When he was a teen, he brazenly took on his slave master in a physical fight that could have cost him his life. He defied the stereotype of an ignorant slave by first learning to read by bribing white boys and then studying in secret for years.
Ten years after escaping from the plantation and establishing himself as a free man in the North, Douglass had become an eloquent spokesman against the evils of slavery and a standard of reconciliation for both Black and White, Christian and non Christian. At that time, he wrote a letter to his former master in which he said he had no malice toward him but a sense of profound gratitude that as a father he could protect his children so they would never have to suffer such a fate as slavery. He described in his letter how slavery had attempted to destroy the Black family and his gratitude for his children’s freedom:
“So far as my domestic affairs are concerned, I can boast of as comfortable a dwelling as your own. I have an industrious and neat companion, and four dear children—the oldest a girl of nine years, and three fine boys, the oldest eight, the next six, and the youngest four years old. The three oldest are now going regularly to school—two can read and write, and the other can spell with tolerable correctness words of two syllables: Dear fellows! They are all in comfortable beds, and are sound asleep, perfectly secure under my own roof.
There are no slave-holders here to rend my heart by snatching them from my arms, or blast a mother’s dearest hopes by tearing them from her bosom.
“These dear children are ours—not to work up into rice, sugar and tobacco, but to watch over, regard, and protect, and to rear them up in the nurture and admonition of the gospel—to train them up in the paths of wisdom and virtue, and, as far as we can to make them useful to the world and to themselves. Oh! sir, a slave holder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children. It is then that my feelings rise above my control. . . .
“Your mind must have become darkened, your heart hardened, your conscience seared and petrified, or you would have long since thrown off the accursed load and sought relief at the hands of a sin-forgiving God.”
We need to love our children more, the way Douglass loved his and as God loves us. We don’t ever want them to think we don’t believe in them or we don’t have hope for their future and our future as a family.
We need to see their potential and not their outward behavior, especially when their bad attitudes are directed toward us as their parents. That’s when we need unconditional love to direct them to our Father. Black Americans of the past achieved victories against incredible odds. Their families were strong. They were great people of faith and financial provision.
We can restore the Black family, fix the broken educational system, and start businesses. We can develop the leadership potential of Black Americans to rebuild their communities, create wealth, and serve this nation as statesmen of character, helping to lead America to its rightful place in the world. By reaching out to Black Americans who have become “the least of these,” the Church will receive the honor and praise of Christ.
