Self-Evident Eloquence

In an 1852 speech celebrating the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass finds himself in the awkward position of having to persuade his fellow countrymen to accept the manifest consequences of the self-evident truths proclaimed in our founding document, and so to abolish slavery. How does one demonstrate the self-evident? “Where all is

Getting What We Pay For

The year is 1857. Speaking to the American Abolition Society, Frederick Douglass has to admit that the noose of slavery seems to be tightening its grip on the American regime. Despite many grim setbacks for the cause of freedom, Douglass is far from daunted: “I have come to the conclusion that from no work would