Speech of Fredrick Douglass to American Anti-Slavery Society

Speech of Fredrick Douglass to American Anti-Slavery Society

The artifact from Fredrick Douglass’s life that I reviewed is an excerpt from one of his speeches that he made to the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1848.  It is worth noting that this speech was made just three years after Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass was published.

There are a few things that I found interesting in this excerpt.  First, I was interested by the word choice of Douglass when he gives his first reason for the abolition of slavery.  He says, “A MAN IS A MAN; that every man belongs to himself, and to no one else.”  Frankly, this phrase reminds me of something that Ayn Rand would say (a century later), but I am not sure if Douglass would ever agree with the objectivist philosophy.  Another interesting thing is the part of the speech when Douglass refers to a demonstration in Washington D.C. where “77 men, women and children conceived the idea that they were men, not three-fifths men.”  Here, Douglass was probably referring to the Three-Fifths compromise, which concerns the allocation of federal tax revenue to slave states.

The questions that this artifact yields concern Douglass’s thoughts on Ayn Rand and the Three-Fifths compromise.  Obviously, Douglass’s time was before that of Rand and objectivism, but it would be interesting to know his thoughts on the philosophy.  Would he consider himself an objectivist?  I am also curious about what Douglass meant by implying the Three-Fifths compromise, if he was.  Did people back then use the Three-Fifths compromise to justify slavery?  If so, how much of the constitution actually supported slavery?

2 thoughts on “Speech of Fredrick Douglass to American Anti-Slavery Society

  1. I thought it was interesting the way Frederick Douglass, at the beginning of his speech, said, “…for it will be time enough to discuss new truths when old ones shall have been recognized and adopted.” He knew that “A MAN IS A MAN” and it was not a new idea he was introducing. Because it wasn’t a “new” truth, rather than dwelling on and explaining that fact, he instead quickly went on to discuss the current problem of considering a man to be something other than a man. This is the very logic Douglass wished to combat and appears to do so in this exerpt.

  2. I thought it was interesting the way Frederick Douglass, at the beginning of his speech, said, “…for it will be time enough to discuss new truths when old ones shall have been recognized and adopted.” He knew that “A MAN IS A MAN” and it was not a new idea he was introducing. Because it wasn’t a “new” truth, rather than dwelling on and explaining that fact, he instead quickly went on to discuss the current problem of considering a man to be something other than a man. This is the very logic Douglass wished to combat and appears to do so in this exerpt.

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