Frederick Douglass: Civil War to Statesman

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How did Frederick Douglass, born into enslavement, rise to become one of the most influential orators, writers, and publishers of his time. By the end of his life in 1895, he was world-renowned and owned an estate overlooking the Washington, D.C. skyline.

In the first episode on Frederick Douglass, we explored his escape from enslavement and the beginnings of his career. Now, we pick up with him as the Civil War brews, at the time of John Brown's Raid on Harper's Ferry. Don is joined once again by Sidney Morrison, author of 'Frederick Douglass: A Novel'.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Corinthian Hall, Rochester, New York, July 5th, 1852. Frederick Douglass has been speaking on the dais for about an hour.
0:10.6	The heat in the hall has elevated with the intensity of his words. But accepting for one or two restless souls, the audience remains transfixed.
0:23.7	His voice rings out as he delivers what will become known as one of its most famous and searing lines of oratory. What to the American slave,
0:30.6	Douglas asks, is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him more than any other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.
0:45.3	Less than a decade later, the United States will be torn asunder by a war fought over the very issue of slavery.
0:52.6	What role will Douglas play in that tortured struggle
0:55.3	and how we carry his fight for justice
0:58.2	beyond that conflict into the new America
1:01.4	he has helped to create?
1:19.6	Music Hello all. This is American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman.
1:30.4	Frederick Douglass, born enslaved in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818, overcame unimaginable adversity to become a leading light in the fight against slavery. Escaping enslavement as a young man, he taught himself to read and write,
1:36.0	becoming a renowned orator and bestselling author, not to mention eventually the publisher of his
1:40.8	own newspaper, The Northern Star, advocating for abolition and equality.
1:45.2	By 1860, he had become a celebrity figure in the North, a free man, now a husband and father
1:51.3	living in Rochester, New York, and facing down, along with the rest of the nation,
1:54.9	the inevitability of civil war. We spent a previous episode of this podcast on the earlier
2:00.1	chapters of Frederick Douglass's astonishing biography.
2:03.4	And today, we go further discussing his years during the Civil War and beyond, again with an accomplished writer himself.
2:09.8	Sidney Morrison, author of Frederick Douglass, a novel.
2:13.2	Sydney is a former history teacher and school principal in the Los Angeles area, and it's great to have him back.
2:22.4	Hello, Sydney. Welcome once again to American History Hit. Thank you so much, Don. I was quite delighted when you invited me back after our discussion a few weeks ago, and we just barely
2:31.3	got to the Civil War, and Frederick Douglass lived 35 more years, and so we had much more to talk about.
	...

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