Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895)

“Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot, or [while] any discrimination exists between white and black at the South.” (Frederick Douglass, May 9, 1865)

“While I am not indifferent to the claims of generous forgetfulness, but whatever else I may forget, I shall never forget the difference between those who fought for liberty and those who fought for slavery; between those who fought to save the Republic and those who fought to destroy it.”  (Frederick Douglass, 1894)

Emancipation Memorial (April 1876)
Discussion Question

• Why did Douglass’s view of Lincoln appear to have to changed so dramatically in the years following Lincoln’s assassination?

Additional resources

• Jonathan W. White and Scott Sandage, “What Frederick Douglass Had to Say About Monuments,” Smithsonian, June 30, 2020
• Confederate Monument in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania