Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection
LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 279
" Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole
earth, is Mount Zion," is what the Psalmist wrote
as he looked out upon the Holy City, and so we
feel to-day, as we look upon this man, that there is
a beauty, a moral beauty, in that life, that is to us,
and will remain to us, a joy forever.
In attempting to analyze this life, with a view
of forming some estimate of it, there are several
things to be taken into consideration, — the circumstances
under which it began, the obstacles
it had to contend with, and what it became.
As to the circumstances under which he was
born. These may be briefly set forth in two
statements, — (i) He was born a colored man;
he was identified with a despised race,— a race
that had no rights which white men were bound
to respect. The condition of the colored people
in this country, — even the free colored people,
—eighty years ago, was sad, inexpressibly sad.
There was not even a glimmer of light on the
horizon. All was dark, gloomy, and discouraging.
(2) He was born a slave, a piece of property,
a chattel, a thing to be bought and sold, to
be cuffed and kicked about at the will of another.
The fundamental assumption underlying the
system of slavery was the supposed inferiority of
the negro,— the natural, inherent, God-ordained
inferiority. Its great aim was to crush out of
him every noble aspiration, to degrade him to the