Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

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Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. 283 book concealed under his coat, pressing into his service his little white play fellows whom he met along the streets, as he was sent on errands or during his hours of play,—making them his teachers. The spirit of liberty is not only stirring in this boy's breast, but a thirst for knowledge is also taking possession of him. The immortal mind, that marvelous thing we call the intellect, is beginning to work. The alphabet is soon mastered, the ability to read is soon acquired, and one book, at least, comes into his possession, the "Columbian Orator," from which he drank in great draughts of the bracing air of liberty, as he studied the utterances of such men as Chatham, Fox, Pitt, and others. Thus his ideas were enlarged and his desire to be free greatly stimulated. The truth of what his master had said to his mistress, when forbidding her to continue to instruct him, " Learning will do him no good, but a great deal of harm, making him disconsolate and unhappy," he began now keenly to realize : for he became more dissatisfied with his condition than ever. In this frame of mind a fourth step soon followed—the solemn purpose and determination to be free was formed. It was the natural and logical outcome of what had gone before. I am a man. I ought to be free. I will be free. Garrison said, " I am in earnest. I will not excuse.
Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County · Historic Monographs Collection 284 LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS. I will not equivocate. I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard." And in the same spirit this man says, " I will be free." No emancipation proclamation, no stroke of the pen of the immortal Lincoln, gave freedom to him. He wrote his own emancipation proclamation; he struck with his own hands the fetters from his limbs. On the third day of September, 1838, he turned his back forever upon slavery and quietly settled down in the town of New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he labored, putting in coal, digging cellars, working on the wharves, and doing whatever he could get to do that was honorable, in order to make an honest living for himself and his family. Let our young people take note of that: it may give them a hint or suggestion that may be of service to them in the future. This man was not ashamed of work. It is hard for us to think of him as putting in coal, digging cellars, and working as a common laborer on the wharves; and yet he did, and was not ashamed of it either. All honest toil was honorable in his estimation. In his new environments, in order to keep from starving, it was necessary for him to work, and he did work, and work hard. He did not forget, however, in the midst of his struggles to keep soul and body together, that he also had a mind which needed to be fed. He still had a desire to
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Frederick Douglass, the Orator - Monroe County Library System

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