Frederick Douglass - St. John's College

“It is only by the practice of the liberal arts that the human animal becomes a free man.
It is only by discipline in these arts that spiritual, moral, and civil liberties can be achieved
and preserved. It is in such obvious propositions as these that the founding fathers of 1784
and 1789 gave reasons for the institutions they set up.”
Scott Buchanan, Bulletin of St. John’s College, 1937-38.
On Freedom
The roughly chronological structure of the St. John’s Program puts readings
such as Marbury v. Madison and Abraham Lincoln’s speeches in senior year.
These readings allow students to think deeply about governing and being
governed just as they are about to emerge from a college created, in part, to
render them educated citizens, guardians of democracy.
Assembled together in one spiral-bound book are the Marbury and Dred
Scott readings, along with works by Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Booker T. Washington.
While the selections vary, Johnnies have been reading Douglass’ “The Constitution
of the United States: Is it Pro-slavery or Anti-slavery” and “Oration in Memory of
Abraham Lincoln.”
Douglass’ speech on the Constitution was delivered in Glasgow in 1860. Along with his
eloquent argument that the Constitution is anti-slavery, the speech includes his acknowledgement
that he has examined and revised many of his opinions. He no longer seeks revolution—as
he had as a follower of William Lloyd Garrison—but reform: “When I escaped
from slavery, and was introduced to the Garrisonians, I adopted very many of their opinions,
and defended them just as long as I deemed them true. I was young, had read but
little, and naturally took some things on trust. Subsequent experience and reading have led
me to examine for myself.”
Douglass’ “Oration” is a moving speech, but one that acknowledges the political realities
that faced Lincoln. He calls Lincoln “the white man’s President, entirely devoted to
the welfare of white men.” He recounts the many decisions that “taxed and strained” the
faith of those who sought emancipation. As Douglass was shaped by his youth in bondage,
he points out that Lincoln was shaped by a hardscrabble youth: “He calmly and bravely
heard the voice of doubt and fear all around him; but he had an oath in heaven, and there
was not power enough on earth to make this honest boatman, backwoodsman, and broadhanded
splitter of rails evade or violate that sacred oath. He had not been schooled in the
ethics of slavery; his plain life had favored his love of truth.”
When the two men came together, their respect for each other grew, writes James Oakes
in The Radical and the Republican: “Both were uncommonly intelligent. Each was a
brilliant orator whose greatest speeches fused razor-sharp logic to soaring idealism. . . .
They respected self-made men and so they respected each other.”
A few blocks away from the Annapolis campus the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass
is commemorated in the Banneker-Douglass museum. On the grounds of the Maryland
State House sits an imposing statue of Roger Brooke Taney, most remembered for
presiding in the Dred Scott case. And Lincoln himself walked through campus in February
1865 during a brief stop on his way to the Hampton Roads Conference in February 1865.
For her essay in this issue, Laurel Pappas (A09), senior seminar readings fresh in her
mind, read Frederick Douglass’ autobiography and explored his life through visits to his
homes in Anacostia and Anne Arundel County. She found in Douglass’ quest for freedom
striking parallels to her own education.
Some changes to The College in this issue: You’ll find the alumni calendar in an
expanded Alumni section, featuring Alumni Association news and what’s happening in the
chapters. In its place, on the inside back cover (in the magazine trade, supposedly the way
most readers enter the magazine), you’ll find Eidos, a new section created to highlight the
work of Johnnies in the fine arts.
—RH
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Rosemary Harty (AGI09), editor
443-716-4011
rosemary.harty@sjca.edu
Patricia Dempsey,
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Jennifer Behrens, art director
The College welcomes letters on
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Contributors
Sophia Koltavary
Sara Luell (A09)
Laurel Pappas (A09)
Nathaniel Roe (SF08)
Deborah Spiegelman
Curtis Wilson (HA93)
Magazine design by
Claude Skelton Design