Selected Writings of Douglass and Others

These selected writings are provided here specifically to support the teaching materials provided elsewhere and to meet the needs of a University of Rochester course, "Lincoln, Douglass and Black Freedom." A companion page is available on the Lincoln and his Circle website examining the issues below using speeches and writings of Abraham Lincoln.

More will be added in the future, and suggestions are welcome.

Please note that digital editions of Douglass' autobiographies are available from the University of North Carolina's "Documenting the American South" online project at <http://docsouth.unc.edu/>.

• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself. Chapters 5–7.
• The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
  Course History 247: Excerpt 1; Excerpt 2
• "The Church and Prejudice" : speech delivered at the Plymouth Church Anti-Slavery Society, Dec. 23, 1841.
  Course History 247: Excerpt
• "To Harriet Beecher Stowe": March 8, 1853.
  Course History 247: Excerpt 1; Excerpt 2; Excerpt 3
• "The Claims of Our Common Cause," address of the Colored Convention held in Rochester, July 6–8, 1853, to the People of the United States.
  Course History 247: Excerpt

Lincoln's View

• "Farewell Speech to the British People," at London Tavern, London, England, Mar. 30, 1847.
• "Comments on Gerrit Smith’s Address"," The North Star, March 30, 1849.
• "Change of Opinion Announced,"The North Star, May 15, 1851.
• "Colonization","The North Star, Jan. 26, 1849.
• "To Henry Clay","The North Star, Dec. 3, 1847..
• "Henry Clay and Slavery","The North Star, Feb. 8, 1850,.
• "The Free Negro’s Place Is In America,"speech delivered at National Convention of Liberty Party, Buffalo, New York, Sept. 18, 1851.
• "Horace Greeley and Colonization,"Frederick Douglass’ Paper, Feb. 26, 1852.
• "5th of July Speech" [HTML version] [pdf version]
• "The Fugitive Slave Law," speech to the National Free Soil Convention at Pittsburgh, Aug. 1, 1852. 
• "The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Antislavery?," speech delivered in Glasgow, Scotland, March 26, 1860.

Lincoln's View

• The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass,op. cit., Chapter 9, p on "Increasing Demands of the Slave Power."
• "The End of All Compromises with Slavery – Now and Forever,"Frederick Douglass’ Paper, May 26, 1854.
• "The Kansas-Nebraska Bill," speech at Chicago, Oct. 30, 1854.  Frederick Douglass’
  Paper, Nov. 24, 1854.
• "The Dred Scott Decision," speech delivered before the American Anti-Slavery Society, New York, May 14, 1857.

Lincoln's View

• "The Revolution of 1848,"speech at West India Emancipation Celebration, Rochester, New York, Aug. 1, 1848.
• "West India Emancipation,"speech delivered at Canandaigua, New York, Aug. 4, 1857.
• "The Chicago Nomination," Douglass’ Monthly, June 1860.
• "The Presidential Campaign of 1860," speech at celebration of West India Emancipation, Aug. 1, 1860, Douglass’ Monthly, Sept. 1860.

Lincoln's View

• "The Late Election," Douglass’ Monthly, Dec. 1, 1860.
• "The Union and How to Save It, "Douglass’ Monthly, Feb. 1861.
• "The Inaugural Address," Douglass’ Monthly, April, 1861.

Lincoln's View

• "Sudden Revolution in Northern Sentiment," Douglass’ Monthly, May 1861.

Lincoln's View

• "How to End the War," Douglass’ Monthly, May 1861.
• "The War and Slavery," Douglass’ Monthly, Aug., 1861
• "Cast off the Millstone," Douglass’ Monthly, Sept. 1861.
• "The Reasons for Our Troubles," speech on the war delilvered in National Hall, Philadelphia, Jan. 14, 1862.
• "The War and How to End It," speech delivered at Corinthian Hall, Rochester, NY, March 25, 1862.

Lincoln's View

• "What Shall be Done with the Slaves if Emancipated," Douglass’ Monthly, Jan. 2, 1862.
• "The President and His Speeeches," Douglass’ Monthly, Sept. 1862.  (Against Colonization).
• "Emancipation Proclaimed," Douglass’ Monthly, Oct. 1862 (517-21).
• The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

Lincoln's View

• "Men of Color, To Arms!" Broadside, Rochester, March 21, 1863.
• "Why Should a Colored Man Enlist?" Douglass’ Monthly, April 1863.
• Meeting of Douglass with Lincoln.

Lincoln's View

• "Our Work Is Not Done," speech delivered at the annual meeting of the American Anti-Slave Society held at Philadelphia, Dec., 3-4, 1863.  Proceedings.
• "The Mission of the War," address sponsored by Women’s Loyal League and delivered in Cooper Institute, New York City, Jan., 13, 1864.  New York Tribune, Jan., 14, 1864.
• "Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln," delivered at the unveiling of the Freedman’s Monument in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C., April 14, 1876.

Lincoln's View

• "The Work of the Future," Douglass’ Monthly, Nov. 1862.
• "What the Black Man Wants" [pdf version]
• Meeting with Pres. Andrew Johnson, Feb. 7, 1866.
• The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.  (Dover Edition, pp. 274 – 78).
• "Reply of the Colored Delegation to the President ," Washington, Feb. 7, 1866.
• "Reconstruction," Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1866.
• "Give Us the Freedom Intended for Us ," The New National Era, Dec. 5, 1872.

Lincoln's View

• "To Theodore Tilton," Rochester, Oct. 15, 1864.
• "Address to the People of the United States," delivered at a Convention of Colored Men, Louisville, Kentucky, Sept. 25, 1883.
• "The Civil Rights Case," speech at the Civil Rights Mass Meeting held at Lincoln Hall, Washington, D.C., Oct. 22, 1883.
• "Southern Barbarism," speech on the occasion of the Twenty-Fourth Anniversary of Emancipation in the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., April 16, 1886.
• "I Denounce the So-Called Emancipation as a Stupendous Fraud," speech on the occasion of the Twenty-Sixth Anniversary of Emancipation in the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C., April 16, 1888.
• "The Bloody Shirt," speech delivered at the National Republican Convention, Chicago, June 19, 1888.
• "The Nation’s Problem," speech delivered before the Bethel Library and Historical Society, Washington, D.C., April 16, 1889.
• "Why is the Negro Lynched?,"  The Lesson of the Hour, pamphlet, 1894.

Lincoln's View"

More

• " A Call to Work," Frederick Douglass' Paper, November 19, 1852
• The Word "White," Frederick Douglass' Paper, March 17, 1854

Hammond, James H.

• Speech of Hon. James H. Hammond, of South Carolina, on the admission of Kansas, under the Lecompton Constitution: delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 4, 1858 [pdf version]

Anthony, Susan B. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton

• Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States by the National Woman Suffrage Association, July 4, 1876 [HTML version">]

Walker, David

• Walker's Appeal

Whittier, John Greenleaf

• "Our fellow countrymen in chains," from Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States, between the years 1830-1838 (Boston, I. Knapp, 1837) [pdf version]