Frederick Douglass
Abolitionist and writer, 1818–1895
On May 14, 1857, at an Anniversary of the American Abolition Society event in Rochester, New York, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech on the Dred Scott decision.
Scott, an enslaved man from Missouri, lived in Illinois (a free state) and in the Louisiana Territory (where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820) from 1833 to 1843. When he returned to Missouri, he filed suit for his freedom.
On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (7–2) in the case of Dred Scott v. John F.A. Sandford. In this case, the majority stated that “a negro, whose ancestors were imported into [the U.S.], and sold as slaves” could not be American citizens, and therefore could not sue in federal court. Justice Roger Taney also held that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional and that slaves were property under the Fifth Amendment - noting that moving to a free state did not make one emancipated.
It was in response to this decision, and nearly four years before the start of the U.S. Civil War, that Douglass said: “Take this fact—for it is a fact—the anti-slavery movement has, from first to last, suffered no abatement. It has gone forth in all directions, and is now felt in the remotest extremities of the Republic.
It started small, and was without capital either in men or money. The odds were all against it. It literally had nothing to lose, and everything to gain. There was ignorance to be enlightened, error to be combatted, conscience to be awakened, prejudice to be overcome, apathy to be aroused, the right of speech to be secured, mob violence to be subdued, and a deep, radical change to be inwrought in the mind and heart of the whole nation. This great work, under God, has gone on, and gone on gloriously.
Amid all changes, fluctuations, assaults, and adverses of every kind, it has remained firm in its purpose, steady in its aim, onward and upward, defying all opposition, and never losing a single battle. Our strength is in the growth of anti-slavery conviction, and this has never halted…”
“…In one point of view, we, the abolitionists and colored people, should meet this decision, unlooked for and monstrous as it appears, in a cheerful spirit. This very attempt to blot out forever the hopes of an enslaved people may be one necessary link in the chain of events preparatory to the downfall, and complete overthrow of the whole slave system.
The whole history of the anti-slavery movement is studded with proof that all measures devised and executed with a view to allay and diminish the anti-slavery agitation, have only served to increase, intensify, and embolden that agitation. This wisdom of the crafty has been confounded, and the counsels of the ungodly brought to nought. It was so with the Fugitive Slave Bill. It was so with the Kansas-Nebraska Bill; and it will be so with this last and most shocking of all pro-slavery devices, this Taney decision.”
