Why Frederick Douglass Wanted Black Men to Fight in the Civil War

Subject

Frederick Douglass; Civil War; Abolitionist

Description

He believed that, as soldiers, men of color could gain self-respect, self-defense skills and an undeniable justification for the rights of citizenship.

During the Civil War, Frederick Douglass used his stature as the most prominent African American social reformer, orator, writer and abolitionist to recruit men of his race to volunteer for the Union army. In his “Men of Color to Arms! Now or Never!” broadside, Douglass called on formerly enslaved men to “rise up in the dignity of our manhood, and show by our own right arms that we are worthy to be freemen.”

Douglass, who had risen to international fame after the 1845 publication of his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, saw the Civil War as the “golden moment” for African American men to join all races of men to “assert their claim to freedom and manly character.” By defending their country, Douglass believed, his brethren could “claim America as his country—and have that claim respected.” As uniformed soldiers, Black men could shed the image of the powerless enslaved person and assert the rights of male citizenship that came with patriotic service.

Douglass Stood Up to His Oppressor; It Became a Turning Point

Douglass’ recruitment strategy was an outgrowth of his own experiences as a formerly enslaved person who had endured daily assaults on his manhood. In his autobiographies, he is preoccupied with this theme, writing about his youth of “hardship, whipping and nakedness.”

Creator

FARRELL EVANS

Source

https://www.history.com/news/frederick-douglass-civil-war-black-recruitment

Publisher

history.com

File