Transcendental Reformers: Abolition, Disobedience, and the Life of Frederick Douglass

1. Transcendental Reformers: Abolition, Disobedience, and the Life of Frederick Douglass 19th Century American Transcendentalism November 22, 2010 “Why is a man born but to be a Reformer?” Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1841, “Man the Reformer”

2. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/US_Slave_Free_1789-1861.gifhttp://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/US_Slave_Free_1789-1861.gif • Missouri Compromise, 1821: prohibits slavery in the former Louisiana Territory, except within borders of Missouri • Mexican-American War (following the annexation of Texas), 1846-48 • Fugitive Slave Law, 1851 • Kansas-Nebraska Act, 1854 Slavery in America:1820s-1861

3. Boston publication of David Walker’s Appeal: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2931t.html • 1831: Boston publication of the first issue of William Lloyd Garrison's newspaper The Liberator • 1832: William Lloyd Garrison begins New England Anti-Slavery Society, an integrated abolitionist movement—Douglass and Garrison meet Boston as a hub of anti-slavery activism

4. By the 1840s, Concord is a center of reformist thought and action: • Topics for debate in the first year of the Concord Lyceum (an adult education center): -"Is the Union threatened by the present aspect of affairs?" -"Would it be an act of humanity to emancipate at once all slaves?" -"Is it ever proper to offer forcible resistance?" • Thoreau is an officer of the Lyceum in 1842-44 when speakers include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, Horace Greeley, and Wendell Phillips, among others. • Female Anti-Slavery Society, founded in 1837, and joined by Henry's mother Cynthia Dunbar Thoreau, among other progressive townswomen. Calliope Film Resources. "Thoreau, Civil Disobedience and the Underground Railroad." Copyright 2001 CFR. http://www.calliope.org/thoreau/thurro/thurro1.html . 22 Nov 2010. Abolitionism and the Concord Lyceum

5. Tax refusal emerges as a protest tactic in 1840-45, prior to Thoreau’s act of “disobedience” Charles Lenox Remond (see Garrison’s Preface to Douglass’ Narrative, 6) Bronson Alcott “No privileges, no pay”

6. Garrison’s tactics: -Non-violence -Non-resistance -Apolitical moral “suasion” • After a ten-year relationship, Douglass and Garrison part ways. William Lloyd Garrison

7. From Thoreau’s Journal: Oct 1st 51 5 pm just put a fugitive slave who has taken the name of Henry Williams into the cars [the train] for Canada. He escaped from Stafford County Virginia to Boston last October, has been in Shadracks place at the Cornhill Coffee-house - had been corresponding through an agent with his master who is his father about buying -himself- his master asking $600 but he having been able to raise only $500. - heard that there were writs out [arrest warrants] for two Williamses fugitives - and was informed by his fellow servants & employer that Augerhole Bums & others of the [Boston] police had called for him when he was out. Accordingly fled to Concord last night on foot - bringing a letter to our family from Mr Lovejoy of Cambridge - & another which Garrison had formerly given him on another occasion. He lodged with us & waited in the house till funds were collected with which to forward him. Intended to despatch him at noon through to Burlington - but when I went to buy his ticket saw one at the Depot [train station] who looked & behaved so much like a Boston policeman, that I did not venture that time. An intelligent and very well behaved man -- a mullatto. [...] The slave said he could guide himself by many other stars than the north star whose rising & setting he knew - They steered for the north star even when it had got round and appeared to them to be in the south. They frequently followed the telegraph when there was no railroad. The slaves bring many superstitions from Africa. The fugitives sometimes superstitiously carry a turf [a piece of soil] in their hats thinking that their success depends on it. The Concord Underground Railroad

8. July 4th, 1854: Thoreau reads his fiery reaction to the arrest of fugitive slave Anthony Burns, “Slavery in Massachusetts”, at a rally organized by Garrison in Framingham, MA • Much sharper condemnation of government than “Civil Disobedience”—though we should remember his call: “Where does conscience begin?” • Walden is published in August “Slavery in Massachusetts”

9. October 16, 1859: John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry (a federal arsenal)—21 black and white are killed • Thoreau’s impassioned “eulogy” of Brown draws critiques from the newspaper editors, like Garrison, whom he criticizes • For what is Thoreau pleading? “A Plea for Captain John Brown”

10. The embodied truth of a movement: Over the course of his life, Douglass is a • Runaway slave • Leader in the Underground Railroad • Self-educated man • Best-selling author • Advisor to Presidents Lincoln and Johnson • Lecturer • Publisher of The North Star, beginning in 1847(its masthead reads: “Right is of no sex—Truth is of no color—God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren”) • Campaigner for women’s rights (attends Seneca Falls convention in 1848) • World traveler (feels “free” for the first time in England) • Fugitive slave until the end of the Civil War Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

11. On the conversation between Emerson’s “Self- Reliance” (1841) and his later abolitionist texts (Jessica, Jennifer, and Vishal): • How does conformity and consistency in slavery become an advantage for slave-owners? How can Emerson’s ideas in “Self-Reliance” compare to this society?  • In “Self Reliance”  one of the main ideas is the call for “Individuality.” Emerson wants individuals to value their own thoughts, opinions and experiences. What does Emerson mean when he says ” that self-reliance, the height and perfection of man, is reliance on God” (368)? Conversation Starters

12. On Douglass’ “transformation” from slave to man (Jessica): • Ironically, how does Mr. Covey, the “negro breaker” become a symbol of freedom to Douglass? • What do you think of education being described as dangerous by slave-owners, but a pathway to liberation by Douglass? How can this be compared to today’s society? Conversation Starters

13. On Douglass as a Transcendentalist (Vishal and Jennifer): • Can Frederick Douglass be considered a Transcendentalist? • When Transcendentalists talk of Men, are they only talking about white people? • Is Frederick Douglass proof of the practical applications for Emerson’s divine presence in Man? Do you think that Douglass achieved a somewhat “transparent eyeball” state by learning to read and write? • How does Emerson’s historicity of Christianity fit with the Transcendentalists anti-slavery stance? • How does Thoreau’s use of perception and language in Walden express itself in Douglass’ narrative? Conversation starters

14. Fuller’s Women in the Nineteenth Century (February 1845) Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (May 1845) Emerson’s Representative Men (1850) Douglass’ My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) • Recap: Transcendentalism stands for the valorization of the “I”, yet on condition that the “I” be grounded in the universal rather than the particular (See Buell, “Autobiography in the American Renaissance” ) Social Representativeness and the Paradox of Douglass’ Narrative