Frederick Douglass lecture on Haiti (1893)

In January of 1893 in the 90th year of independence for Haiti, Frederick Douglass (1818 – 1895) the abolitionist, editor, orator, author and statesman gave a lecture at the Haitian pavilion dedication ceremonies at the World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. The Haitian pavilion was the first to have been completed.

Significance of Frederick Douglas speech on Haiti
This speech, often quoted and referred to, has a significance that goes beyond it's content. Frederick Douglas was the Minister-Resident and Consul-General to the Republic of Haiti (from 1889 to 1891), a post from which he resigned in protest of U.S. policies concerning Haiti. The city in which Douglas gave this speech, Chicago, is remarkable because it was founded by Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable whose mother had been a slave in Saint-Domingue (today Haiti). He was the first non-native permanent settler in Chicago. Douglass also points out the outstanding contribution of the Haitian people in ending slavery as practiced in the European colonies:


 * "Until Haiti spoke the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy to devour the dead and dying slaves flung overboard to feed them, ploughed in peace the South Atlantic, painting the sea with the Negro's blood."

Douglas traces the accomplishments of the Haitian people and the great importance of Haitian achievements not only for African-Americans, but for the entire world.

1893 Frederick Douglass Lecture on Haiti at the World's Fair in Chicago
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Preface
The following lecture on Haiti was delivered in America for the purpose of demonstrating the fact to the United States that the Haitians are people like ourselves; that what they have gained they will maintain; that whatever concessions may be asked by man, woman or child, if not conflicting with the constitution of their country, they will without hesitation grant. The fact that their skin is dark and that what supremacy they now have was gained by bloodshed, is no reason why they should be looked upon and treated as though they were unable to comprehend those things, which are to their best interests. The course taken by their progenitors to obtain freedom is in no manner different from that pursued by the original promoters of American independence. Our paths are strewn with the bones of our victims. For whatever United States, the good people of this country will be held responsible. We ask you to read and judge well. The appointment of Mr. Douglass to represent this country in Haiti was bitterly opposed by millions of Americans, but in spite of all opposition he went, and since his return and the success of his mission made public, his assailants and opposers have repented of their error and their respect and administration for him and for those who sent him is greater now than ever before. So far as he was concerned his services were rendered according to the opinion of the good people and the constitution of the United States. We hope the President will ever be successful in appointing another such minister to represent the United States in Haiti. ..........

GEO. Washington, Manager. April, 1893

Introductory
The oration here offered to the public is made interesting by not only its subject but also by its author. The interesting Island finds a rival in the impressive orator, and the reading heart will find itself divided between Haiti and Frederick Douglass. The History of either, the Island or the man, would yield thought enough for the hour. It seems a surplus of riches when such a heroic nation is spread out before us by such a man!

Frederick Douglass in his hours of remembrance must look out upon an amazing group of years. he was just learning to read when Henry Clay was in full fame as an orator and when Daniel Webster was a young man in the National Senate. He was a slave-boy when those two orators were the giants of freedom; he was an African while they were Americans, and yet in intellectual power and in eloquence the slave and the two freeman were at last to meet. It was the destiny of the slave to behold a liberty far nobler than that freedom which lay around Clay and Webster when their sun of life went down. It was the still better destiny of the slave-lad to live and labor in all those years which wrought out slowly and at great cost the emancipation of our African citizens. His talents, his courage, his oratory were given to those days which exposed, assailed and destroyed a great infamy.

By the time Frederick had reached his tenth year he had learned to read. With reading, observation and reflection, came some true measurements of human rights and hopes, and when the twenty-first year had come with its reminder of an independent manhood, this slave made his secret journey toward the North and exchanged Maryland for Massachusetts. Ten years afterward, some English abolitionists paid the Baltimore master for his literary and eloquent fugitive, and thus secured for the famous orator a freedom, not only actual, but legal according to statute law.

Although Frederick Douglass has lived in our land three-fourths of a century, yet many have not heard the voice which once impressed not only America but also all of England. His style is simple. The meaning of his sentences comes instantly. His logic is always like that of plain geometry. It is built up out of solid promises and he reaches conclusions not for arts sake, or for pay-sake, but simply because they are inevitable. In the olden time when he spoke on the slave question and on the duties of the Nation, the audience felt as though they had been pounded with artillery. He was not noisy, nor tremendous in gesture, his power being like that of Theodore Parker and Phillips--the power of thought. The reader of this lecture on Haiti will note at once that simplicity, that clearness, that pathos, that breadth, that sarcasm which are the characteristics of a great orator. In the power of making a statement, Mr. Douglass resembles Webster. The words all rise up as the statement advances, and the listener asks for no omission or addition of a term. If we select one sentence, from that one we may judge all.

"Until Haiti spoke the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy to devour the dead and dying slaves flung overboard to feed them, ploughed in peace the South Atlantic, painting the sea with the Negro's blood." Such a style, so just, so full, so clear, was the form of utterance well fitted for the black years between 1830 and 1861.

This oration should not be for any of us a piece of eloquence only, full of present beauty and of great memories, but it may well take its place as a great open-letter full to overflowing with lessons for the present and the future. It is the paper of an old statesman read to an army of youth who are here to enjoy and to bless the land which the old orators once made and afterward saved and refashioned.

David Swing. Chicago, March 20th, 1893.

Frederick Douglass Lecture on Haiti
Fifteen hundred of the best citizens of Chicago assembled January 2, 1893, in Quinn Chapel, to listen to the following lecture by Honorable Frederick Douglass, ex-United States Minister to the Republic of Haiti.

In beginning his address, Mr. Douglass said:


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