Frederick Douglass in Scotland
Frederick Douglass' visit to Scotland 1846 and related matters, based on my book, published by Edinburgh University Press in 2018. bulldozia.com/douglass-in-scotlan… Posts by @bulldozia.com #SlaveryArchive
- 'I'm early as bounty hunters, knockin' / Frederick Douglass upped the yammy like, "Y'all ain't leave me no options"' armandhammer.bandcamp.com/track/no-gra...
- This book (and all others by @edinburghup.bsky.social) are half price this weekend from their website: edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-frederi...
- This lecture by Kenneth B Morris, Jr, a descendant of both Frederick Douglass and Booker T Washington, is on Thu 20 Nov. Attend in person or online. Book here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/carnegie-l...
- 'Hosted in the Assembly Rooms, where Frederick Douglass repeatedly spoke to thousands of people, we invite audiences to join us in person and online to attend the last in this series of lectures.' (Edinburgh, Thu 20 Nov) www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/carnegie-l...
- 'However, previous discussions about renaming streets and removing some statues will not be taken forward currently, according to the council.' www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
- #otd 1846 Frederick Douglass addressed a meeting at West-End Chapel in Hawick www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-.... 1/5
- This was the only meeting addressed by Douglass in the Scottish Borders as far as we know, although his fellow campaigner Henry Clarke Wright had toured the area in the Spring. 2/5
- At the meeting James Robertson delivered the news, first broken in Edinburgh, that negotiations had begun to purchase Douglass’s freedom, and invited the audience to contribute to the funds already raised. 3/5
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View full threadDouglass' visit was commemorated by a plaque placed on the site of the church in February 2023. 5/5
- Reposted by Frederick Douglass in Scotland'His book tour brought him to Cambridgeshire, where he would marry and have two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe...when reactionary “church and king” mobs were targeting reformers.' 1/3
- #otd 1846 Frederick Douglass addressed a crowded meeting at the Music Hall in Edinburgh: www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-... 1/5
- The newspaper reports dwell on the contribution of other speakers, but the occasion is significant because it was the first time that secret negotiations over the purchase of Douglass’ freedom were made public. 2/5
- Anna and Ellen Richardson in Newcastle had been gathering donations since the summer and, communicating through lawyers in Boston and Baltimore, they persuaded Douglass’ legal owner to agree a price of £150. 3/5
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View full threadAfter the meeting, Douglass stayed at the home of John Wigham, Jr. and Sarah Wigham (née Nicholson) at 10 Salisbury Road, Edinburgh 5/5
- #otd 1846 Frederick Douglass addressed a meeting at Perth City Hall: www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-... 1/4
- His fellow speaker William Lloyd Garrison wrote: ‘we came to this city, from Dundee, in a steamer borne on the noble river Tay, but the weather was dismal and stormy, so that we lost (what I much desired to see) a good prospect, and saw very little of the river scenery.’ 2/4
- Despite the weather, the meeting attracted an audience of 500 or so. 3/4
- The following week the Perth Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society organised a public display of ‘many, various, elegant and FANCY ARTICLES’ that had been contributed for dispatch to the Christmas Anti-Slavery Bazaar in Boston, Massachusetts. 4/4
- #otd 1846 Douglass, Garrison and Thompson addressed a meeting in Dundee, at St James' Chapel, Bell Street: www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-.... 1/4
- They had originally been invited to speak at Ward Chapel, but its minister David Russell had blocked the request (as he had when Douglass was in town in March). 2/4
- Dundee thanked the managers of the church for helping out at short notice, reciting an anti-slavery verse by the American poet John Greenleaf Whittier. 3/4
- And he noted that while the rain and the 'Free Church mops' had finally erased the 'Send back the money' slogans from the walls of Edinburgh, it had begun to be chalked up again following the return of the abolitionists that week. 4/4
- #otd 1846 Douglass and Garrison spoke before an audience of several hundred at Bethelfield Chapel in Kirkcaldy www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-.... 1/3
- The meeting was called by the local Anti-Slavery Society, formed by women of the town following Douglass' previous visit in June. 2/3
- Its object was to collect 'money or articles of some value to be sent to the American Anti-Slavery Bazaar – the proceeds of which to be applied in the liberating of as many of their fellow-beings in bondage as the funds will overtake.' 3/3
- #otd 1846 Frederick Douglass returned to Scotland, again with William Lloyd Garrison, but joined this time by the English abolitionist George Thompson: www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-... 1/4
- They spoke at Brighton Street Church in Edinburgh, arriving just in time, after an exhausting journey on the night steamer from Fleetwood to Ardrossan. 2/4
- Douglass told the audience of a chance meeting in Liverpool with an old friend from Baltimore he hadn't seen for eight years – he had escaped slavery too, by jumping ship in the Bahamas, just like Douglass's hero Madison Washington. 3/4
- 'Here they were meeting, in all parts of the country, coloured men. Whence did they come? From the United States!' 4/4
- #otd 1846 Douglass and Garrison spoke before a hastily-convened meeting of several hundred in Kilmarnock www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-...
- They had been persuaded to break their train journey to Ardrossan, before taking the steamer for Belfast. They would return to Scotland three weeks later.
- #otd 1846 Douglass and Garrison addressed a public meeting of Glasgow Emancipation Society at City Hall www.bulldozia.com/glasgow-30-s... 1/4
- Both men mourned the decline of abolitionist fervour in Scotland. 'Not six years ago there were many in this city who did not hesitate to come forward. Where are they now?' said Douglass. 2/4
- 'A fearful change has come over the people, & Scotland, which was once anti-slavery, is now fast becoming pro-slavery, & men in the provincial towns are running to their Bibles to justify slavery from the Scriptures,' added Garrison. 3/4
- 'You are not safe in the company of such men,' said Douglass, 'for those who will apologise for the stealing of black men, will apologise for the stealing of white men. The man who will steal black horses will steal white ones.' 4/4
- #otd 1846 Douglass and Garrison spoke at Bell Street Chapel, Dundee www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-.... 1/4
- They contested the 'false aspersions thrown out by the Northern Warder', the Free Church-supporting newspaper which afterwards published a caustic editorial attacking what it called the 'so-called' abolitionists. 2/4
- Of a prominent Scottish clergyman, Douglass said he appeared to be 'one of those men who would not confine slavery to the Blacks, if he found it serve his purpose to extend it to the Whites.' 3/4
- Of his nemesis, the pro-slavery minister Thomas Smyth, of Charleston, he observed: 'This miserable creature creeped into the Evangelical Alliance, and left the mark of his slime behind him.' 4/4
- #otd 1846 Douglass and Garrison addressed a meeting of the Edinburgh Female Anti-Slavery Society & in the evening spoke for a second time at Brighton Street Church 1/4 www.bulldozia.com/douglass-in-...
- The proceedings were enlivened by the intervention of a member of the audience who caused some amusement by arguing that slavery was not condemned in the Bible. 2/4
- Garrison alluded to South Carolina's Negro Seamen Acts under which British sailors of colour could be seized & imprisoned if they landed in its ports. 3/4
- Douglass outlined his controversy with Thomas Smyth, Presbyterian minister from South Carolina, who repeated libellous rumours about him on his visit to Britain and Ireland that summer. Douglass's lawyers eventually forced a retraction. 4/4
