Home  

Frederick Douglass as portrayed by Dr. Christopher Bell

Speech to Davies Memorial UU Church
Sunday, February 5, 2005

Subject: Early Freethinkers, Abolitionists, and Unitarians and how the three did meet.

Today’s Subject:
Today, I shall speak to you on the subject of Early Freethinkers, Abolitionists, and Unitarians, and how the three did meet.

As you perhaps know, I was born a slave, a slave for life, right here in Maryland. I was born in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore about 100 miles due east from Prince George’s county. I don’t rightly know the year, but my best estimate is that it was in the winter of 1817. You ought to also know that when I was twenty years old, I ran away from my Master, and that much later my friends bought my freedom.

So you see I am a graduate of the American Institution of Chattel Negro Slavery, and my certificate of graduation is written on the flesh of my back by the carvings and scars placed there from the slaver’s lash.

What I have to say to you this morning is premised on most of you, having an understanding of the basic rudimentary characteristics of “Chattel Negro Slavery.” But for fear that many of you may not have a basic understanding of the rudimentary characteristics of Chattel Negro Slavery, I will quickly review just three basic characteristics with you. Please bear in mind that I do not intend to talk to you about the details of the institution of slavery itself.

1. You should know that by law and custom, the slave was considered to be property, the same as a swine, or a wagon or a horse. You should know that such property could be sold, traded, hired out or disposed of at the whim of the slaveholder and in certain instances the slave may be killed with impunity.

But today, we shall not discuss the details of the selling and buying of slaves and the accompanying inhumanity, horrors, and harshness of the frequent public slave auctions were slaves were placed on an auction block, inspected like cattle, and sold to the highest bidder. No, no we’re not going there today.

2. You should know that slavery was a big multi-million dollar business back in the 1800s. Slavery formed the backbone of the plantation economy of the southern states and as such, it was imperative that slaveholders develop “slave-controlling strategies” to motivate slaves to produce (work), and to ensure slavery’s profitability, reliability, and predictability.

However, today, we shall not describe the details of these slave controlling strategies which included: “before sun up to after sun down” work requirements, and the use of certain obedience tools such as: the bloody whip, the gag, the thumbscrew, the cat-o-nine tails, the dungeon, the bloodhounds, and of course chains and branding irons. But we’re not going to discuss these strategies today.

3.You should also know that the “field slave” was fed, clothed, and housed only to the extent necessary to keep him or her alive so that the slave-holder might realize a profit, a pleasure, or a privilege.

4. You should also know that anything that the slave acquired that would allow the slave to begin to feel or think that he was a something other than “property” had to be diligently and systematically wrestled away from him by what I call mind impoverishing practices.

I am not here to describe these mind impoverishing practices, some of which consisted consisted of: living in unsanitary, dilapidated, dirt-floor, shacks; a subsistence level of rations, less than sufficient clothing for warmth in the winter months, being forbidden, on the punishment of death, to learn to read or write; granting no recognition of the, legitimacy of slave marriages or families, and the establishment of slave-breeding farms. But we will not discuss these things today, no, not today.

Now that I have reminded you or in some instances informed you of some of these rudimentary characteristics of “Negro Chattel slavery”, I may now proceed with my intended message. However, I ask your forgiveness if I evince no elaborate grace in preparing an ostentatious introduction. And I trust your indulgences and patience as I speak bluntly and plainly and lay my thoughts before you.

The Idea of the Abolition of Slavery:
Where did the idea of “slave abolition” come from? Just the thought of the “abolition of slavery”, in the early 1700s and 1800s in America was a contrary and wayward idea. This was because such an idea differed radically from the social ethos and the acceptable acculturation of the young American nation.

In addition, the fact that from time immemorial up through the 1700s, and 1800s, “slavery” had been an acceptable means by which civilized nations managed their labor resources. And generally such labor management practices had been blessed and approved by the religious and educational authorities in the societies in question. In other words, in the early 1800s slavery was a “normal” thread in the social fabric of most civilized nations and especially so in America.

So the idea of “slavery abolition” (the idea that all men (including slaves) should be free) was a foreign concept to most societies in the early 1800s. (Chuckle) Now I am certain that the slaves themselves might have always had this idea in mind.

The idea of Slavery abolition (of freeing slaves) began in Europe during the so-called Age of Enlightenment or the Age or Reason. The historians date this period from the early 1600s to the early 1800s.

This Age of Enlightenment was a time:
Wherein men became involved in societal class warfare and social revolutions leading to the overthrow the feudal system and thus allowed the average man greater freedom of physical movement and freedom to enter discourse about the world and the reasons for living, and man’s relationship with God;
Wherein men acquired new scientific information about the physical world and such information clashed and challenged the old ideas about the physical world and about the nature of man;
Wherein new teachings about reasoning and logic challenged orthodox religious faith and superstitions, and where the idea of human rights, including the notion that all men should be free sprang forth.

It was an age wherein the common man began to feel and think that he was a worthwhile being and that he had a right to the fruits of his own labors; and men became suspicious of their churches and governments, as these institutions effected his personal freedom.

Enter the Free-thinkers
So out of the Enlightenment Age there sprang forth here and there, persons who referred to themselves as Freethinkers. Others referred to themselves as Secularists or humanists.

Most Freethinkers believed that “morality” (Right and Wrong or Good and Evil) should be based solely on regard to the wellbeing of mankind in the present life.

Most Freethinkers had theological beliefs that differed from the dogma espoused by the orthodox, conventional Christian Churches. Freethinker ranged from those persons who were truly anti-religious to persons who may have adhered to a private, unconventional faith revering some form of God, but at odds with the orthodox religious authority.

Most Freethinkers were convinced that the affairs of human beings should not be governed by faith in the supernatural, but by a reliance on reason and evidence adduced from the natural world.

Many Freethinkers were secularist and believed that the church and the civil government should be kept separate.

Enter the Unitarians:
Out of these various groups of Freethinkers arose a religious/spiritual community who called themselves “Unitarians.” These Unitarians were a religious/spiritual community that emerged in Europe during the Enlightenment Age and many of the proponents of this new way of believing found their way to America. Beginning in the late 1700s many New England Puritan-founded Congregationalist churches began transforming into much more liberal and rationalist Unitarian fellowships.

These Unitarians shared the general philosophy of the other freethinkers and as a spiritual community, they rejected a wide variety of orthodox Christian tenets, including the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

In my day and time: Unitarian congregations expressed a spirituality of Freedom and Liberty; a spirituality which refused to accept authoritarian “revelations” or “dogmas” which contradicted the revelations they found in their own experience.

In my day and time: Unitarians opposed the reliance of superstition in arriving at spiritual truths and purport that their religion or spirituality lay in a deep reverence for the power of the human mind, and the value of human doubt.

In my day and time: Unitarian espoused the notion that their spirituality did not accept “authoritarian” revelations or dogmas which contradicted the revelation they found in their own experiences.

In my day and time, Unitarians as a group believed in freedom of the mind in the continuing search for truth.

It is my unconfirmed opinion that Unitarians today think similarly to the Unitarians of my day and time.

The Response of the Christian Orthodox Church to Freethinkers and Unitarians.
In the early 1840’s the main orthodox churches of the country were indifferent to the institution of slavery and slavery was an acceptable social practice. The church actually took the side of the slaveholders when the issue of slavery became a matter of public discourse.

The orthodox Christian church with its various congregations made itself the bulwark of American slavery and the shield of American slaveholders. And may I say as an aside, the churches were generally opposed to women having the same rights and privileges as men.

In my day, (1840 – 1860) Doctors of Divinities in the leading congregations taught that man may properly be a slave, and that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God.

Further these Doctors of Divinities insisted that to send back an escaped slave to his master, as required by the Fugitive Slave Act was clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In my day, Doctors of Divinities taught that the woman should be silent in the church, and should yield or be submissive to the will of her husband, or she should temper her behavior as one who is subservient, when she is in the presence of men.

And thus in my day, both the Freethinkers and the Unitarians expressed opinions that challenged the moral authority of the established church in matters pertaining to Slavery and later on, in matters related to Woman’s rights.

Therefore, during my time, it is not surprising that the orthodox or conservative churches considered the Freethinkers and the Unitarians as just another species of infidelity.

For my part, I would say if the Freethinkers and the Unitarians were just another species of infidels, then “Welcome Infidelity. Welcome anything in preference to the teachings being preached by those Doctors of Divinity. You see, in my time, Christianity had become a religion for oppressors, tyrants, man stealers, thugs, and Indian Dispossesors. And very quickly I learned to reject teachings that favored the rich against the poor.

I stepped away from a doctrine that exalted the proud above the humble.

I ran from a philosophy that divided mankind into two classes: tyrants and slaves, and said to the man in chains, stay there; and said to the oppressor, oppress on!

So I say Thank God for the Freethinkers and thank God for those outspoken Unitarians, and atheist, and agnostics and Deists and other Infidels who worked to help abolitionists like me.

What did abolitionists do?
Abolitionists gave of their time, their wealth and their energies to seek means and methods to abolish America’s chattel Negro Slavery. You see, for me and for other abolitionists, slavery was a human plague that had been conceived in greed, born in sin, cradled in shame, and worthy of utter and relentless condemnation.

However to attack slavery in my time was as unpopular as to attack private property in your time.

We abolitionists argued, exhorted, and tried to convince the general public in many public forums and discussion groups that slavery was evil.

Yes, often we wiped bad eggs off our clothes and dodged bricks, and sometimes ran for our lives from mob violence. But we stirred up men’s minds and thoughts so that never again could they rest in their old ways of thinking about slavery. We flooded the country with thousands of pamphlets and newsletter containing penetrating arguments and stories designed to gather a freedman’s sympathy to our cause.

We knew that the cause of freedom had to be imprinted as “Holy” on men’s minds. It was our task to fire men souls with the cause of freedom. We communicated with men so that they could lift their hearts toward freedom. We converted the general public to the cause of freedom for everyone and not just for themselves.

We had to show that those Doctors of Divinity were wrong in what they taught and that slavery was not ordained of God.

Several abolitionists lost their lives and livelihood as they pressed to change the conscious of the nation. And the majority of these abolitionists were White people.

Never was the Anti-slavery struggle a sure win. There were many bleak moments when we thought the successes of the Slavery forces would overwhelm us. I remember that from 1853 to 1860 the forces of the Slave power seemed to be divinely inspired.

I was sitting with Sister Sojourner Truth, a colleague, in the Anti-slavery movement. We were discussing the difficulties that lay in our paths in our abolitionist struggle and how the forces of Slavery had made large strides toward successful continuation.

(1) When we considered the arbitrary and continuing enforcement of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, we became despondent; and
(2) When we saw freedom losing in the struggle between freedom and slavery in Kansas, we wept; and
(3) Upon hearing the outcome of the Dred Scott decision that favored slavery, we began to fear for our own freedom; and
(4) When we saw the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, We trembled with fear for the future of our country, and
(5) After the failure of John Brown’s Raid at Harper’s Ferry, many of us had to go to Canada to ensure our own safety.
(6) When we witnessed the 1855 assault on Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on the floor of the Congress, our leading Anti-slavery United States Senator, we questioned God about these setbacks.

I remember how Sister Sojourner turned to me. “Frederick,” she asked, “Is God Dead?” I thought for a moment and then I responded to her and to the heavens. “No God is not dead”, and I knew then that slavery must end in blood. And you know what Davies-Memorial, my belated friend, John Brown of Harper’s Ferry fame had already made that prediction.

Public and political Legacy of Freethinker and Unitarians
I want to take time to mention several Freethinkers or Unitarians whom I shall commend to you for further study regarding their contributions to slavery abolition.

The leading and most prominent abolitionist of my time was Mr. William Lloyd Garrison. Mr. Garrison recruited me into the movement in the early 1840’s. Mr. Garrison was the editor and publisher of the Liberator, an antislavery newspaper. And he was a White man who fervently believed that all men should be free. In fact, (chuckle) Mr. Garrison even believed in the social, intellectual, and political equality of men and women. (chuckle again). And after a few conversations, he convinced me to this unique outlook on women and I agreed. Mr. Garrison introduced me to the writings of Mr. Thomas Paine.

Mr. Thomas Paine, was a Freethinker who came over to America from England. Mr. Paine was a slave abolitionist too. In his time, Mr. Paine startled the American church with his pamphlet: “Age of Reason” (1794) in which he rejected miracles and supernaturalism. Paine established the 1st Anti-Slavery Society in America. Thomas Paine was far ahead of his times.

I began working with Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony as well as Elizabeth Stanton to assist them in organizing for woman’s suffrage. Many of the first women who became abolitionist were either Quakers, Unitarians, or atheists. But they worked ceaselessly for the abolition of Slavery, and later they worked for Women Suffrage and Women’s Rights. These women worked so diligently that eventually liberal-minded, religious women and even Christian-women came aboard the Woman’s rights movement.

Other abolitionists:
Angelina and Sarah Grimke, (Quakers) who insisted on the right of women to full participation against slavery and went from city to city speaking on the subject.

Reverend John Brown: I can’t say enough about the courage and efforts of Reverend Brown of Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia

Harriate Beecher Stowe (Unitarian) wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin

Reverend Theodore Parker: Rev Parker was a Unitarian Minister and adamant abolitionist. And you should remember that Rev Parker was the first to utter the famous phrasing that, “the arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” You should also know that President Lincoln borrowed Reverend Parker’s phrasing when Lincoln used the phrase of “Government for the people, of the people, and by the people.”

Now a word about President Abraham Lincoln the Great Liberator. I knew President Lincoln, and from my observation of him, regarding matters of abolition, it was clear to me that he was not the Great Emancipator or the Great Liberator that many in history and perhaps in this very auditorium have come to believe. Consider the following:

Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and made it known that he signed it as a “war-time document” based on “military necessity”, and he acknowledged to several cabinet members that it might be successfully challenged in court at the end of the war.

Further the Emancipation Proclamation didn’t free one slave and Mr. Lincoln knew it when he signed it. The Emancipation Proclamation gave freedom to “those slaves in those states and territories of the United States that were in rebellion against the federal government.” Well, if such areas were in rebellion, than the force and power of the federal government could not be brought to bear in those locations to provide for the slaves’ release from their bondage.

Further, Mr. Lincoln didn’t free the slaves in those territories that were not in rebellion against the Federal government, which he had the political and military power to do. This meant that the Proclamation didn’t free slaves in Delaware or Maryland or in several other border states or federally occupied territories.

My long range view of the situation is that the Emancipation Proclamation was a moral message to the world and it verbalized poignantly the better side of human nature, and allowed the north to assume a high moral ground in the war between the states..

We should remember that Mr. Lincoln, as President of the United States, also resisted the repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act.

The above actions are not the actions of a Great Liberator, but a great politician. However, I leave it for you in the privacy of your own conscious to put a label on Mr. President Lincoln, now that you are aware of the aforementioned facts.

Now be Advised, that the Slaves were freed by the Thirteenth Amendment (which was ratified on December 18, 1865) and not by the Emancipation Proclamation.

The 37th Congress passed the Thirteenth Amendment and the influential leaders of that Congress that shepherded the amendment to its ratification were Unitarians and Freethinkers. Such people included:

Rep Thaddeus Steven of Penn, leader for the 13th Amendment

Sen. Charles Sumner of Mass, who led the Congressional fight for the 13th Amendment

Sen. Lyman Trumbull of Ill, who co-authored the 13th Amendment which was ratified December 18, 1865

Rep. James Ashley of Ohio

Governor John Albion Andrews of Mass (Congressional leader)

Behind the front-line abolitionists
There were many influential Unitarians, who by their utterances and writings helped to change people’s minds about slavery. Their writings and utterances gnawed and pricked at the conscious of the average non-slaver-holder and in time helped to turn the abolition of slavery into a people’s movement. A few of these influential Unitarians who were just behind the front line abolitionists in this anti-slavery effort were: Wendell Phillips, Henry Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, James Russell Lowell, Henry Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Ellery Channing, Horace Mann, and Ralph Emerson. Most of these persons were Unitarians.

Preparing to Close

What does this information have to do with Today’s Unitarians? I’ll answer you in this fashion:

Now that you know that Unitarians, agnostics, atheists, and infidels contributed much to the abolition movement when most of the other churches, the established orthodox churches, were attempting to justify slavery:

Now that you know that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution and not the Emancipation Proclamation gave freedom to the slave and that the amendment was ushered along by a group of committed Unitarians in the Congress.

Now that you know that a small group of dedicated female infidels and female Unitarians initiated the Woman’s suffrage movement and the early feminist movement in America.

Now that you know these things, you know that you as Unitarians have inherited several noble and awesome legacies.

In addition, you must remember that as Unitarians, you are beneficiaries of:
a spirituality of Freedom and Liberty;
a spirituality that stands for the unhindered use of the free mind in arriving at convictions
a spirituality which refuses to accept authoritarian “revelations or dogmas” which contradict the revelations you’ve found in your own experience.

Further, you must remember that historically Unitarians have espoused the notion that “morality need not be based in religious dogma, or detailed tenets in order for life to be meaningful, or for the individual to live an inspiring and worthwhile life, or for a people to build a vibrant, caring and sharing, spiritual community.”

Church, knowing what you now know about your history regarding slavery abolition and Women rights, and given your espoused Unitarian principles, I charge you, with a “Must Do” list. This “Must Do” list is a series of tasks (struggles) that will ensure a continuance of your noble and awesome heritage:

1. You must as a spiritual community CONTINUE to be a haven to which all people who seek spiritual growth and wholeness, including religious skeptics, may come and continue their spiritual seeking without ignoring their own intellect and reasoning; and

2. You must as a spiritual community ESTABLISH yourself as a beacon light that signals to all men and women that they may come to you: to express in their own way their thankfulness for the unearned gift of life; or to receive and give the warmth of fellowship, or enjoy the freedom to seek out and meditate on their versions of those Ultimate Mysteries of the Creation which surround them, that some men revere in silence, and others name as God.

3. You MUST individually and as a community PREPARE yourselves to face the “slings and arrows” that will be flung at you from the majority of non-Unitarians churches, who may still view you as infidels. But at the same time, you must continue to speak your truths without rancor, but with vigor, reasoning, and courtesy, while maintaining your reverence for the love of justice, and continuing toward your goal of brotherhood and peace on this earth.

4. You MUST REMEMBER that individually your greatest challenges will come from Inside of you. Your greatest struggle will be to commit yourselves to your seven stated principles, as you show on the back of your church’s order of service.

Conclusion:

This “must do” list will require struggle. But these struggles you can handle. Your community may be small in numbers, but it is still in your hands and in the hands of others who are of like minds as you. You can in time literally change the world if you continue speaking your truths whenever and wherever the occasion arises.

Church, expect the going to be rough because there WILL be a struggle. This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle.

You see, those who profess to favor freedom of body and freedom of mind and yet do not want to cause agitation among the general population are like people who want crops without plowing up the ground; and they are like people who want rain without thunder and lightning.

Church, do not be like people who want the nearness of the ocean without the occasional awful roar of its waters.

Struggles will come and if you are true to your principles you will not only survive, but you will flourish. And I wish you good luck.

Goodbye.

Christopher Bell is author of "The Belief Factor: And the White Superiority Syndrome" and "Soldiers Do Reason Why..."

About Our Diversity Growth Plan

Request updates for this site.

Lay Sermons from Davies church

Davies church & UU History

Sermons by A. Powell Davies

Rev. John Crestwell - Bio & Sermons

Sunday Morning Worship Services

Religious Education

UU & Other Links