Douglass, Frederick | Civil Rights champion on the false idylls of slavery

Douglass, Frederick 

Autograph letter signed ("Frederick Douglas"), to F. P. Noble, the Secretary of the African Congress on the temerity of revisionist history, 13 March 1893

1 page on Cedar Hill stationery (205 x 120 mm); some minor soiling along top edge. 

Douglas pens a succinct response on the idea that it wasn't all bad for those enslaved, writing in part:

"It has been a long time since I listened to anyone of sufficient temerity to attempt to represent as "idyllic" any feature of human bondage. If notified in time, I cannot refuse to bear my testimony upon this subject."

The recipient, Frederick Perry Noble, was a white missionary and Newberry librarian who helped organize the 1893 African Congress, an early attempt to more broadly understand African affairs in light of colonization. 

Frederick Douglass indeed had testimony to give. Born into slavery in Maryland, he taught himself to read and write and after finally succeeding in escaping, eventually rose to become the leading voice of Abolition in 19th century America. His first autobiography, Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, became an international bestseller upon its 1845 publication. His renowned skills as an orator put to rest any serious doubts that a formerly enslaved man of mixed race would be unable to write with eloquence. 

Douglass championed the rights of the impoverished and women, prescient in his examination of the plight of minorities beyond those formally in servitude.