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1 results

  • Chapter 15 - The Civil War

  • from Part III - Activism
  • Edited by Michaël Roy
  • Book:
    Frederick Douglass in Context
    Published online:
    16 June 2021
    Print publication:
    08 July 2021, pp 182-193

  • Summary

    To Frederick Douglass, the Civil War was a holy fight for freedom fought through speeches and writings on three main subjects. First, slavery was sin and abolition was the will of God. Second, abolition would require violence. Third, African Americans merited full inclusion within the United States. Douglass’s analyses are marked by both moral clarity and capacity for contradiction, which allowed him to convey equal and opposite truths about a Civil War as revolutionary as it was incomplete. Both the moral clarity and the ability to encompass opposites grew directly from Douglass’s understanding of God – merciful and wrathful – at work in the war. While Douglass’s embrace of violence and conviction of God’s will might give us pause, Douglass teaches that things can be opposite and true – a war can both transform a nation and fall short – at the same time.