Many names come to mind when one thinks about popular speakers. Even more come to mind when thinking about popular abolitionist. However, when talking about well-known abolitionist speakers, Frederick Douglass is certainly among the best. Douglass wasn’t just born a great speaker though, his experiences throughout life helped form his skill as a speaker. The time that Frederick Douglass spent overseas in England and around other abolitionist in his early years significantly affected his development as a writer and a speaker.

Frederick Douglass was born in February 1818 and grew up a slave in Maryland. He later escaped by boarding a train in Philadelphia and taking it to New York. He then waited for his future wife Murray Douglass to arrive in New York. The two together became very involved in the Methodist church nearby. Soon, Douglass became a licensed preacher. Preaching was Douglass’s first practice as an orator. Douglass remained very involved with the church and the underground railroad portion in his area. Douglass subscribed to “The Liberator”, a local abolitionist weekly journal, which he the “paper took a place second in his heart only to the Bible.” Modeling his writing after “The Liberator”, Douglass began writing his own abolitionist based work. His work was driven by the entire process of slavery and the slave trade, which was in full affect at the time. Growing up a slave, Douglass had plenty of fire within him, but lacked the skills to get his message out. His early years of self-education was basically spent reading and studying other abolitionist at the time. Studying other abolitionist allowed Douglass to model his work after them while molding it to his experience as a slave to make his work unique. 

Douglass was not always a career speaker. Douglass was a victim of slavery in Maryland for the majority of his youth. Shortly after escaping slavery, Douglass worked as a laborer and was primarily self-educated. “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave” describes the beginning of Douglass’s career as a speaker by telling about His encounter with Garrison in the 1840’s. Douglass met Garrison at an abolitionist meeting in Nantucket, Massachusetts where Garrison then invited Douglass to tell the crowd about his experiences as a slave. Garrison was so impressed by Douglass’s speech that he then offered to employ him. This encounter kick started Douglass’s career and gave him a closer fellow abolitionist friend who also acted as an advisor. After publishing his autobiography “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, Douglass had to leave the country. His reasoning for leaving came from his friend William Lloyd Garrison. Because had he stayed in America as an escaped slave, it was likely that he could be captured and returned to his former master in Maryland. Garrison’s influencing of Douglass to leave the country allowed Douglass to experience completely different lifestyles in Ireland. It also allowed Douglass to practice his speaking widely and develop more. In “What to the Slave…”, Douglass ends his fiery accusative speech by quoting a poem written by his friend Garrison. His choice of this poem illustrates his ability to use irony and form a strong conclusion. His choice of the poem “God Speed the Year of Jubilee” is ironic because it is a positive poem that is commonly associated with Christianity. However, Douglass has just finished saying that Christianity and the church are partly responsible for the existence of slavery because they do not work to abolish it. The poem is a great choice for forming a conclusion because it leaves the audience with a favorable opinion, stimulates an emotional response, and helps summarize his arguments.

As mentioned earlier, Douglass fled to Europe after writing his autobiography. Frederick Douglass’s time spent overseas in Ireland made him a more self-confident and bold speaker. During his speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July”, Douglass makes bold statements to his audience that differentiate between them and himself. Douglass says The Fourth of July is “a day that reveals to him, more than all other days, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham”. This audacious statement, amongst a predominately white audience, shows that Douglass is confident in his words and not afraid to express his opinion. In “Safe Old Ireland” Douglass’s trip throughout Ireland is documented. It says that in the first few weeks of being in Ireland, Douglass had delivered speeches to many large crowds of disapproving Irish. Although many Irish did not like the speeches given, Douglass continued to draw in large crowds to spread his opinions. Webb, Douglass’s publisher, noted that “Douglass was becoming more and more assertive, an effect perhaps of the growing self-confidence he was developing as a result of his successful Irish touring.” This gained assertiveness and self-confidence is represented in “What to the Slave…” through Douglass’s tone and unique speaking style.

Today Frederick Douglass is known as an extremely passionate author and speaker. Not only is he very confident in his words but he is also well rounded in English rhetoric. Douglass developed into the speaker he was because of his time spent in Ireland and through his company with other abolitionist. Other abolitionist guided Douglass as he developed into a great speaker and constantly offered opposing viewpoints to ideas. Because of this, Douglass had all the tools necessary to deliver the exhilarating speech “What to the Slave…” that is still read and studied today.
