Lucas Morel -- "Frederick Douglass: The Making of an American"

Wed, March 22, 2023 4:00 PM - Wed, March 22, 2023 6:00 PM at MSU, Olds Hall 11

In "Frederick Douglass: The Making of an American," Dr. Morel will explore how a man who had every reason to hate America became one of the nation's strongest defenders. Born into slavery, Douglass eventually escaped and devoted his adult life to abolishing slavery and promoting the equal protection of the laws for all Americans, regardless of race or sex. Early in his career as an abolition speaker, Douglass declared, "I have no love for America. I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I?The institutions of this country do not know me, do not recognize me as a man." Those institutions were the major shapers of American life: the church, the government--and the Constitution. But he did not hold that position for long. Douglass eventually claimed America as his country, calling the principles of the Declaration of Independence "saving principles," and interpreting the Constitution as "a glorious liberty document." He found that reading the Constitution as a pro-slavery document contradicted its Preamble and overlooked its principles and mechanisms of freedom. Douglass also noticed that the Constitution never used the word "slavery," and it permitted Congress to ban the importation of slaves in 20 years--which it did. Douglass concluded that it "leans to freedom, not slavery, and looked to the abolition of slavery rather than to its perpetuity." Through speeches and newspaper editorials that spanned half a century, Douglass joined a vanguard of blacks and whites in the struggle to align this nation's practices with its noblest professions. 

Lucas Morel is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and the head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University. He is the author of Lincoln and the American Founding and Lincoln's Sacred Effort: Defining Religion's Role in American Self Government.