In this gripping episode of Destination Freedom, we delve into the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass, a former slave who rose to become a leading voice for abolition and civil rights. The episode dramatizes Douglass's journey from his early days as a slave, where he defied oppressive laws to learn to read, to his daring escape to freedom. We witness his encounters with influential figures like President Lincoln and John Brown, and his transformation into a powerful orator and advocate for the abolitionist movement. Through vivid storytelling, the episode captures Douglass's relentless pursuit of freedom and equality, highlighting his belief in the power of knowledge and the written word to change minds and societies.
As Douglass navigates the tumultuous landscape of pre-Civil War America, he grapples with the moral and strategic dilemmas of the abolitionist cause. The episode explores his evolving views on the Constitution and his eventual break from the Anti-Slavery Society to pursue political action. With dramatic reenactments of pivotal moments, including Douglass's speeches and his interactions with John Brown, the episode paints a vivid picture of a man driven by a vision of a just and free America. Join us as we explore the life of Frederick Douglass, a man whose words and actions continue to resonate in the ongoing struggle for civil rights.
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[00:00:01]
Unknown:
Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom over me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
[00:00:37] Unknown:
Destination, freedom. The Chicago Defender and station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom, a special radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, interwoven in the pageant of history and a part of America's own Destination Freedom. This week, Destination Freedom tells the story of Frederick Douglass, outstanding leader of the civil war period and internationally known spokesman for the rights of men. The dramatizations will be in two
[00:01:33] Unknown:
moldering in the grave. The union army was marching on. The tall man from Illinois was in the White House. There was an eternity behind you and an eternity ahead of you. You were like a minute in the middle of it. You went in to see President Lincoln.
[00:01:54] Unknown:
The president's waiting to see you, mister Douglas. This way. Thank you. Mister President, your visitor. Thank you, chief.
[00:02:03] Unknown:
I'm here to represent the freedmen, mister President. I'm Frederick Douglass. I was once a slave and a fugitive. Now I'm editor of Frederick Douglass.
[00:02:12] Unknown:
You needn't introduce yourself to me. I know you. Oh, yeah. You do? Expect I heard about you long before you heard about me. It's good you came. You've been through enough to know why the soldiers are out there. Sit down. Let's talk this thing through. Yes. I know you, mister Douglas. I I know
[00:02:37] Unknown:
you. I know you, he said. And you wondered how much the tall man knows. Does he know the year you were born? It was never told to you. Does he know who your mother was? You saw her only once. Does he know the boy who learned the art of reading and who taught the slaves on a Maryland plantation until the master nailed the law up against a gate?
[00:03:05] Unknown:
Any person, slave or free, that teaches a slave to read or write will be imprisoned for two years and whip 39 lashes according to the law of this state. Signed, master Jerry Old. There now.
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And at noonday, the boy stood looking at it with a fellow slave. You were the boy.
[00:03:28] Unknown:
What's it read, Frederick? Say it out loud. You can read it, Sandy. You've been in my class a month now. Takes more than a month to read writing. I can't make it out.
[00:03:38] Unknown:
It says if I'm caught teaching you to read, I'll be lashed. If I'm caught.
[00:03:43] Unknown:
I think it's suspicious. Maybe he missed his book's out of the library. I put them back when I cleaned it. I put them back.
[00:03:49] Unknown:
He's coming. Look away from the sign. Look away. Nice to see you reading the bulletin, boy. You can spread the news. Me reading? Frederick I'm talking to. Books disappear from my library at night. They walk back in the morning. The mistress taught one slave how to read. I was a child then. You're impudent and wild now. The law knows reading and writing unfits a man to be a slave. You've had too much of it. That Yankee editor's freedom paper has been seen in your cabin. You told me about that, sir. I'll tell you again. Get it in your head. You're not a man. You're a slave. It's the Lord's will. If I tell you spreading unrest, I'm calling in the slave breaker. Oh, no, sir. I sure will. One bad sheep will eat a flock astray, and I'll not have it. I'll get to your work and stop dreaming.
[00:04:35] Unknown:
Frederick, I can read it now. It means classes are over.
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You still believe knowledge will make you free?
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I do.
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Meet Sundays in my cabin for
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Sunday school. Where we get the books. I'm afraid to get Never mind the master's books.
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I've got a freedom paper head. We'll practice reading it. Never mind the master's books. Get around the candlelight. Alright. I'll spread out the paper. Now read from the left. Sandy, you're here. Read first.
[00:05:13] Unknown:
It says every slave on the American soil must be freed.
[00:05:22] Unknown:
It says that. Look at the spelling as well as the meaning.
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Utah. Then it say, the state the cannot tolerate every man being free and equal is
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despotic. Ask alright. And and by peace
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or by blood, slavery must die.
[00:05:53] Unknown:
If any dance could be done, I could hang you all. Oh, master. Hold still. The guard's outside. I said one bear cheap would lead the flock astray. It's Frederick I want. You'll go to the slave breaker. Your teaching's over. Now you'll learn. You have already learned that knowledge in the hands of the enslaved was more feared than a gun. You remembered it while the master talked to Kirby, the slave breaker. He's big for his age, Kirby. Can you handle him? I make my living handling him, mister Alden. And to keep you living, breaking him quick. He'll fetch a smart prize in a couple of years. He'll bring more if he knows his ABCs.
[00:06:33] Unknown:
Hey, Frederick. Come over here. Yes? You say yes to your master's boy. You ain't no man. You're a slave. You hear?
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And you feel the lash. You twist and you bend, but you don't break. And when the whip stops
[00:06:50] Unknown:
You ain't crying. If you got no feeling, if you're thinking of escaping, you get out of your head. We'll watch you. Now get off to your cabin, and no rations. Get off.
[00:07:05] Unknown:
You went to your cabin that day and every day with your brain whirling. At night you'd roll on the straw, thinking and searching. And one night your bedmate woke and wondered
[00:07:16] Unknown:
Fred. You still awake? I'm awake. Thinking?
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Thinking.
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You wouldn't get past the gate. They check. I'll get past. I'll get Come in the master. Pretend you're asleep.
[00:07:32] Unknown:
Hold up the light. One escaped last
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night. Frederick here? Yeah. They don't get far without a pass. Frederick's asleep. One bunk's empty? Yeah. Just the kitchen boy's gone, sir. His master rode out a pass. You watch for agitating abolitionists leaving their papers for slaves to read. One put the foot on my land and shoot him same as you would have dug. They pained on me and heard with Frederick. It had taken too long to break him. Too long.
[00:07:58] Unknown:
Did you hear him? I hear him. They mean it. They're going to break you. Not if I get a pass and leave. You get a pass?
[00:08:06] Unknown:
You get me some paper and pencil from the library. I'll write out a pass and sign the name of my master to it. Freelander say. I'll write, This is to certify that I, the undersigned, have given the bear my permission
[00:08:21] Unknown:
and full liberty to go to Baltimore and spend the Easter holidays. It's not to be molested. Signed, WH Freelander. Old man Freelander
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got a nice piece of handwriting. I'll be going up the road if you don't mind, sir. I do mind.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
You run into the wrong master, boy. I'm a freelander. I write good, but not this good. God, grab it.
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They lashed you and took you back to the slave breaker.
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I'd kill you now. Only it's a Sabbath, and I respect the Sabbath. It's you or me, the master says. I respect the Sabbath. But come Monday, you'll break or die.
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You looked at him. You knew he meant it. That night, you thought of dying and you thought of living free. You weighed them. When Monday came, you knew which one you'd settle for. When the lash came, you were ready.
[00:09:27] Unknown:
You breaker, I'll kill you. Stop. Stop. What? You you let go of my whip. Lego. Hit me again. I can have you shot for defy me. Lego,
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take your hands off me. You help. Help. Help. They went down on the ground. You rolled over and grabbed for your life. You knocked away just till you twisted the whip out of his hand and struck back until you saw that that you had won.
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You
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you won't tell a master about this, will you? They hear I couldn't break you. I never get another job. Slay breaking's not my choosing. It's the way things are. If I don't break you, they have no use for me. It's a game the Masters play, one against the other. They play the poor whites like me against the blacks like you. They win, we lose. You won't tell them you beat me, will you?
[00:10:17] Unknown:
You didn't tell. Or in that second you had learned the ABCs of slavery. You were still a slave, but you felt free. And you told yourself He who is whipped easiest is whipped most. You were never whipped again.
[00:10:33] Unknown:
You went back unbroken. If the lash won't break your work wheel. I'm hiring you out for the ships in Baltimore. You won't find time to read and dream, look for agitators to help you. It'd be too much work to let you be troublesome. Too much work.
[00:11:01] Unknown:
You worked. You hurried. Your money went to a master. You saw the way free labor worked for wages. And when you were alone, when you were below deck working the bellows to melt ship's copper, you found a freedom paper and tacked it on the wall. While the bellows breathed, you read the magic words.
[00:11:19] Unknown:
In a state of nature, all men are equal in rights, but are not equal in power. The weak cannot protect themselves against the strong. Civil laws must guarantee the equality of rights.
[00:11:37] Unknown:
Frederick, who you talking to? No one, me. Just myself. Talk of some hot metal they're calling for.
[00:11:43] Unknown:
I'm heating it, sir. It's about ready. Say say, what's this? What? This paper on the wall. This Garrison paper. I got it off the dock. Get it off this ship. Put it in the fire where it belongs. People are getting sick of this agitator. They don't listen to them no more. You play smart boy. Keep your mind on your work.
[00:12:06] Unknown:
You kept your mind on the free words. And when the time was right, you wrote another pass. This time you took the right road. You took a ship to New York. You hid among the passengers until it docked in the harbor. And you followed through the streets, a fugitive in the land where you were born, and you flinched when an arm touched you. You saw the posters reward signs for runaways. When you saw a crowd around a hall, you stood on the edge of it.
[00:12:34] Unknown:
You needn't stand out here, mister. You're welcome inside. You don't know me. I'm John Brown. You?
[00:12:42] Unknown:
Frederick Douglass.
[00:12:45] Unknown:
You're looking for the North Star? You can trust me.
[00:12:50] Unknown:
I'm looking for freedom.
[00:12:51] Unknown:
That's what this meeting is all about. Come in, sit down. Old Garrison's trying to make him fight against the slave trade. Crowd's a little rough tonight.
[00:13:03] Unknown:
Listen. Listen, Brandon. Brandon, I'm telling you freedom's your business, not just the bondsman. Uh-huh. Listen. We've messed him up. Drop your hands, Jimmy. That's right. Get out of town, Tommy. Get out of town. As long as there are men in bondage, he can't slay men. Flaming men. Flaming men. Friends, listen to me. Listen.
[00:13:28] Unknown:
It's a rough crowd tonight, friend. Why do they talk that way? Why don't they listen to it? Because they've never seen or heard those he speaks about. Would you take the platform and speak? Speak? Me? Yeah. We need a new voice. Could I tell them? Tell them the truth. They've never heard it from a slave. Tell them. I'm a little speaker. You'll be one. The men on the platform need your help. Will you give it?
[00:13:56] Unknown:
I'll try. Good.
[00:13:58] Unknown:
Come on. Don't be afraid of the crowd. The roars worsen the bite. Follow me to the platform.
[00:14:07] Unknown:
Mister Garrison,
[00:14:10] Unknown:
here's a new voice for him to hear. Can he speak? Well, if they'll listen, go on. Another one of the Alright, Douglas. You stand before the roster. Get down. Get down. Get off the platform. Get
[00:14:23] Unknown:
Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down
[00:14:35] Unknown:
Listen, though. Listen. Give him a chance.
[00:14:39] Unknown:
One speaker.
[00:14:40] Unknown:
Friends and free men. Free men. A few weeks ago, I was a slave. Now I'm free. Why? I'm not here to prove slaves are men. Nobody doubts it. Alright. Listen to me. There are laws forbidding the teaching or reading or writing to slaves and forbidden travel to slaves. That is right. If slaves were not men, would they need such laws? I'm not here to convince you slavery's wrong. A system that makes men work without wages, beats them, hunts them down, stars them needs no argument to prove it wrong. You say, jail the agitators and the radicals, and we'll have peace. You're wrong.
If every antislavery tongue in the world were cut off, every such paper, book, pamphlet searched out, gathered up, burned to ashes, and their ashes thrown to the four winds, still there would be no peace until all men are free in public opinion as well as the law. If you want peace, first, free your brothers.
[00:16:03] Unknown:
You had spoken, but the hall was quiet. And you wondered if they heard or felt or understood. And Garrison asked them
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Is he who spoke a slave or a man?
[00:16:17] Unknown:
He's a
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man.
[00:16:24] Unknown:
Now there was thunder and you stood under it. You saw a light in the darkness, a wedge opened, a way to change a nation was there. You knew it when the next day you sat down with the men who knew where to go, who wanted you to go with them.
[00:16:40] Unknown:
We can change the opinion of half the country about slavery if you join us, Douglas. Work with me and the reverend Wendell Phillips here. We've done a lot. We can do more with your help. You've got my help. Where do we start? Now hold on. The Anti Slavery Society needs you. Let's understand the rules of the society. You see, there's a good many abolitionists.
[00:17:00] Unknown:
We all agree on freeing the slaves, but we differ on how to do it. We keep away from politics. You know, the slaveholders run politics anyhow. Yes. But doesn't the constitution say that the constitution, Douglas, is words.
[00:17:14] Unknown:
We live by action. The constitution allows for slave holding, doesn't it? When you get experience, you'll see the only way to end slavery is to dissolve the union.
[00:17:23] Unknown:
If I
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learn different Cross that bridge when you get there. We fight not with guns but by moral persuasion.
[00:17:32] Unknown:
I'd like to look for a better way. We're all looking for better ways.
[00:17:36] Unknown:
The work's dangerous. Some of our people have been killed. George is offering $5,000 for Garrison's head. They'll offer much more for yours. They'll send mobs after you. Your only weapons will be your words. Sharpen them until the people feel them. Make them hear you, and we'll win. Is there anything else you need to know?
[00:18:01] Unknown:
Yes. Where do I speak first?
[00:18:06] Unknown:
You spoke first to those around you. Factory workers, mill hands, sailors, and servants. You were the living story of slavery. You looked back and pulled out of your past the lash, the slave markets, the hunger, the laws. You talked in school houses, churches, warehouses, docks. Mobs followed you. You were laughed at and shot at, but you spoke through the crowds. You told merchants in Boston.
[00:18:33] Unknown:
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet not want agitation or men who want crops without plowing up the ground. If we get freedom from all the oppressions heaped on us, we must pay for it by labor, sacrifice, and if need be, with our
[00:18:54] Unknown:
lives. You told lawmakers in New Hampshire
[00:18:57] Unknown:
If you demand liberty for yourself, gratitude your neighbors. If you claim the right to think for yourself, allow your neighbor the same right. If you claim to act for yourself, allow your neighbors to act.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
You told teachers in Ohio.
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No man can put a chain around the ankle of his fellow man without finding the other end of it fastened about his own neck. To free yourselves, free the unfree. And you told people everywhere The American people stand each for all and all for each without respect to race or color.
[00:19:46] Unknown:
You'll talk to them in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois. You went to England, Ireland, and Scotland. And when you came home and talked again, you saw they had listened. You heard them talk in train stations.
[00:20:01] Unknown:
Ticket for Savannah. Uh-huh. Think with Fred Douglas going around the country singing's right, don't you? Mhmm. No. I ain't arguing. Just thinkin' is all. I ain't ready to fight yet.
[00:20:15] Unknown:
You heard a plumber in Springfield.
[00:20:18] Unknown:
Damn. It's this way, boss. If they keep some folks slaves and some folks free, then how the free folks that don't have slaves to work for them gonna make a living? I'll take you. If you had a slave, I'd be out of a job. Fred Douglas is right. This thing's gotta be outlawed. It ain't safe.
[00:20:39] Unknown:
And naturally, us barbers don't talk much while we're working on a customer, but this fellow is crying so much about freedom in the old country. I often said, Fred says freedom's like charity. It begins at home. If you ain't got it at home, you can't give none to the old country. Did I cut too much off, mister? Now naturally, I don't talk much when I work.
[00:20:59] Unknown:
You talked to them and they talked to you. You changed them and you saw they were changing you. You built a newspaper to talk to them. You got to see what they thought about the words of the Constitution. You read them over. They looked different to you, but they still looked the same to an old friend who came into your print shop while the press ran.
[00:21:22] Unknown:
See you're running a paper of your own, Douglas. There's room for a hundred papers. What we're after We're not after the same things.
[00:21:30] Unknown:
You mean my speaking against splitting the union into two nations?
[00:21:34] Unknown:
One north, one south. We agreed on that. Yes. But now that I've looked over the constitution What's the constitution got to do with it? Can it stop slave holding? Can it stop discrimination? Segregation? I believe it can. It says Just words. Just a pack of meaningless
[00:21:51] Unknown:
empty words. Now see here. Negroes, Jews, Gentiles are people, aren't they? Get to the point. Well, the constitution reads, we the people. Not we the white people. Not we the privileged class. We the high. Not we the horse and sheep swine. Get to the point. We the people. That's the point.
[00:22:13] Unknown:
And who'll enforce this thing?
[00:22:17] Unknown:
I I've been going into politics lately. Douglas, it's against the society's rules. I know. I don't trust the Whigs and the old parties, but oh, there's a new man. Abe Lincoln.
[00:22:29] Unknown:
That man. He'll be just like all the others.
[00:22:32] Unknown:
I'm begging on him being different.
[00:22:35] Unknown:
Douglas, how long have we been together?
[00:22:39] Unknown:
Well on twenty years.
[00:22:41] Unknown:
And we've done well for the cause. We've changed people's minds. In the past, yes.
[00:22:47] Unknown:
Now we've got to change. Slavery's changing. Industry's change, We can't stop slaveholders with talk. We've got to change our methods.
[00:22:57] Unknown:
I never thought there'd be a day when we'd be enemies. The society'll go on. It'll go on without Frederick Douglass.
[00:23:08] Unknown:
You lost the star that had guided you. You were on your own road now. You looked back at your old friends and some were behind you, unchanging, unmoving. And then one called you to his home for breakfast. He was John Brown. He was ten years ahead of you.
[00:23:26] Unknown:
Moral persuasion will never free a slave, Douglas. It spreads every year,
[00:23:32] Unknown:
state by state. I try to tell people that. Moral persuasion,
[00:23:37] Unknown:
preaching, underground railways, pleading politics. We tried them all. I see the only way to get this curse out of the country is to put guns in the hands of the oppressed.
[00:23:48] Unknown:
What do you mean?
[00:23:51] Unknown:
Douglas, some men and I are going to a place called Harper's Ferry. I know it. We're taking the arsenal there. We'll build a fortress in the mountains around it. I know those mountains. Then
[00:24:03] Unknown:
we'll build an army. That would be war.
[00:24:07] Unknown:
Slavery is a state of war, Douglas. I thought you'd see it. I wanted you to come with me. Harbor Ferry is a steel trap. You won't have a chance. There's a chance of bringing the country to its feet ready to fight. That's the chance I'll take. You coming?
[00:24:26] Unknown:
Is that the only way?
[00:24:29] Unknown:
Can you find another way? I'm searching. If you're waiting I'm done with waiting and searching. I found my way. I wanted you for a special purpose. When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm. I wanted you to help me hive him. I'll hive him alone.
[00:24:57] Unknown:
You saw him go, and your heart cried out to him. You went back to the newspapers and platforms and lecture halls and talked, but there was a feeling that you had lost the track. Does a tall man in the White House know how you felt about John Brown? How your words of peace and persuasion were blown to dust when you heard the news voice shout? Extra extra John Brown called at Harper's Ferry. Read all about it. Extra extra John Brown to be hanged. Extra extra John Brown to be hanged. You went before the crowds that jeered him, thinking of a thin, stern man who'd gone out to make the constitution come alive, and you spoke again.
[00:25:38] Unknown:
They say John Brown failed. He did fail to save his life, but he did not go out to save his life. He went out to strike against slavery. Was it in vain? I answered 10,000 times, no. John Brown has begun the war that will end slavery. Until he struck, we fought only with words, votes, compromises. John Brown cleared the way. We go his way.
[00:26:20] Unknown:
The stars above in heaven now are kindly looking down. The stars above in heaven now are kindly looking down. The stars above in heaven now are kindly looking down down on the grave of old John Brown.
[00:26:46] Unknown:
Two years passed like a day, and the soldiers went the way of John Brown. You remember when the tall man from Illinois came into the White House, and he says he knows you. How much does he know?
[00:27:03] Unknown:
I know all about you, Fred Douglas. We both climbed the ladder the hard way. When this war is done, when we get a nation all free, we'll both go further. Shall we shake on it?
[00:27:19] Unknown:
You took his thin white hand into your large black hand and shook on it. Outside, the Union soldiers are marching on. John Brown's body is a moldering in the grave. There is an eternity behind you and an eternity ahead of you. This was one minute in the middle of it.
[00:27:44] Unknown:
John Brown's body lies a molding in his grave. John Brown's body lies a molding in his grave. John Brown's body lies on molding in his grave, but his soul goes marching on.
[00:28:25] Unknown:
You have just heard Destination Freedom's dramatization of part one of the story of Frederick Douglass. Next week, we bring you the second and final chapter in the life of this outstanding American statesman. Destination Freedom is written by Richard Durham, and the production is under the direction of Homer Heck. The cast included Ernie Andrews, Oscar Brown, Donald Gallagher, Ken Griffin, George Kluge, Sherman Marks, Art McCoo, Fred Pinkard, Jeff Pew, and Russ Reid. The singer was Greg Pascoe. Richard Shores composed the special music, which was played by l one Owen and Bobby Christian. This is Dick Noble inviting you to be with us again next week for another in our series on the Negro in democracy, destination freedom.
This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom. Oh, freedom over me. And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave and go home to my lord and be free.
[00:00:37] Unknown:
Destination, freedom. The Chicago Defender and station WMAQ bring you Destination Freedom, a special radio series dramatizing the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, interwoven in the pageant of history and a part of America's own Destination Freedom. This week, Destination Freedom tells the story of Frederick Douglass, outstanding leader of the civil war period and internationally known spokesman for the rights of men. The dramatizations will be in two
[00:01:33] Unknown:
moldering in the grave. The union army was marching on. The tall man from Illinois was in the White House. There was an eternity behind you and an eternity ahead of you. You were like a minute in the middle of it. You went in to see President Lincoln.
[00:01:54] Unknown:
The president's waiting to see you, mister Douglas. This way. Thank you. Mister President, your visitor. Thank you, chief.
[00:02:03] Unknown:
I'm here to represent the freedmen, mister President. I'm Frederick Douglass. I was once a slave and a fugitive. Now I'm editor of Frederick Douglass.
[00:02:12] Unknown:
You needn't introduce yourself to me. I know you. Oh, yeah. You do? Expect I heard about you long before you heard about me. It's good you came. You've been through enough to know why the soldiers are out there. Sit down. Let's talk this thing through. Yes. I know you, mister Douglas. I I know
[00:02:37] Unknown:
you. I know you, he said. And you wondered how much the tall man knows. Does he know the year you were born? It was never told to you. Does he know who your mother was? You saw her only once. Does he know the boy who learned the art of reading and who taught the slaves on a Maryland plantation until the master nailed the law up against a gate?
[00:03:05] Unknown:
Any person, slave or free, that teaches a slave to read or write will be imprisoned for two years and whip 39 lashes according to the law of this state. Signed, master Jerry Old. There now.
[00:03:21] Unknown:
And at noonday, the boy stood looking at it with a fellow slave. You were the boy.
[00:03:28] Unknown:
What's it read, Frederick? Say it out loud. You can read it, Sandy. You've been in my class a month now. Takes more than a month to read writing. I can't make it out.
[00:03:38] Unknown:
It says if I'm caught teaching you to read, I'll be lashed. If I'm caught.
[00:03:43] Unknown:
I think it's suspicious. Maybe he missed his book's out of the library. I put them back when I cleaned it. I put them back.
[00:03:49] Unknown:
He's coming. Look away from the sign. Look away. Nice to see you reading the bulletin, boy. You can spread the news. Me reading? Frederick I'm talking to. Books disappear from my library at night. They walk back in the morning. The mistress taught one slave how to read. I was a child then. You're impudent and wild now. The law knows reading and writing unfits a man to be a slave. You've had too much of it. That Yankee editor's freedom paper has been seen in your cabin. You told me about that, sir. I'll tell you again. Get it in your head. You're not a man. You're a slave. It's the Lord's will. If I tell you spreading unrest, I'm calling in the slave breaker. Oh, no, sir. I sure will. One bad sheep will eat a flock astray, and I'll not have it. I'll get to your work and stop dreaming.
[00:04:35] Unknown:
Frederick, I can read it now. It means classes are over.
[00:04:40] Unknown:
You still believe knowledge will make you free?
[00:04:44] Unknown:
I do.
[00:04:46] Unknown:
Meet Sundays in my cabin for
[00:04:48] Unknown:
Sunday school. Where we get the books. I'm afraid to get Never mind the master's books.
[00:04:53] Unknown:
I've got a freedom paper head. We'll practice reading it. Never mind the master's books. Get around the candlelight. Alright. I'll spread out the paper. Now read from the left. Sandy, you're here. Read first.
[00:05:13] Unknown:
It says every slave on the American soil must be freed.
[00:05:22] Unknown:
It says that. Look at the spelling as well as the meaning.
[00:05:28] Unknown:
Utah. Then it say, the state the cannot tolerate every man being free and equal is
[00:05:38] Unknown:
despotic. Ask alright. And and by peace
[00:05:45] Unknown:
or by blood, slavery must die.
[00:05:53] Unknown:
If any dance could be done, I could hang you all. Oh, master. Hold still. The guard's outside. I said one bear cheap would lead the flock astray. It's Frederick I want. You'll go to the slave breaker. Your teaching's over. Now you'll learn. You have already learned that knowledge in the hands of the enslaved was more feared than a gun. You remembered it while the master talked to Kirby, the slave breaker. He's big for his age, Kirby. Can you handle him? I make my living handling him, mister Alden. And to keep you living, breaking him quick. He'll fetch a smart prize in a couple of years. He'll bring more if he knows his ABCs.
[00:06:33] Unknown:
Hey, Frederick. Come over here. Yes? You say yes to your master's boy. You ain't no man. You're a slave. You hear?
[00:06:44] Unknown:
And you feel the lash. You twist and you bend, but you don't break. And when the whip stops
[00:06:50] Unknown:
You ain't crying. If you got no feeling, if you're thinking of escaping, you get out of your head. We'll watch you. Now get off to your cabin, and no rations. Get off.
[00:07:05] Unknown:
You went to your cabin that day and every day with your brain whirling. At night you'd roll on the straw, thinking and searching. And one night your bedmate woke and wondered
[00:07:16] Unknown:
Fred. You still awake? I'm awake. Thinking?
[00:07:22] Unknown:
Thinking.
[00:07:23] Unknown:
You wouldn't get past the gate. They check. I'll get past. I'll get Come in the master. Pretend you're asleep.
[00:07:32] Unknown:
Hold up the light. One escaped last
[00:07:35] Unknown:
night. Frederick here? Yeah. They don't get far without a pass. Frederick's asleep. One bunk's empty? Yeah. Just the kitchen boy's gone, sir. His master rode out a pass. You watch for agitating abolitionists leaving their papers for slaves to read. One put the foot on my land and shoot him same as you would have dug. They pained on me and heard with Frederick. It had taken too long to break him. Too long.
[00:07:58] Unknown:
Did you hear him? I hear him. They mean it. They're going to break you. Not if I get a pass and leave. You get a pass?
[00:08:06] Unknown:
You get me some paper and pencil from the library. I'll write out a pass and sign the name of my master to it. Freelander say. I'll write, This is to certify that I, the undersigned, have given the bear my permission
[00:08:21] Unknown:
and full liberty to go to Baltimore and spend the Easter holidays. It's not to be molested. Signed, WH Freelander. Old man Freelander
[00:08:36] Unknown:
got a nice piece of handwriting. I'll be going up the road if you don't mind, sir. I do mind.
[00:08:42] Unknown:
You run into the wrong master, boy. I'm a freelander. I write good, but not this good. God, grab it.
[00:08:52] Unknown:
They lashed you and took you back to the slave breaker.
[00:08:56] Unknown:
I'd kill you now. Only it's a Sabbath, and I respect the Sabbath. It's you or me, the master says. I respect the Sabbath. But come Monday, you'll break or die.
[00:09:12] Unknown:
You looked at him. You knew he meant it. That night, you thought of dying and you thought of living free. You weighed them. When Monday came, you knew which one you'd settle for. When the lash came, you were ready.
[00:09:27] Unknown:
You breaker, I'll kill you. Stop. Stop. What? You you let go of my whip. Lego. Hit me again. I can have you shot for defy me. Lego,
[00:09:39] Unknown:
take your hands off me. You help. Help. Help. They went down on the ground. You rolled over and grabbed for your life. You knocked away just till you twisted the whip out of his hand and struck back until you saw that that you had won.
[00:09:52] Unknown:
You
[00:09:53] Unknown:
you won't tell a master about this, will you? They hear I couldn't break you. I never get another job. Slay breaking's not my choosing. It's the way things are. If I don't break you, they have no use for me. It's a game the Masters play, one against the other. They play the poor whites like me against the blacks like you. They win, we lose. You won't tell them you beat me, will you?
[00:10:17] Unknown:
You didn't tell. Or in that second you had learned the ABCs of slavery. You were still a slave, but you felt free. And you told yourself He who is whipped easiest is whipped most. You were never whipped again.
[00:10:33] Unknown:
You went back unbroken. If the lash won't break your work wheel. I'm hiring you out for the ships in Baltimore. You won't find time to read and dream, look for agitators to help you. It'd be too much work to let you be troublesome. Too much work.
[00:11:01] Unknown:
You worked. You hurried. Your money went to a master. You saw the way free labor worked for wages. And when you were alone, when you were below deck working the bellows to melt ship's copper, you found a freedom paper and tacked it on the wall. While the bellows breathed, you read the magic words.
[00:11:19] Unknown:
In a state of nature, all men are equal in rights, but are not equal in power. The weak cannot protect themselves against the strong. Civil laws must guarantee the equality of rights.
[00:11:37] Unknown:
Frederick, who you talking to? No one, me. Just myself. Talk of some hot metal they're calling for.
[00:11:43] Unknown:
I'm heating it, sir. It's about ready. Say say, what's this? What? This paper on the wall. This Garrison paper. I got it off the dock. Get it off this ship. Put it in the fire where it belongs. People are getting sick of this agitator. They don't listen to them no more. You play smart boy. Keep your mind on your work.
[00:12:06] Unknown:
You kept your mind on the free words. And when the time was right, you wrote another pass. This time you took the right road. You took a ship to New York. You hid among the passengers until it docked in the harbor. And you followed through the streets, a fugitive in the land where you were born, and you flinched when an arm touched you. You saw the posters reward signs for runaways. When you saw a crowd around a hall, you stood on the edge of it.
[00:12:34] Unknown:
You needn't stand out here, mister. You're welcome inside. You don't know me. I'm John Brown. You?
[00:12:42] Unknown:
Frederick Douglass.
[00:12:45] Unknown:
You're looking for the North Star? You can trust me.
[00:12:50] Unknown:
I'm looking for freedom.
[00:12:51] Unknown:
That's what this meeting is all about. Come in, sit down. Old Garrison's trying to make him fight against the slave trade. Crowd's a little rough tonight.
[00:13:03] Unknown:
Listen. Listen, Brandon. Brandon, I'm telling you freedom's your business, not just the bondsman. Uh-huh. Listen. We've messed him up. Drop your hands, Jimmy. That's right. Get out of town, Tommy. Get out of town. As long as there are men in bondage, he can't slay men. Flaming men. Flaming men. Friends, listen to me. Listen.
[00:13:28] Unknown:
It's a rough crowd tonight, friend. Why do they talk that way? Why don't they listen to it? Because they've never seen or heard those he speaks about. Would you take the platform and speak? Speak? Me? Yeah. We need a new voice. Could I tell them? Tell them the truth. They've never heard it from a slave. Tell them. I'm a little speaker. You'll be one. The men on the platform need your help. Will you give it?
[00:13:56] Unknown:
I'll try. Good.
[00:13:58] Unknown:
Come on. Don't be afraid of the crowd. The roars worsen the bite. Follow me to the platform.
[00:14:07] Unknown:
Mister Garrison,
[00:14:10] Unknown:
here's a new voice for him to hear. Can he speak? Well, if they'll listen, go on. Another one of the Alright, Douglas. You stand before the roster. Get down. Get down. Get off the platform. Get
[00:14:23] Unknown:
Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down. Get down
[00:14:35] Unknown:
Listen, though. Listen. Give him a chance.
[00:14:39] Unknown:
One speaker.
[00:14:40] Unknown:
Friends and free men. Free men. A few weeks ago, I was a slave. Now I'm free. Why? I'm not here to prove slaves are men. Nobody doubts it. Alright. Listen to me. There are laws forbidding the teaching or reading or writing to slaves and forbidden travel to slaves. That is right. If slaves were not men, would they need such laws? I'm not here to convince you slavery's wrong. A system that makes men work without wages, beats them, hunts them down, stars them needs no argument to prove it wrong. You say, jail the agitators and the radicals, and we'll have peace. You're wrong.
If every antislavery tongue in the world were cut off, every such paper, book, pamphlet searched out, gathered up, burned to ashes, and their ashes thrown to the four winds, still there would be no peace until all men are free in public opinion as well as the law. If you want peace, first, free your brothers.
[00:16:03] Unknown:
You had spoken, but the hall was quiet. And you wondered if they heard or felt or understood. And Garrison asked them
[00:16:12] Unknown:
Is he who spoke a slave or a man?
[00:16:17] Unknown:
He's a
[00:16:22] Unknown:
man.
[00:16:24] Unknown:
Now there was thunder and you stood under it. You saw a light in the darkness, a wedge opened, a way to change a nation was there. You knew it when the next day you sat down with the men who knew where to go, who wanted you to go with them.
[00:16:40] Unknown:
We can change the opinion of half the country about slavery if you join us, Douglas. Work with me and the reverend Wendell Phillips here. We've done a lot. We can do more with your help. You've got my help. Where do we start? Now hold on. The Anti Slavery Society needs you. Let's understand the rules of the society. You see, there's a good many abolitionists.
[00:17:00] Unknown:
We all agree on freeing the slaves, but we differ on how to do it. We keep away from politics. You know, the slaveholders run politics anyhow. Yes. But doesn't the constitution say that the constitution, Douglas, is words.
[00:17:14] Unknown:
We live by action. The constitution allows for slave holding, doesn't it? When you get experience, you'll see the only way to end slavery is to dissolve the union.
[00:17:23] Unknown:
If I
[00:17:25] Unknown:
learn different Cross that bridge when you get there. We fight not with guns but by moral persuasion.
[00:17:32] Unknown:
I'd like to look for a better way. We're all looking for better ways.
[00:17:36] Unknown:
The work's dangerous. Some of our people have been killed. George is offering $5,000 for Garrison's head. They'll offer much more for yours. They'll send mobs after you. Your only weapons will be your words. Sharpen them until the people feel them. Make them hear you, and we'll win. Is there anything else you need to know?
[00:18:01] Unknown:
Yes. Where do I speak first?
[00:18:06] Unknown:
You spoke first to those around you. Factory workers, mill hands, sailors, and servants. You were the living story of slavery. You looked back and pulled out of your past the lash, the slave markets, the hunger, the laws. You talked in school houses, churches, warehouses, docks. Mobs followed you. You were laughed at and shot at, but you spoke through the crowds. You told merchants in Boston.
[00:18:33] Unknown:
Those who profess to favor freedom and yet not want agitation or men who want crops without plowing up the ground. If we get freedom from all the oppressions heaped on us, we must pay for it by labor, sacrifice, and if need be, with our
[00:18:54] Unknown:
lives. You told lawmakers in New Hampshire
[00:18:57] Unknown:
If you demand liberty for yourself, gratitude your neighbors. If you claim the right to think for yourself, allow your neighbor the same right. If you claim to act for yourself, allow your neighbors to act.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
You told teachers in Ohio.
[00:19:19] Unknown:
No man can put a chain around the ankle of his fellow man without finding the other end of it fastened about his own neck. To free yourselves, free the unfree. And you told people everywhere The American people stand each for all and all for each without respect to race or color.
[00:19:46] Unknown:
You'll talk to them in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois. You went to England, Ireland, and Scotland. And when you came home and talked again, you saw they had listened. You heard them talk in train stations.
[00:20:01] Unknown:
Ticket for Savannah. Uh-huh. Think with Fred Douglas going around the country singing's right, don't you? Mhmm. No. I ain't arguing. Just thinkin' is all. I ain't ready to fight yet.
[00:20:15] Unknown:
You heard a plumber in Springfield.
[00:20:18] Unknown:
Damn. It's this way, boss. If they keep some folks slaves and some folks free, then how the free folks that don't have slaves to work for them gonna make a living? I'll take you. If you had a slave, I'd be out of a job. Fred Douglas is right. This thing's gotta be outlawed. It ain't safe.
[00:20:39] Unknown:
And naturally, us barbers don't talk much while we're working on a customer, but this fellow is crying so much about freedom in the old country. I often said, Fred says freedom's like charity. It begins at home. If you ain't got it at home, you can't give none to the old country. Did I cut too much off, mister? Now naturally, I don't talk much when I work.
[00:20:59] Unknown:
You talked to them and they talked to you. You changed them and you saw they were changing you. You built a newspaper to talk to them. You got to see what they thought about the words of the Constitution. You read them over. They looked different to you, but they still looked the same to an old friend who came into your print shop while the press ran.
[00:21:22] Unknown:
See you're running a paper of your own, Douglas. There's room for a hundred papers. What we're after We're not after the same things.
[00:21:30] Unknown:
You mean my speaking against splitting the union into two nations?
[00:21:34] Unknown:
One north, one south. We agreed on that. Yes. But now that I've looked over the constitution What's the constitution got to do with it? Can it stop slave holding? Can it stop discrimination? Segregation? I believe it can. It says Just words. Just a pack of meaningless
[00:21:51] Unknown:
empty words. Now see here. Negroes, Jews, Gentiles are people, aren't they? Get to the point. Well, the constitution reads, we the people. Not we the white people. Not we the privileged class. We the high. Not we the horse and sheep swine. Get to the point. We the people. That's the point.
[00:22:13] Unknown:
And who'll enforce this thing?
[00:22:17] Unknown:
I I've been going into politics lately. Douglas, it's against the society's rules. I know. I don't trust the Whigs and the old parties, but oh, there's a new man. Abe Lincoln.
[00:22:29] Unknown:
That man. He'll be just like all the others.
[00:22:32] Unknown:
I'm begging on him being different.
[00:22:35] Unknown:
Douglas, how long have we been together?
[00:22:39] Unknown:
Well on twenty years.
[00:22:41] Unknown:
And we've done well for the cause. We've changed people's minds. In the past, yes.
[00:22:47] Unknown:
Now we've got to change. Slavery's changing. Industry's change, We can't stop slaveholders with talk. We've got to change our methods.
[00:22:57] Unknown:
I never thought there'd be a day when we'd be enemies. The society'll go on. It'll go on without Frederick Douglass.
[00:23:08] Unknown:
You lost the star that had guided you. You were on your own road now. You looked back at your old friends and some were behind you, unchanging, unmoving. And then one called you to his home for breakfast. He was John Brown. He was ten years ahead of you.
[00:23:26] Unknown:
Moral persuasion will never free a slave, Douglas. It spreads every year,
[00:23:32] Unknown:
state by state. I try to tell people that. Moral persuasion,
[00:23:37] Unknown:
preaching, underground railways, pleading politics. We tried them all. I see the only way to get this curse out of the country is to put guns in the hands of the oppressed.
[00:23:48] Unknown:
What do you mean?
[00:23:51] Unknown:
Douglas, some men and I are going to a place called Harper's Ferry. I know it. We're taking the arsenal there. We'll build a fortress in the mountains around it. I know those mountains. Then
[00:24:03] Unknown:
we'll build an army. That would be war.
[00:24:07] Unknown:
Slavery is a state of war, Douglas. I thought you'd see it. I wanted you to come with me. Harbor Ferry is a steel trap. You won't have a chance. There's a chance of bringing the country to its feet ready to fight. That's the chance I'll take. You coming?
[00:24:26] Unknown:
Is that the only way?
[00:24:29] Unknown:
Can you find another way? I'm searching. If you're waiting I'm done with waiting and searching. I found my way. I wanted you for a special purpose. When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm. I wanted you to help me hive him. I'll hive him alone.
[00:24:57] Unknown:
You saw him go, and your heart cried out to him. You went back to the newspapers and platforms and lecture halls and talked, but there was a feeling that you had lost the track. Does a tall man in the White House know how you felt about John Brown? How your words of peace and persuasion were blown to dust when you heard the news voice shout? Extra extra John Brown called at Harper's Ferry. Read all about it. Extra extra John Brown to be hanged. Extra extra John Brown to be hanged. You went before the crowds that jeered him, thinking of a thin, stern man who'd gone out to make the constitution come alive, and you spoke again.
[00:25:38] Unknown:
They say John Brown failed. He did fail to save his life, but he did not go out to save his life. He went out to strike against slavery. Was it in vain? I answered 10,000 times, no. John Brown has begun the war that will end slavery. Until he struck, we fought only with words, votes, compromises. John Brown cleared the way. We go his way.
[00:26:20] Unknown:
The stars above in heaven now are kindly looking down. The stars above in heaven now are kindly looking down. The stars above in heaven now are kindly looking down down on the grave of old John Brown.
[00:26:46] Unknown:
Two years passed like a day, and the soldiers went the way of John Brown. You remember when the tall man from Illinois came into the White House, and he says he knows you. How much does he know?
[00:27:03] Unknown:
I know all about you, Fred Douglas. We both climbed the ladder the hard way. When this war is done, when we get a nation all free, we'll both go further. Shall we shake on it?
[00:27:19] Unknown:
You took his thin white hand into your large black hand and shook on it. Outside, the Union soldiers are marching on. John Brown's body is a moldering in the grave. There is an eternity behind you and an eternity ahead of you. This was one minute in the middle of it.
[00:27:44] Unknown:
John Brown's body lies a molding in his grave. John Brown's body lies a molding in his grave. John Brown's body lies on molding in his grave, but his soul goes marching on.
[00:28:25] Unknown:
You have just heard Destination Freedom's dramatization of part one of the story of Frederick Douglass. Next week, we bring you the second and final chapter in the life of this outstanding American statesman. Destination Freedom is written by Richard Durham, and the production is under the direction of Homer Heck. The cast included Ernie Andrews, Oscar Brown, Donald Gallagher, Ken Griffin, George Kluge, Sherman Marks, Art McCoo, Fred Pinkard, Jeff Pew, and Russ Reid. The singer was Greg Pascoe. Richard Shores composed the special music, which was played by l one Owen and Bobby Christian. This is Dick Noble inviting you to be with us again next week for another in our series on the Negro in democracy, destination freedom.
This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
Introduction to Destination Freedom
Frederick Douglass Meets Lincoln
The Struggle for Literacy
Escape and New Beginnings
A Voice for Freedom
The Power of Words
A New Path Forward
John Brown's Legacy
A Handshake with History
