Abolitionist Study 5

This is the 5th and final post in my Abolitionist Study Post about the interactions between Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln during the build-up and the actual prosecution of the war within this nation. The Civil War continued from one bloody battlefield to the next and along the way, Lincoln would learn that the British did not plan to join Confederate forces in the War Between the States. America was the only colony turned union capable of supplying England with its source of cotton. I can imagine that Great Britain was in the same state of limbo put so many American politicians on the fence, unclear just who would be victorious in the Civil War but willing to wait until the war was over before making any commitment.

If cotton wasn't a good enough reason for the English to join up with the rebels perhaps the reason for the British superpower not wanting to commit troops and resources preserve slavery was because Britain had already outlawed slavery, in fact, the British Navy was an active participant in the blockade set up along the African coast to prevent new slaves from being taken out of Africa. The effect of the blockade made new slave transport riskier and thus more costly. American ship captains experienced at evading the blockade incurred the risk and asked for more money from the slave merchants intent on ignoring the no new slaves law.

Fredrick Douglass felt that the battle going on between the states would lead, either to this nation's salvation, or its ruin. During the Civil War, most of the union of states was located east of the Mississippi River. Explorers were beginning to map out territories in what was, back then, the uncharted lands to the west, and slavery would have to grow to keep up. The disunion between the states that would eventually elevate itself to the ultimate conflict of open war had actually played itself out earlier when Kansas was set upon by pro-slavery southerners determined to make the new state a slave state, and northern anti-slavery factions determined to see Kansas become a free state.

My Abolitionist Study Post constitutes mostly my thoughts and feelings from my reading of the book Douglass and Lincoln, by Paul Kendrick and Stephen Kendrick. Back in the 90's when I worked as a writer on the Juneteenth Documentary A Time to be Remembered, a Juneteenth Story, distributed by Karol Media. Most of the information I came across spoke of Abraham Lincoln and Fredrick Douglass with regard to the Emancipation Proclamation and since that time I have been interested in understanding the true relationship between Fredrick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

The book Douglass and Lincoln filled in a lot of the blanks for me with regard to the true relationship between these two men. Lincoln's plans for what was to come for the slaves, after the Civil War was not realized, mainly because his vice president, Andrew Johnson did not see the post-Civil War years the way Lincoln had visualized. Fredrick Douglass and a few others who would accompany him to the White House to meet with the new vice-president-turned-president would find out that President Johnson's post-war visualization for the ex-slaves would be tempered by the new commander and chief worries about preventing a race war, a bitter-sweet climax to the Civil War for Fredrick Douglass and his abolitionist supporters.

I did learn the over the years Frederick Douglass had visited the White House more than a few times, and that while many of his meeting with President Lincoln was contentious they were most often productive, and for the most part pleasant. Kind of like two people attracted by the same idea, but with two completely different ideas on how to get the job done. Douglass was treated to none of those comforting thoughts or feeling after his meeting with the new President of the United States.

I ended up being almost as surprised as Frederick Douglass was when Abraham Lincoln widow Mary included Frederick Douglass on her list of people that she would send mementos of her husband to. She sent her husband’s walking staff to Frederick Douglass along with a note explaining how Abraham Lincoln had considered Douglass someone important to him. Frederick Douglass wrote her back telling Mary Lincoln that he would treasure her gift to him till the day he died.

With Abraham Lincoln gone President Andrew Johnson, the almost total opposite to Abraham Lincoln with regard to the Post-Civil-War, ex-slave problem would be left to start the reconstruction of the Union. Douglass and his supporters would fight hard to turn Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation into the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and make slavery illegal in this country. 

While many white people had fought to end slavery many were still not ready to have the slaves-turned ex-slaves as neighbors and for a long time would support the so-called black codes designed to separate the races.  Frederick Douglass would live into his seventies and die a free man in a country still healing itself.