56 pages • 1-hour read
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
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Chapter 30-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 30 Summary: “Haiti: Servant Between Two Masters”
Despite the honor of serving as an ambassador, Douglass’s task in Haiti is a tricky one. He personally supports American expansion in the Caribbean, but Haiti’s history as a former slave colony makes it acutely sensitive to foreign control:
His Haitian sojourn, a difficult and exhausting interlude in an aging and unhealthy man’s life, was anything but a diplomatic success; but it led Douglass to a new level of international and Atlantic consciousness, and to some degree even racial consciousness (692).
Just prior to Douglass’s arrival, Haiti suffers yet another military coup. The political climate is characteristically volatile. The American press points to the island nation as proof positive that Black people cannot govern themselves without devolving into chaos. Douglass stoutly resists this notion yet is aware of the country’s political instability. Blight writes, “Douglass criticized Haitian politics, all the while performing as a kind of protector of its history. This became a balancing act he could not sustain” (708).
His mission is to request a coaling station for America at Mole Saint-Nicolas. The Haitian government resists this proposal because it may lead to future incursions by foreign powers. American business interests at home agitate to replace Douglass with a White ambassador under the assumption that the Black government of Haiti would be more respectful in its response if dealing with a White diplomat. When Admiral Gherardi is sent to assist Douglass in negotiations, his demanding attitude alienates the government completely and destroys any chance for an American coaling station.
In May 1891, Haiti experiences yet another bloody rebellion against the current regime, which causes Douglass and Helen to flee to Jamaica for shelter. Frustrated with his inability to accomplish his diplomatic goal in Haiti, Douglass resigns in June and returns with his wife to Cedar Hill.
Chapter 31 Summary: “If American Conscience Were Only Half-Alive”
By 1892, Douglass feels his age beginning to catch up with him. Despite frequent threats to retire, he always seems to find a new project beckoning:
But Douglass, despite fatigue and likely the beginning of arterial heart disease, now had at least three jobs—as professional Republican; as commissioner for Haiti to the Chicago Exhibition, [...] and still as patriarch and provider for his troubled extended family (718).
The election of 1892 will be the last in which Douglass plays an active role. The Republican Party increasingly demonstrates the traits for which it will later be known. It is no longer the party of Lincoln but the party of Andrew Carnegie and the interests of big business. Harrison is defeated for re-election by Grover Cleveland, and the Democrats gain control of the White House and both houses of Congress.
Douglass now turns his attention to managing the construction of the Haitian Pavilion for the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1893. The Columbian Exposition is meant to display global progress but uses non-White races as sideshow exhibits. According to Blight, “The superiority of Anglo-Saxon thought and arts, of an America run by a white ruling class forging progress, unmistakably dominated the Exhibition” (726). Nevertheless, Douglass faithfully performs his duty to present Haiti in the best possible light.
During his stay in Chicago, he makes the acquaintance of a young activist named Ida B. Wells. She becomes his protégé as they both champion the cause of ending the epidemic of lynching that has sprung up in the South during the early 1890s. Douglass’s last great orations revolve around this single topic.
Epilogue Summary: “Then Douglass Passed”
Although in his late 70s, Douglass continues to keep a busy schedule. His willingness to keep working is attributable in part to continued pleas for financial aid. His children, grandchildren, and various charitable causes all make claims on his pocketbook.
On February 20, 1895, Douglass’s activity comes to an abrupt end, dying of a heart attack in his home at age 77. That very evening he was scheduled to give a speech.
The entire country is affected by the great man’s passing. Critics and admirers all have comments to make and eulogies to deliver. Douglass is given an impressive memorial service in Washington, and his body is then transported to New York, where it lies in state in City Hall as had the bodies of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant. Blight sums up his life by saying, “There had been no other voice quite like Douglass’s; he inspired adoration and rivalry, love and loathing. His work and his words still wear well” (764).
Chapter 30-Epilogue Analysis
In his final years, Douglass is increasingly faced with the need to defend his contradictory ideologies. His appointment as ambassador to Haiti places him in the difficult position of celebrating the successful slave revolt that founded the nation while deploring the country’s chronic political instability. Furthermore, Douglass is charged with negotiating a coaling station for American use, knowing that the islanders may view this request as the first step toward annexation by a foreign power. He fully supports American imperialism in the Caribbean but cannot bring himself to strong-arm the Haitians into compliance. Because he cannot reconcile the conflict, Douglass resigns his post.
Matters at home are no less difficult. In the years following the Civil War, Douglass never strikes a balance concerning the best way to elevate the Black population within the democracy as a whole. He sees the gains of the Civil Rights Amendments slowly eroded by the Democratic Party and its alliance with the racist South. Even more frustrating to Douglass is the lack of initiative he sees in the former enslaved people. He spends years giving his “Self-Made Man” speech to Black audiences, but much of his advice falls on deaf ears. Ideologically, he never succeeds in reconciling the belief in federal intervention with personal independence. The conundrum bedevils him for the remainder of his life.
The final chapters also revisit the theme of the power of words. During the 1890s, the South experiences an epidemic of Black lynching. Douglass delivers a series of speeches decrying this barbaric behavior. Blight writes, “Just as he had begun his career fifty-four years earlier, he fought with his only real weapon—the infinity, majesty, and power of words” (744). Douglass’s final day on earth is marked by this commitment to oratory. He is about to leave his home to give a speech when he suffers a fatal heart attack.
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