56 pages • 1-hour read
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
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Chapters 25-26Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary: “What Will Peace Among the Whites Bring?”
By 1875, southern states are finding new ways to subvert the policies of Reconstruction. Intimidation of Black voters at the polls is common, as are the terror tactics of the Ku Klux Klan to suppress the newly freed population. Blight writes, “Just what kind of peace might unfold in America became for Douglass a central theme during the remainder of Reconstruction and beyond” (552).
The orator is particularly concerned when the Republican Party loses its commitment to enforcing Reconstruction. As Democrats make gains in the legislature, old-guard Republicans no longer oppose their attempts to reassert White political supremacy in the South. Douglass greatly fears that reconciliation between the North and South will spell the end of real emancipation. According to Blight, “A ‘peace among the whites’ is a striking way of thinking about the waning of Radicalism and the end of Reconstruction” (557).
In his speeches during this time, Douglass is torn between a desire to urge Black self-reliance and the need to insist on government intervention to get the emancipated population back on its feet. Douglass’s internal conflict regarding the best approach to help the freed class is compounded by other woes as his children continue to demand financial support, Ottilie pressures him to go to Europe with her, and he feels exhausted by the killing pace he maintains making political speeches around the country. One minor victory occurs at the end of 1875 when Douglass is finally given a political appointment under the Rutherford B. Hayes administration as the marshal of the District of Columbia.
Chapter 26 Summary: “An Important and Lucrative Office”
After the Hayes inauguration in March 1877, Douglass is given the anticipated appointment as marshal. Blight describes the position’s duties: “The marshal posted all bankruptcies in the District and remanded all prisoners back and forth between jail and the courts. In effect, he helped run the federal court that once adjudicated fugitive-slave cases” (583). This job relieves the orator of the burden of grueling winter lecture tours in the country’s heartland and provides financial stability for his ever-growing string of family dependents.
With his financial position stabilized, Douglass decides to visit Thomas Auld and journeys back to Maryland in June 1877. Blight writes, “Douglass could never entirely believe his own myth even as he forged it; often he asked himself, How did I get here?” (592). His old master is bedridden and palsied, but their reunion is cordial. Auld admits that his former servant was always too smart to be a slave. He recalls the year of Douglass’s birth, which the latter never knew with certainty. The biographer speculates that Auld’s ready knowledge of this fact may indicate that he is the orator’s biological father. While visiting the site of his grandmother’s cottage, Douglass finds the tree under which he was supposedly born. He scoops up some of the dirt and takes it with him as a concrete reminder of his own history.
Back in Washington, Douglass speaks against an emerging phenomenon known as the Kansas Exodus. Many freed Black southerners are attracted to the offer of land of their own as settlers in Kansas. Douglass sees this as an abandonment of their homeland and an admission of defeat against the renewed onslaught of southern racism. His opinions, however, don’t dissuade many from migrating.
In 1878, Douglass purchases a 15-acre country estate called Cedar Hill in Anacostia, a neighborhood in DC. His extended family moves with him, and Ottilie is still an occasional guest at his home. Their relationship approaches its final stages as she considers returning to Germany permanently. At the same time, Douglass has hired a 40-year-old feminist named Helen Pitts to be his secretary. According to Blight, “There was only one future Mrs. Douglass, and Ottilie Assing struggled hopelessly against the knowledge that it was not her” (609).
Chapters 25-26 Analysis
These chapters describe Douglass’s activities between 1875 and 1878. In the aftermath of the war, both the southern states and Douglass attempt to reinvent themselves. Thematically, questions of identity are again at the forefront of the narrative. Douglass is embedding himself more firmly as a Republican Party insider. As a reward for his services during the Hayes presidential campaign, Douglass is named marshal of the District of Columbia. It is his first government appointment, and career politicians of both parties grudgingly recognize his authority.
On a personal level, Douglass still feels an urge to solve the mystery of his origin. He takes a trip back to Maryland to visit his old master, Thomas Auld. Despite Douglass’s early writings that depict Auld as the epitome of the corrupt slaveholder, the two men have mellowed with age. Auld is near death but welcomes his visitor cordially. Both men long for reconciliation. That Douglass asks Auld to tell him the year of his birth indicates his obsession with identity. Auld tells him the year and offers an additional bit of validation by praising Douglass for his uncommon intelligence. During the same trip, Douglass visits the tree under which he is rumored to have been born and saves a handful of the dirt from that spot. The dirt represents a material connection with his origins that cannot be taken away from him.
Douglass’s continued efforts to define his identity are echoed in the Kansas Exodus of former enslaved people who wish to depart for the western territories in search of a better life. Douglass feels that in doing so, they would be abandoning their own identities as southerners. He isn’t content to simply define himself. He wants all freedmen to feel a sense of identity with the soil where they were born, just as he does.
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