A Study Of Frederick Douglass’s Abolition Strategies (1838-1861)

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) was one of the most famous black civil rightsleaders in the19th century, just as booker T. Washington,W.E.B.Du Bois, Malcolm Xand Martin Luther King. After fled to the north in1838, he was committed to theabolitionist movement, until his death in1895, He had been devoted himself to theabolition of slavery and improvement of the black people’s status for more than half acentury.This paper focuses on Douglass’ strategies of abolitionism before Civil War,when his mainly thoughts were to abolish slavery. There were three strategies ofabolitionism in the middle of the19th century--moral suasion, political action andviolence. For the three strategies, Douglas made tough efforts to explore and achievedrich achievements. His explorations and thoughts were not only beneficial forAmerican Abolitionism Movement at that time, but also were of importance to guideto the future civil rights movement.This paper tries to sort Douglass’ abandonmentand adoption of the abolition strategies, explain reasons of these shifts andsummarize their characteristics, in order to absorb the great thinkers’ life experience.The dissertation is composed of four sections:the introduction, the main body,the conclusion and the references.The introduction mainly introduce the previousresearch work on the subject, the research methods that would be used, the meaningsand the shortcomings in this paper.The first part: to research the process of formation and abandon of Douglass’smoral suasion, focus on analyzing the rupture of Douglass with his tutor WilliamLloyd Garrison, reveal that Douglass’ moral persuasion strategy was a compromise.He held the abolition of slavery as his highest goal, and pragmatism as hismethodology, which did not tally with Garrison’ thought, and resulted in the breach oftheir relationship.The second part: to research the process of Frederick Douglass’s transformationto political action.Because of Wilmot Proviso, Gerrit Smith’s influence, andanti-slavery of the Constitution, he chose political action as his main strategy.Douglass’s political action turned Garrisonism moral revolution into socialreform,which included moral suasion, and he adhered to pragmatic methodology inpractice.The third part: to clarify the development of Frederick Douglass’ violencethought. Because of his early experience, John Brown’s influence, and current politics,Douglass advocated violence instead of his early opposition. Douglass’ abolitionthoughts were based on the theory of the natural law, insisted on pragmaticmethodology in practice.Conclusion: this paper argues that Frederick Douglass’ thought is consistent,which is based on the abolition of slavery as the highest goal. Frederick Douglass heldbold attempts on the abolition strategies, and pragmatic methodology in practice.