A Wonderful Liberty: Frederick Douglass and the Combat for an Antislavery Structure

On this well timed and provocative guide, Damon Root reveals how Frederick Douglass’s combat for an antislavery Structure helped to form the course of American historical past within the nineteenth century and past. At a time when the rules of the Structure and Declaration of Independence have been below assault, Frederick Douglass picked up their banner, championing inalienable rights for all, no matter race. When People have been killing one another on the battlefield, Douglass fought for a trigger larger than the mere preservation of the Union. “No struggle however an Abolition struggle,” he maintained. “No peace however an Abolition peace.” Within the aftermath of the Civil Struggle, when state and native governments have been violating the rights of the lately emancipated, Douglass preached the significance of “the ballot-box, the jury-box, and the cartridge-box” within the battle towards Jim Crow.

Frederick Douglass, the previous slave who had secretly taught himself learn, would educate the American individuals a factor or two in regards to the true that means of the Structure. That is the story of a basic debate that goes to the very coronary heart of America’s founding beliefs—a debate that’s nonetheless very a lot with us at this time.