Hello, and welcome to how to take over the world. My name is Ben Wilson. I'm excited for this episode on Frederick Douglas.  I wanted to get it released while it was somewhat relevant because of some things that are going on right now in the United States and across the world.

So here it is, but first a word from our sponsors.

The second half of the 19th century in the United States. Has to have been one of the most interesting time periods in human history to live through  not necessarily one of the best to live through. Um, it had, you know, the American civil war, which was America's deadliest war by far, there were numerous severe economic downturns.

Um, and also just a lot of people had their lives disrupted in, in many difficult ways. And that's because in 1850, the United States was an agricultural nation where most people got around by horse. And by 1900, it was an industrial empire where people are moving around by train and car. So it was certainly an interesting time and interesting times make for interesting people and mid to late 18 hundreds.

America was absolutely filled with interesting people. You had incredible inventors like Thomas Edison, who we've talked about as well as Nicola, Tesla and Henry Ford. You had political figures like Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. You had businessmen who became some of the richest men of all time.

Um, when you talk about guys like John D Rockefeller and the Vanderbilt dynasty, JP Morgan, you had incredible artists like Mark Twain and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

And so ask yourself of all these Americans of all the people in the world. Who are coming around at this time, who was the most photographed person of the 19th century,  because this is the time period when photography is really starting to take off , It's starting to come into its own as a way to document what's going on. What's happening in the news as well as a form of art. So, so who of all these people was the most photographed American of the 19th century.

and if you can read the title of the episode of this podcast that you're listening to right now, that's probably not much of a head scratcher. You can probably figure out. That the winner of this title is the statesman orator, abolitionist writer and social reformer, Frederick Douglas,

and Frederick Douglas is widely regarded as one of the most influential Americans of all time. And he definitely deserves the title.  Although, you know, it's interesting. Sometimes people are inclined to diminish the accomplishments. Uh, not a Frederick Douglas per se, but just of any one individual, right?

This is something I've been hearing recently. So they'll say, you know, Hey, personal computers and smartphones still would have been invented if Steve jobs had never come along, which is definitely true. Uh, don't get me wrong.  or, you know, you'll hear people say, you know, Rome was ascendant and poised to become this massive Eurasian empire.

Whether,  whether Caesar had come along or not. And so maybe he doesn't really deserve all this credit for creating the Roman empire, which also, you know, there's some merit to that argument as well.  So, I mean, I guess it's a fair reading of history. And so far as it goes, yes, there are trends that affect history that are larger than any one individual.

but at the same time time, I mean, you know, I think it was a little bit like saying, you know, Michael Jordan wasn't really that great. I mean, if he hadn't won all those championships, someone would have  was like, right. Yes. Someone would have, you know, probably multiple people would have, but the point is he did, you know, he's the one who won all six of those championships.

And so to relate it to our current subject, abolitionism was ascending economics. The conditions were changing. There were a number of factors that meant the slavery's days were probably numbered. Slavery was abolished in France in 1794 in England and 1807 in Argentina in 1853 and then Brazil in 1888.

So it's difficult to imagine a world in which slavery. Would not have ended in the United States, you know, at least by 1900

but at the same time, you know, slavery doesn't just end itself. Someone has to do it.  and Frederick Douglas, along with some other people, you know, obviously most notably Abraham Lincoln,  but you know, Frederick Douglas was the preeminent abolitionist, his time.

He's the one who sort of got it done.  And how did he do it? How did he become that man? Well, let's find out

 and I have to say, I think this is one of the more interesting episodes, uh, at least for me to research, because I think the keys to Frederick Douglas, his success are in many ways the exact opposite of what you would expect for someone who did what he did.

But so let's start at the beginning. Frederick Douglas was born sometime around the year, 18, 17 in Maryland. As Frederick Bailey,

the precise date of his birth is unknown. His mother was a mixed race, native American, African, and European.

his father was unknown, but many speculate that it was his first master. Uh, as masters having children with their slaves was sadly a quite common practice. And, and I think that is most likely  Frederick was separated from his mother as an infant and lived with his maternal grandmother, Betsy Bailey, who was, of course also a slave that arrangement didn't last too long, either.

He was separated from her when he was six years old and was sent to the plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd, who had previously been the governor of Maryland and the United States Senator.

a woman named aunt Katie was in charge of the enslaved children there and was very cruel toward Frederick and others. He would often go hungry many times as she would give his portion of food to her own children.  And you talk about some of the people on this episode, starting from the bottom and making it to the top.

But no one started from the bottom like this. I mean, I can't think of a more disadvantaged situation to come from. He was literally born as property malnourished, separated from his family.

And so just suffice it to say, you know, obviously, uh, Frederick Douglas is coming from the lowest of low circumstances.  He ended up as the property of a woman named Lucretia ALD who took a special interest in Frederick. She wanted to give him a better life. So Lucretia gave him to her brother, Hugh Auld. Who lived in Baltimore and worked as a ship carpenter, Frederick explains in his autobiography that slaves in the city were often treated significantly better than those who worked on plantations.

, in his words, he said, quote, almost a free man compared with a slave on the plantation.  Frederick was especially fortunate that all his wife Sophia taught him the alphabet. She was just beginning to teach him three and four letter words. When mr. ALD found out about all this. And put an abrupt stop to it.

Frederick quotes old as saying to his wife, quote, if you give a Negro an inch, he will take an L, which is an old way of saying, if you give him an inch, he'll take a mile. A Negro should know nothing, but to obey his master

to do, as he is told to do learning would spoil the best Negro in the world. Now, if you teach that Negro, how to read, there would be no keeping him. You would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable and of no value to his master as to himself. It could do him. No good, but a great deal of harm.

It would make him discontented and unhappy.  And just as a side note, uh, this man did not say Negro, uh, but you know, I'm, I'm not going to go there. Um, so anytime you hear the word Negro on this podcast, it's because I'm substituting it for a more offensive word. , but mrs. All then had her eyes opened to the dangers of an educated slave and the lesson stopped the books, including the Bible disappeared.

And Frederick was from then on carefully watched. And if he was alone for a short period of time, the odds would interrogate him to ensure that. He hadn't been reading. And so Frederick later wrote quote, all this, however was too late. The first step had been taken mistress and teaching me the alphabet had given me the inch and no precaution could prevent me from taking the L.

And this is very telling, I think, , of Douglas's character. I mean, you can put yourself in his shoes and really see how, you know, getting those lessons taken away from you. Could crush your spirit you go from this, this terrible situation. You finally get some, some masters who are somewhat benevolent and helpful.

And then it all flips on you and you go from having these, these reading lessons and they're taken away from you. And it seems like, man, that's your one shot. You're one glimmer of hope and it's just crushed, just totally shut down.

And so you could see how a person would take that as the door slammed in your face. Your one opportunity gone but Frederick didn't see it that way. Listen to the way he later described the confrontation between mr. ALD and his wife quote. From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom whilst I was saddened by the thought of losing the aid of my kind mistress.

I was gladdened by the invaluable instruction, which by the mirror first accident I had gained from my master though, conscious of the difficulty of learning without a teacher. I set out with high hope and a fixed purpose at whatever cost of trouble to learn how to read.  , so he didn't give up.

And in fact, he used these seemingly insurmountable, uh, roadblocks as inspiration as an opportunity to change strategies. So what he started doing was young Frederick began trading bread to poor white boys that he ran into while completing errands for the alts in exchange for. Vocabulary and spelling lessons from them.

He also used old school books from the old sons to develop his skills in reading, writing,

and other important things shaped Douglas while he was in Baltimore. Uh, it was in Baltimore that he first heard the word abolition and discovered that there was a growing movement dedicated to emancipation. He also became a strong Christian and saw the ways in which scripture was being used by some to keep slaves pressed, and at the same time by others to call for the end of slavery.

Hypocrisy displayed by plantation owners who profess to be Christian, , became a central component of his anti-slavery lectures later on, uh, in the appendix of his autobiography. He wrote quote, I love the pure peaceable and impartial Christianity of Christ. I therefore hate the corrupt slave holding women, whipping cradle, plundering, partial, and hypocritical Christianity of this land.

Indeed. I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one for calling the religion of this land, Christianity, I look upon it as the climax of all misnomers, the boldest of all frauds and the grossest of all libels.

And as you can see, as an orator, as, and as a writer,

Douglas was not given to understatement. and that was one of his calling cards. One of the things that he was known for is.  He said things the way that he saw him, uh, even if it made people uncomfortable and even if the language,  can strike you as aggressive at times.

And it definitely can. It definitely does. One of the turning points in Douglass's life happened when he was about 12 years old, one day he heard some little boys reciting pieces from a book that was widely used in American school rooms in the first quarter of the 19th century. To teach reading and speaking is entitled.

The Colombian order.

The book was a collection of famous political essays, poems, and speeches, and he was able to scrap together 50 cents and purchase it from a local bookshop.  It's titled page reads the Colombian order, containing a variety of original and selected pieces together with rules calculated to improve youth and others in the ornamental and useful art of eloquence.

the order contained the best speeches and writings from the grapes. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin Napoleon Bonaparte. Socrates Cicero and so on. , if I can say so the order was basically Frederick Douglas is how to take over the world. It was his chance , , to learn the secrets of the great ones.

these selections inspired him to seek Liberty for himself and others, but also helped him develop the oratory and rhetorical skills to be successful once he was a free man.

And this is another big lesson that we can take away from Douglas. The story.  If I can say so myself is that  even this man who was born in abject poverty, who was born as property, the way that he made it out, the way that he achieved greatness. Was by studying the lives of the great ones.

So I, you know, not to Pat myself on the back, but I do think it validates the premise of this podcast a little bit.

And I think, you know, it's for the same reasons that inspired, you know, everyone else who had these sort of heroes, , I think that. Frederick Douglas was like competitive with them. I think he reads this Colombian order. And as he's reading these speeches and these writings, he thinks to himself. I could do that.

I could write like that. I could speak like that. The most influential piece that Douglas read was called between a master and slave in the story. A slave has been recaptured after a third, attempted to escape the master. Borates the slave for in gratitude and disobedience. The slave is then allowed to respond and definitely refutes all of the masters arguments, Douglas recounts quote, the master was vanquished to every turn in the argument.

And seeing himself to be thus vanquished. He generously and meekly emancipates the slave with his best wishes for his prosperity  Douglas at a very young age had learned that literacy and the grasp of language would be key to gaining his own freedom and more broadly the emancipation of Olin slave people.

his own master had unwittingly taught him that lesson. And after reading the dialogue between the master and slave, that solidified that lesson for him, he wrote later, quote,

I have found that to make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one. It is necessary to darken his moral and mental vision. And as far as possible to annihilate the power of reason, he must be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery. He must be made to feel that slavery is right and he can be brought to that only when he sees us to be a man.

I love this quote because it exposes so brilliantly, the fundamental underpinnings of the institution of slavery, the only way to truly sustain a system that is built upon treating other people like cattle. Is to somehow convince those people that they truly are cattle  strip them of their humanity material needs and comforts food, working, clothes, living conditions, clothing, uh, those could be pretty easily controlled by the slave owners, but what was more difficult to control was the enslaved persons, mind and soul to darken his moral and mental vision as a Fredrick, Douglas wrote  reading and writing were Douglas is ways out and he thought the way out for every enslaved person. but he also knew that that couldn't do it alone. Right. he was going to have to take action. He was going to have to run away.  When Frederick was 15 years old, Thomas, all the wife of Frederick's previous owner Lucretia took him back from Hugh, after a number of deaths and family quarrels.

Frederick worked on Thomas' plantation for only a few months, but while he did, he began standing up for himself and for other slaves,  In Thomas  and Thomas Alz words, Douglas was ruined in 1833. The 16 year old Frederick was sent to a notorious slave breaker named Edward Covey.

Basically a slave breaker was what it sounded like. It was a plantation owner known for being particularly cruel and menacing. And slave owners who had rebellious slaves could send them there for training.  , and essentially that training is just extremely harsh and cruel punishment,  to, to have this laser turn,   more docile, more compliant, more obedient than they were before.

So, and beat Douglas on an almost daily basis. The whippings were so frequent that his wounds would never have time to sufficiently heal before the next beating. , he also made Douglas feel as though he was consistently being watched and that whatever he did could never truly escape the knowledge of Covey.

This laser worked unflaggingly from sunrise to sunset with only five minute breaks for meals.  Covey was also very demonstrative Pius, which Douglas says seemed to be a pathetic attempt to convince himself that he, he was a faithful man, despite his heinous treatment of his slaves.

and his prolific adultery.

So finally one day Frederick had had enough,  Covey attempts to attack him in a stable and tie his legs to whip him. And Frederick grabs Covey's throat and tells him that he has done being treated like an animal Covey calls on another nearby slave to help him. But the other slave refuses, they fought and argue for hours, but eventually Frederick broke the slave breaker. , he would later described this as a turning point in my career as a slave,  this fight reinvigorated, fake Frederick. Um, it strengthened his resolve. You know, he had been somehow put in even worse conditions than he had been born into by being sent to the slave breaker.

But you know, this is strengthened his resolve that, Hey, I can break the slave breaker. You know, it's like, no matter where they put me, no matter where they send me. I can find a way  he was then hired out to a man named William Freeland, a of whom Frederick said, quote,   I will give mr. Freeland the credit of being the best master I ever had. Although he added till I became my own master,  

mr. Freeland was less pious than the slave breaker Covey, but he was much more reasonable and fair to his slaves.   the work was still obviously difficult and tiring, but Freeland was not deceitful or unnecessarily cruel  in these circumstances. Frederick began holding Sunday school classes to teach slaves how to read the new Testament.

Although this was initially a relatively discreet operation word, quickly spread to the surrounding plantations. And soon over 40 slaves were regularly attending the classes.

This infuriated, the neighboring plantation owners. And one day they infiltrated a meeting armed with clubs and rocks. Discontinuing the classes permanently,  this turn of events, obviously left Frederick feeling like there was only one path for him to take and it was time to try for his escape. He said, quote, I have only one life to lose. I had as well be killed running as die standing.  His first attempt to escape happened while he was in possession of Freeland,  key and a few others devised a plan to canoe up the Chesapeake Bay Douglas wrote travel passes for himself in each of them.

But the plan unravels when one of his slaves betrays the group and turns them all in they're sent back to Thomas ALD, who initially threatens to send Frederick down to Alabama, the deep South, but changes his mind and sends him back to Baltimore to again, serve his brother Hugh  while in servitude, a few old, he is apprenticed at a shipyard to learn the trade of ship. Caulking  Douglas strikes a deal with his master, that he will turn over a certain amount of his wages to all, but keep a little portion of extra money. All shuts this down. When he feels Fredrick is aiming to escape, which he was, but it was too late. He had accumulated enough money to make his attempt.

In 1837 Frederick fell in love with a free black Baltimore woman named Anna Marie Marie empowered, Frederick to escape and helped finance his getaway. using false papers and traveling by train and Steamboat. He arrived in New York city. He purposely shared few details of his escape in order to ensure that the means he used would not be cut off by slaveholders and slave catchers on his arrival in New York city.

He said this quote, there is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath and the quick round of blood, I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement, which words can be tamely describe.

And that's, I mean, it's kind of incredible to think of what that must've felt like to live your whole life as a slave. And then one day, boom, everything changes in your free man.  He and Anna Marie settled in new Bedford, Massachusetts and abolition, a center that was packed with former slaves and there, he adopted the name of Douglas inspired by the poem, the lady of the Lake by Walter Scott. One of the protagonists of the poem is Lord James Douglas, a Scotsman who fought for freedom and independence from the English. The newly minted Fredrick Douglas became a licensed preacher and quickly launched into his speaking career.

One of the reasons Douglas was so influential was his ability to reveal the cruel methods by which masters controlled their slaves. The showing the dehumanization that slavers had to revert to in order to support an institution like slavery. So for instance, in his autobiography, he describes the following quote.

The slave is made to be disgusted by freedom by allowing him to see only the abuse of it carried out in other things. For instance, a slave loves molasses. So he steals some, his master in many cases, goes off to town and buys a large quantity. He returns takes his whip and commands the slave to eat the molasses until the poor fellow is made sick at the very mention of it.

 Douglas helped northerners see slavery less as a distant issue happening far away and more as something that was happening right in their backyard in the South

to be successful. The things you say have to have relevance, have to have meaning to people. And that's why he was able to do, he was able to connect his own story to theirs.

And so he had this, this unique storytelling ability that came from. His unique experience of having been a slave, having lived that life. but also raw ability, you know, his grasp of language, , his rhetorical skill, it says his charisma, which he had in abundance. Naturally

his breakthrough moment came in August of 1841. Douglas spoken anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts, a prominent and influential abolitionist was also in attendance, a journalist and publisher by the name of William Lloyd Garrison.

He described his experience, hearing Douglas, speak like this. He said, quote, I shall never forget his first speech at the convention. The extraordinary emotion and excited in my own mind.  I think I never hated slavery. So intensely is at that moment  there stood one in physical proportion and stature, commanding and exact in intellect.

Originally endowed in natural eloquence, a prodigy in soul manifestly created, but a little lower than the angels. Yeah, a slave I, a fugitive slave gambling for his safety capable. Hi attainments as an intellectual and moral being, needing nothing but a comparatively small amount of cultivation to make him an ornament to society and a blessing to his race by the law of the land, by the voice of the people, by the terms of the slave, the code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of burden,

a chattel personal, nevertheless   garrison's words. Show why Douglas was so vehemently. Venerated by many of his contemporaries, but also hated by many defenders of the institution of slavery.

You know, the, the institution of slavery was, you know, as mentioned, deliberately designed. The dehumanize people

and, and many people tried to argue that it was good for slaves.

for example, John C. Calhoun, the seven vice president of the United States, , said an 1837 quote, never before has the black race of central Africa from the Dawn of history to the present day.

Attained a condition. So civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually, it came to us in a low degraded and Savage condition. And in the course of a few generations, he has grown up under the fostering care

of our institutions.  Douglas was a living embodiment of everything that plantation owners said that black people were not, he was independent, intelligent well-spoken and civilized. And he didn't become all those things because of slavery. He became all those things. In spite of the horrors that slavery had subjected him to,

so after this breakthrough moment, Frederick Douglas goes on the circuit. He travels about six months of the year. Speaking about abolition, unsurprisingly, this eloquence got him quite a name and a reputation bigger and bigger crowds began to show up for his speeches. And as his notoriety grew. So did the threat of his recapture.

You know, even as he's becoming more famous, there's always the possibility that he could have to be captured and go back to his old life. He traveled to Ireland and great Britain in 1845 in order to escape the possibility that the acclaim would draw all his attention and get him tossed back into slavery , while in the British Isles, he spoke to pack churches, crowded to suffocation as he put it.

His messages were so powerful that audience members actually provided him the funds to purchase his freedom from alt.

after returning to the United States, a few years later, he continued his activism. , he was very much a free thinker and didn't shy away from speaking up when he disagreed, even with those who were on his side. , he said, quote, I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others rather than to be false and to incur my own importance.

And so eventually Frederick Douglas, um, even kind of split with William Lloyd Garrison, this famous abolitionist who really helps him get his start and part because while Garrison argued that the us constitution was pro slavery. And so needed to be destroyed Douglas asserted that it could and should be used in the effort to dismantle slavery.

Perhaps Douglas, his most famous speech was given at an American independence day celebration in Rochester, New York in 1852.  It starts out as what you would expect for a 4th of July speech. He begins by honoring the founding fathers and their commitment to the rights.

Um, so beautifully outlined in the declaration of independence, you know, life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the tone begins to change when he starts to ask quote, fellow citizens. Pardon me? Allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today?  What have I, or those I represent to do with your national independence or the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice embodied in the declaration of independence extended to us.

And am I

therefore called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us,

he then goes on to point out that black people in America, particularly those who are enslaved did not have access to life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness later on, he says, quote, what to the American slave is your 4th of July. To him. Your celebration is a sham, your boasted, Liberty, and unholy license, your national greatness, swelling vanity.

Your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless  you're denounced creation of tyrants, brass fronted, impudence, your shouts of Liberty and equality hollow mockery. Your prayers and hymns your sermons and Thanksgivings with all your religious parade  and solemnity are to him.

Mere bombast fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy, a thin veil to cover up crimes, which would disgrace a nation of savages.  So there you have it again. I mean, he can have a sharp tongue, right. Douglas was bold. He was very unafraid to speak  the uncomfortable truth. And that truth was that northerners needed to be uncomfortable about the fact that slavery still existed. In their country.   you know, as previously mentioned, instead of ripping the foundational principles of the nation, he used them to say, look, these ideals are great, but let's make them more than some pie in the sky.

Daydream. Let's look at those who are barred from taking part of those liberties. And let's see what we can do to change that. Let's see what we can do to bring them in.

and because he emerged from the world of slavery, he had every right to talk about how evil it was prominent white, Northern abolitionists, like Garrison were extremely important for a variety of reasons. , but none of them could speak with the clarity that came from truly knowing firsthand. The foundations of slavery and what it was like.

and so by the time of the civil war, Douglas is one of the most famous black men in the country has profound eloquence impactful speeches, elucidated the condition of black Americans.

To crowds across the country. And after slavery was ended in Mansa patient given to all in the United States,  he continued to fight for suffrage and civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race or sex.  Frederick Douglass held countless other positions throughout his life.

In the list of his accomplishments, his lengthy, he was the only African American to attend the famous first women's rights convention in Seneca falls in 1848. Giving a memorable and impactful speech there. He became the first African American nominated for vice president in 1872. He was the editor of various news publications and his autobiographies were bestsellers.

he was known as one of the foremost civil rights advocates of his time. If Abraham Lincoln was the great emancipator Frederick Douglas was right behind him.  Although I don't think that that ever quite sat right with Frederick Douglass  

on April 14th, 1876. Frederick Douglas attended the dedication of the emancipation Memorial, a statue of president Lincoln, holding the emancipation proclamation. And standing next to a freed slave who was just beginning to stand. Uh, you may have seen the statue because it's recently been on the news because some people are trying to tear it down.

And Douglas was asked to speak at this dedication, and you can imagine that most people were expecting it to be a tribute to Abraham Lincoln who had recently been assassinated just a few years previous.  And instead Douglas gives what can be that's described. Has a fair and nuanced take on Abraham Lincoln.

He said, quote,  truth compels me to admit even here in the presence of the monument, we have erected to his memory. Abraham Lincoln was not in the fullest sense of the word either our man or our model  in his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thought and in his prejudices. He was a white man   though. Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his fellow white country, man, against the Negro. It is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts. He loved and hated slavery.  So, you know, that is a fair and honest take. , he of course does give him the credit at the end that he loaded and hated slavery.

But I mean, giving a fair and honest take this Memorial to him is a little bit like giving a fair and honest take of someone at their funeral. I think most people would say that the occasion calls for some untempered praise.  Which brings us to one of Frederick Douglass's most important and least expected virtues  ambition.

It's clear from reading the speech that Frederick Douglas  thought that he, Frederick Douglas was the true leader of the abolition movement. Not Lincoln Douglas, like to be in charge. He liked to be on top in that way. He was just like everyone else who I've talked about on this podcast.

If you're imagining that Frederick Douglas did it all because he was pure hearted and wanted the best for humanity. I have bad news for you. I mean, that was definitely part of the consideration. Don't get me wrong. He was trying to do the right thing for sure. He passionately believed in ending slavery, especially because he had suffered so cruelly under it, but he, we have to acknowledge, he was also a type, a person who wanted to win.

He wanted to be powerful and famous. And my main takeaway from his life is. That's okay. for example, let's go back to why open the episode with Douglas was the most photographed American of the 19th century. The first photograph ever taken happened in 1826, and photography really only started to gain a foothold in society.

In the mid 18 hundreds cameras were not close to as ubiquitous back then as they are today. So it was a big deal to have your photograph taken and an even bigger deal to have it taken. You know, multiple times the process very involved, portrait photographs were reserved for elites and they took a long time and it was a big process.  So why was Douglas the most photographed individual of the 19th century? Well, one thing is for certain it wasn't an accident, right? It didn't just happen. , Douglas intentionally did it. He viewed the camera as a tool to spread the plight of enslaved people to the masses.

And he made sure to use that tool.

he said that he believed photography, quote, highlighted the essential humanity of its subjects.  And so he wanted to highlight the humanity of a freed slave and in, so doing highlight the humanity. Of of all African Americans.

And if you look at the photos taken of Douglas, , he's always, well-dressed his wavy hair and thick beard are well-groomed and dapper. He sits in front of a dark single color background. He never holds any props or appears with anyone or anything else. He wanted all the attention to be on his face. As he put it, quote the face of a fugitive slave  in many of the photos, he stares directly into the camera, which was actually not common at the time.

Usually they, uh, you know, you can think of an old photograph they're staring off camera. Right.

I mean, you can go look up one of these photographs. I posted one too. HTT OTW Instagram,

and he looks cool. I mean, he just, he looks awesome.  And, um, and part of what he was doing with these photographs was definitely exactly what he said. Right. He was trying to bring humanity to this population of African Americans.  But if I might be so bold as to propose,  he also, who liked to look awesome and photographs for the same reason that you or I, or anyone likes to look awesome and photographs, right.

It's cool. It makes us feel good. He, it was part of, it was for personal vanity and his ambition.  And the thing is though it worked, it worked not only to bring him personal theme, but it also worked to bring humanity to African-Americans and to push forward the cause of emancipation and abolition.

And so I think that's the big takeaway is that he married. His ambition to  the cause that he really believed in there were other times where his ambition had more ambiguous outcomes. Like when Douglas endorsed the primary opponent of John Mercer, Langston, and African-American Republican running for Congress, um, Douglas chalked it up to principal.

He said, look, I don't see color. And this other guy, you know, I agree with him on the issues. , but almost everyone agrees that that is not true. , what was really going on was that he and Langston were personal rivals when it came to leading the African American civil rights movement. And so, you know, he could be petty.

It was a little bit petty. What he did kind of talk smack about Abraham Lincoln at the unveiling of a statue dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.  and everyone that I've talked about on this podcast could be petty. We expect great conquers like Caesar Napoleon to be petty, to have egos. We also expect it from inventors, scientists and artists, um, you know, Edison, Einstein, and Picasso.

It's not a revelation. It's not news to us. These guys had big egos and wanted to be on top. But I think sometimes we expect that great social champions will be different. We expect them to be the pure hearted altruists right. But that's just not the case. And the truth is that the pure hurted altruists as insofar as there are some do not accomplish a 10th of what self-interested men like Frederick Douglas do.

It's okay to be a little ambitious when you're engaged in a good cause. And so I think that's an equally important lesson. Frederick Douglas consciously channeled his ambition into something beneficial. He said, quote, a man is worked upon by what he works on. He may carve out his circumstances, but his circumstances will carve him out as well.

Basically. Douglas is saying that what you put your time and effort into will shape you. It's important that we think carefully. About the things that we do each day for good or for bad. And if we're ambitious, I think that's great, but make sure that you're channeling that ambition towards something productive, something that will reflect back towards you and help make you a better person.

The last takeaway from Douglass's life is that he refused to take the path of least resistance. He understood that without deliberate, purposeful action and diligent effort, nothing was going to be accomplished. As a slave, he wasn't going to just stumble into literacy and he wasn't just going to stumble into freedom.

Escaping bondage was not going to happen if he fantasized about it enough and abolishing an institution and a practice that had been deeply ingrained in American society since before the country began

was also not just going to happen on its own. If you want something in life, you've got to demand it. You're going to have to struggle for it. You're going to have to agitate some people. You're going to have to rub some people the wrong way.

You create your own progress.  And so I'll leave you with Douglas, his own words. He said,

if there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess the favor of freedom and yet depreciate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

They want rain without thunder enlightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.  This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle power concedes, nothing without a demand. It never did. And it never will.

That does it for this episode of how to take over the world. Thanks for listening

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