A Long Cherished Desire: Frederick Douglass and His Emigrationist Dreams

• In Event: Frederick Douglass and the American Political Tradition

Abstract

Frederick Douglass dreamed of Haiti. By the late 1850s, as slavery steadily expanded across the southern United States, Douglass longed to flee the US and stand on Haitian soil—the only place in the Americas where enslaved Africans had fully eradicated slavery, ousted European colonialism, and established an independent nation. In Haiti, Douglass saw the potential of the Black race, the physical, tangible evidence that Black people could be free, equal, and sovereign. For Douglass, there was no place more important to the global Black freedom struggle than Haiti. For precisely this reason, Frederick Douglass shocked his readers with a stunning editorial in April 1861. In a heartfelt testimonial, he announced his plans to leave the United States and set sail for Port-au-Prince. The Black republic, he believed, held extraordinary possibility as a new home—not only for himself, but for the entire Black race. For years prior, Douglass had consistently denounced emigration, insisting that Black people must remain in the United States to fight against slavery and gain their full citizenship rights. So, this declaration, which appeared in his newspaper in May, likely shook his readers to their core. But by the end of the 1850s, Douglass had grown increasingly despondent about the U.S. government’s steadfast commitment to slavery and oppression. Abandoning all hope that the U.S. could ever live up to its principles of “liberty and justice for all,” Douglass embraced the Black republic and considered casting his lot with his Haitian brothers and sisters.Douglass’ impending journey to Haiti represented a “dream, fondly indulged, a desire, long cherished, and a purpose, long meditated”—the culmination of his treasured hope that he might one day stand on “the shores of la Republique del’ Hayti.” For Douglass, Haiti epitomized an ideal sovereign Black republic, and in spring 1861, he anxiously awaited his departure, convinced that Haiti might fulfill his deepest wishes for freedom, liberty, and equality. However, within weeks, Douglass dramatically reversed his position, declaring that he would remain in the United States to aid the fight against slavery. Hopeful that the Civil War might bring a definitive end to slavery, Douglass resolved to “serve the cause of freedom and humanity” in the U.S. and refocused his energies on saving the soul of America. Notably, however, he did not denounce emigration entirely. Although he personally chose to stay in the US, he promoted Haitian emigration throughout 1861 and 1862, particularly for former slaves who Douglass hoped could put their agricultural skills to work on behalf of themselves and the Haitian nation, rather than to the benefit of slaveholders. And yet, historians have long overlooked Douglass’s views on Haiti, specifically his opinions about Haitian emigration; choosing to focus, instead, on one line in an article he wrote in July 1861, in which he declared: “I am not an Emigrationist.” As this paper reveals, however, Douglass’s feelings about Haiti and Haitian emigration were much more nuanced and complex. Although a staunch anti-emigrationist during his early career, Douglass became increasingly pessimistic about conditions in the US during the 1850s, especially in the wake of the passage of the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act, Bloody Kansas in the mid-1850s, and the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision in 1857. Such legislation made a mockery of Black freedom and US citizenship, prompting activists like Douglass to reassess their relationship to the emigration movement, ever hopeful to assist Haiti in becoming the strong Black nation of their dreams. This paper explores Frederick Douglass’s views about Haiti and Haitian emigration during the tumultuous era between 1850 and 1863 in order to better understand his circuitous relationship with the United States and the destiny of the Black race, as he struggled to determine the most effective strategy to advance the Black freedom struggle.

Author

• Leslie Alexander