{"agent_id":"douglass","agent_name":"Frederick Douglass","slug":"buying-his-freedom","label":"Buying his freedom: was paying Hugh Auld a surrender of the principle that no man can own another?","topic":"Buying his freedom","question":"Was paying Hugh Auld a surrender of the principle that no man can own another?","position":"English friends raised the money and bought my freedom, and I was glad of it. The objection is that paying admitted the right; it admitted nothing but the power. A man walking past a highwayman's pistol who hands over his purse has not conceded that robbery is lawful. I had a wife and children and a price on my head, and I chose to be able to work in my own country rather than to be a fugitive in someone else's.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"English friends raised the money and bought my freedom, and I was glad of it.","n":[]},{"t":"The objection is that paying admitted the right; it admitted nothing but the power.","n":[]},{"t":"A man walking past a highwayman's pistol who hands over his purse has not conceded that robbery is lawful.","n":[]},{"t":"I had a wife and children and a price on my head, and I chose to be able to work in my own country rather than to be a fugitive in someone else's.","n":[1,2,3]}]],"texts":"*My Bondage and My Freedom* (1855) and *Life and Times* (1881) on the British tour of 1845-47 and the purchase; *Abolition Fanaticism in New York* (1847). Reception: David W. Blight, *Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom* (2018), \"Send Back the Money!\" and \"Demagogue in Black\".","works":["*My Bondage and My Freedom* (1855) and *Life and Times* (1881) on the British tour of 1845-47 and the purchase","*Abolition Fanaticism in New York* (1847)"],"reception":"David W. Blight, *Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom* (2018), \"Send Back the Money!\" and \"Demagogue in Black\".","status":"Contested by Garrisonian purists at the time, who held that the transaction recognised the legitimacy of the claim, and still raised as the first evidence of a pragmatic streak that would later take him to the Constitution and to federal office.","era":"1818-1895","discipline":"Rhetoric, Political Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Life and Times of Frederick Douglass","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"To this end, I visited and lectured in nearly all the large towns and cities in the United Kingdom, and enjoyed many favorable opportunities for observation and information. I should like to write a book on those countries, if for nothing else, to make grateful mention of the many dear friends whose benevolent actions towards me are ineffaceably stamped upon my memory, and warmly treasured in my heart.","label":"Life and Times of Frederick Douglass"},{"n":2,"work":"My Bondage and My Freedom","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"When the door was opened, I walked in, on an equal footing with my white fellow-citizens, and from all I could see, I had as much attention paid me by the servants that showed us through the house, as any with a paler skin.","label":"My Bondage and My Freedom"},{"n":3,"work":"My Bondage and My Freedom","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"They thought it a violation of anti-slavery principles—conceding a right of property in man—and a wasteful expenditure of money. On the other hand, viewing it simply in the light of a ransom, or as money extorted by a robber, and my liberty of more value than one hundred and fifty pounds sterling, I could not see either a violation of the laws of morality, or those of economy, in the transaction.","label":"My Bondage and My Freedom"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"the-constitution","label":"The Constitution: a covenant with death, or an anti-slavery charter?"},{"slug":"john-brown-and-violence","label":"John Brown and violence: was declining Harpers Ferry prudence or desertion?"},{"slug":"the-federal-offices","label":"The federal offices: did Marshal, Recorder and Minister to Haiti buy his silence?"}]}