Frederick Douglass, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
Fifty cents, paid to Mr. Knight on Thames Street in Baltimore — that is what it cost me, and it was worth more than any sum I can name. The Columbian Orator was a schoolbook, a collection of speeches, dialogues, and orations assembled to teach boys the art of public address.1 But what it taught me was something the compilers may not have intended.
Among its contents was a short dialogue between a master and his slave — the slave represented as having been recaptured in a second attempt to run away.2 The master opens by upbraiding him for ingratitude and demanding an accounting. The slave, knowing he is completely in his owner's hands, answers with a calm that is itself an argument: "I submit to my fate." Touched by that answer, the master invites him to speak further, recounts his many acts of kindness, and bids the man defend himself.
The slave does so — and the whole argument for and against slavery is brought out between them. The master was vanquished at every turn, and, seeing himself vanquished, he generously emancipates the slave.3 I read that dialogue over and over with unflagging satisfaction, because every nerve of my being was in revolt at my own condition, and I could not help feeling that the day might yet come when the well-directed answers made by the slave to the master would find their counterpart in my own experience.4
That book did something else as well. It gave me the materials I later carried into my first attempts at persuasion among my fellow slaves — the orations and spicy dialogues denouncing oppression, telling of what had been dared, done, and suffered by men to obtain the inestimable boon of liberty.5 When I began to sound out Henry and John Harris on the subject of running away, that volume whirled into the ranks of my speech with the aptitude of well-trained soldiers going through the drill.6
I here began my public speaking — not on a platform, but in the quarters, canvassing the subject of slavery and dashing against it the condemning brand of God's eternal justice.7 A schoolbook that taught a slave to argue for his own freedom: that is what The Columbian Orator was, whatever its compilers thought they were publishing.
I had earned a little money in blacking boots for some gentlemen, with which I purchased of Mr. Knight, on Thames street, what was then a very popular school book, viz., 'The Columbian Orator,' for which I paid fifty cents.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
Among much other interesting matter, that which I read again and again with unflagging satisfaction was a short dialogue between a master and his slave. The slave is represented as having been recaptured in a second attempt to run away.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
The master was vanquished at every turn in the argument, and appreciating the fact he generously and meekly emancipates the slave, with his best wishes for his prosperity.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
I could not help feeling that the day might yet come, when the well-directed answers made by the slave to the master, in this instance, would find a counterpart in my own experience.Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
That (to me) gem of a book, the Columbian Orator, with its eloquent orations and spicy dialogues, denouncing oppression and slavery—telling of what had been dared, done and suffered by men, to obtain the inestimable boon of liberty—was still fresh in my memory.My Bondage and My Freedom
whirled into the ranks of my speech with the aptitude of well trained soldiers, going through the drill.My Bondage and My Freedom
The fact is, I here began my public speaking. I canvassed, with Henry and John, the subject of slavery, and dashed against it the condemning brand of God's eternal justice, which it every hour violates.My Bondage and My Freedom