Frederick Douglas Game

This is a script for the Frederick Douglas Game. The person I chose was John Brown. Brown was an abolitionist and viewed slavery as a sin in the world. He saw that others shared the same ideology, but no one was really taking any action. He decided to take matters into his own hands. He did not believe that peaceful actions were helping, and used violence to make his mark. Brown led raids and killed those that were pro slavery. 

My fellow Americans,

I stand before you today not as a perfect man, but as one who has wrestled with the great moral question of our time—the institution of slavery. From my earliest days as a young lawyer in Massachusetts to my final years as an elder statesman, I have held firm to one principle: that all men are created equal, and that slavery is a violation of the natural rights endowed by our Creator. I stand before you today not as a man of many words, but as one whose heart burns with the fire of righteous purpose. We gather in this sacred hour knowing that the Almighty God has called us to His work—the work of liberation, the work of justice, the work of striking down the chains that bind our fellow human beings.

There can be no neutrality in this struggle between good and evil. The time for half-measures and compromise has passed. The time for action—bold, decisive action—is upon us. We are not here to debate the humanity of our enslaved brothers and sisters, for that is settled by Divine Providence. We are here to determine how best to answer the call that God has placed upon our hearts.

Let us pray that He will grant us the wisdom to plan wisely, the courage to act boldly, and the strength to persevere until every chain is broken and every soul is free.

The Lord of Hosts is with us. Let us proceed.

My Early Convictions

Let me speak plainly, as is my custom. I have never owned a slave, nor would I ever consent to do so. This was not merely a matter of regional custom, for slavery existed in Massachusetts during my youth. It was a matter of conscience. I believed then, as I believe now, that slavery is a sin—a stain upon the character of any nation that would call itself free.

The Declaration's Great Compromise

During the Continental Congress, I found myself in fierce opposition to my Southern colleagues on this matter. When Jefferson penned his first draft of the Declaration, he included a passage condemning King George for perpetuating the slave trade. I supported this provision with all my energy.

The Southern delegates would have none of it. They threatened to withdraw from our union before it was even formed. With heavy heart, I watched as that passage was struck from our founding document. We proclaimed that "all men are created equal" while simultaneously permitting the bondage of hundreds of thousands.

I said then, and I maintain now, that we have cut off our right hand to preserve the left. We have compromised with evil, and such compromises always exact a terrible price.

My Presidential Actions

When I ascended to the presidency in 1797, I was determined to use whatever influence I possessed to advance the cause of freedom. Though the Constitution limited my direct power over slavery in the states, I could act where federal authority was clear.

I refused to sign any legislation that would have expanded slavery into new territories. I supported the gradual emancipation efforts in the Northern states. Most importantly, I used my position to speak out against the institution whenever appropriate occasions arose.

I also worked to ensure that free blacks received the protection of federal law. When the Quasi-War with France erupted, I insisted that free black sailors be afforded the same protections as white sailors when captured.

The Jefferson Question

My long correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, resumed in our later years, frequently touched upon this subject. Jefferson, for all his fine words about liberty, remained a slaveholder to his death. I pressed him repeatedly on this contradiction.

I told him plainly that I could not understand how a man who had written so eloquently about the rights of man could continue to hold his fellow human beings in bondage. His responses were always intelligent but never satisfactory. He spoke of economic necessity, of gradual change, of the dangers of sudden emancipation.

But I could not accept these arguments. Economic necessity cannot justify moral evil. If we wait for gradual change, we become complicit in the continuation of injustice.

The Fire Bell in the Night

In my final years, the Missouri Compromise presented itself as the great test of our nation's character. The compromise that emerged—admitting Missouri as a slave state while prohibiting slavery above the 36°30' line—struck me as another dangerous postponement of an inevitable reckoning.

I wrote to Jefferson that this question, like "a fire bell in the night," awakened me with terror. I feared that we were not solving the slavery question but merely postponing it, allowing it to grow more dangerous with each passing year.

My Legacy and Warning

I am often asked what I accomplished in the fight against slavery. The honest answer is: not enough. I never owned slaves, true. I spoke against the institution, true. I used my limited presidential powers to oppose its expansion, true. But the institution persisted.

Yet I take some comfort in this: I never wavered in my opposition. I never compromised my principles for political advantage. I never remained silent when I could speak.

To those who come after me, I offer this solemn warning: slavery is not merely a political question or an economic question. It is a moral question of the highest order. A nation that compromises with evil, that allows expedience to triumph over principle, that permits injustice to continue for the sake of peace—such a nation will not long remain free.

The contradictions in our founding will not resolve themselves. They will be resolved either by the triumph of our highest principles or by the collapse of our system under the weight of its own hypocrisy.

I pray that future generations will have the courage that mine has lacked—the courage to choose principle over profit, justice over convenience, and freedom over the false peace of moral compromise.

The choice is theirs, as it was ours. But the consequences of that choice will echo through the ages.