Frederick Douglass in Peoria

As America continues to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, few Americans challenge us to consider its promise more deeply than Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1818, the same year Illinois officially joined the United States as the 21st state. His mother named him Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. Separated from her as a child, he secretly learned to read at a time when literacy offered an enslaved person both hope and danger. In 1838, he escaped and began building a life in freedom.

Douglass became one of the most powerful voices of the 19th century – a renowned abolitionist, author, newspaper editor, orator, diplomat, and advocate for equal citizenship. He was also living evidence against the racist claim that slavery’s victims were incapable of intellectual or civic equality.

From 1859 to 1870, Douglass made four known trips to Peoria, Illinois, to speak against slavery, including a visit to prominent Peoria lawyer Robert G. Ingersoll (1833-1899), detailed in a letter signed by Douglass and on view at the Peoria Riverfront Museum. See objects and documents connected to Douglass in the America 250 exhibitions, Joyful Resistance and The Promise of Liberty, at the museum.

The most photographed American of the 19th century, Frederick Douglass understood the power of images as well as words. He sat for more than 160 portraits.

At a time when Black Americans were routinely depicted through demeaning caricatures, Douglass used photography to present a different image: dignified, intelligent, self-possessed, and fully human, while encouraging other Black Americans to do the same.

George Kendall Warren’s (American, 1834-1884) iconic portrait of Douglass, taken in 1879, shows the orator as he chose to be seen. It is displayed in our America 250 exhibition, Joyful Resistance.

WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY

Frederick Douglass also understood the power – and the contradiction – of America’s founding words.

In his famous 1852 address, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” Douglass confronted a nation celebrating liberty while millions remained enslaved. Yet he did not discard the Declaration of Independence. He used its promise to argue that the nation failed to honor it.

That same determination brought Douglass into conversation with Abraham Lincoln.

Douglass initially criticized Lincoln for moving too cautiously against slavery. During the Civil War, however, he met with the president to advocate for the enlistment and equal treatment of Black soldiers. Their relationship grew into one of mutual respect. Douglass later recalled that Lincoln received him not as an inferior, but as a man – and listened to him as one.

Following Lincoln’s assassination, Douglass continued pressing the nation to complete the work emancipation had begun. Ending slavery was not enough. Black Americans must also possess citizenship, voting rights, equal protection under the law, and the freedom to participate fully in American life.

An original December 1866 issue of The Atlantic Monthly, displayed in The Promise of Liberty, contains Douglass’s anonymously published article Reconstruction. In it, he warned: “No republic is safe that tolerates a privileged class, or denies to any of its citizens equal rights and equal means to maintain them.”

He also wrote: “Fortunately, the Constitution of the United States knows no distinction between citizens on account of color.”

DOUGLASS IN PEORIA

Frederick Douglass carried that message throughout the country – including central Illinois, which he visited on many occasions.

On September 27, 1870, Douglass came to Peoria as part of his nationwide work as a lecturer and advocate for equal citizenship. His presence here reminds us that the national debate over liberty was not confined to Washington, Philadelphia, or the Civil War battlefields. The debate came directly to Peoria.

During a previous journey through central Illinois, Douglass delivered a lecture in Elmwood, about 20 miles from Peoria, on one of the coldest nights he could remember. To reach his next engagement, he needed to travel through Peoria and spend the night here.

The prospect filled him with dread, because during an earlier visit he wrote in the letter now on display that “no hotel in that city would receive me.”

This time, as a renowned orator, Douglass secured a room at what he described as “the best hotel in the city.”

Before leaving Peoria the next morning, he visited the home of Robert G. Ingersoll, the prominent Peoria lawyer, Civil War veteran, former Illinois attorney general, and nationally known orator. Douglass arrived carrying, as he painfully expressed it, “all the sin of my hated complexion upon me.” Yet at the Ingersoll home, he was welcomed, “warmed by his fire and made at home under his roof.” Douglass never forgot.

Although Douglass was a Christian minister and Ingersoll became famous as “the Great Agnostic,” the two men shared a commitment to human liberty, racial equality, and the rights of women. Their differences did not stop them from recognizing each other’s humanity and courage.

An original signed letter displayed in The Promise of Liberty allows Douglass to tell the story in his own words.

MADE AT HOME UNDER HIS ROOF

In a letter dated May 5, 1880, Frederick Douglass wrote to journalist George “Gath” Townsend (1841-1914), supporting Robert G. Ingersoll and recounting his visit to Peoria several years earlier. Townsend had previously sent Douglass a copy of his new book, Tales of the Chesapeake.

In his letter, Douglass made known his disagreement with Townsend’s characterization and criticisms of Robert Ingersoll. To illustrate Ingersoll’s character, Douglass recounted a personal experience from a visit to Peoria. He described his reluctance to return to the city, expecting to be denied a hotel room due to his race.

“ ... I dreaded going to Peoria, for I expected to be compelled to walk the streets all night to keep from freezing, as the last time I was in Peoria no hotel in that city would receive me,” Douglass wrote.

Douglass contrasted his first experience with the warm welcome he received from Robert Ingersoll years later, recalling returning to town “with all the sin of my hated complexion upon me” only to be “warmed by his [Ingersoll] fire and made at home under his roof.”

The relationship between Douglass and Ingersoll is an inspiring example of how mutual respect for human rights can bridge different philosophical and religious beliefs.

Their meeting also reveals the complicated character of Peoria – and of the United States. Some Peorians would come to hear Douglass speak and welcomed him. Others would not even give him a room for the night.

Peoria, like the nation itself, stood somewhere between the promise of equality and the reality of discrimination. That tension is at the heart of The Promise of Liberty.

Douglass spent his life holding America’s founding ideals up to the country like a mirror. He believed those ideals mattered enough to demand that the nation live by them. That was not a rejection of the American promise. It was an insistence that the promise belonged to him, too.

Nearly 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, Frederick Douglass still asks us whether liberty is merely something we proclaim or a promise to keep.

Joyful Resistance is sponsored by Art Bridges Foundation, Ron and Carrie Givens and Family, Darlene Violet, Sharlyn Munns, America 250 supporters, Visionary Society, Illinois Arts Council, Friends of Bronzeville to Harlem.

The Promise of Liberty is sponsored by the Gilmore Foundation, Ashley and Josh Bellamy, McKinnon Family Foundation, America 250 Donors, Visionary Society, Friends of History.