Page 24 - Integrity Seminars - Special Report

Q. What influence did "The Columbian Orator" have on Douglass?
G.P. This is the most important part of the inquiry, since Douglass made specific reference to "The
Columbian Orator" in his "Narrative of Frederick Douglass."

"I was now about twelve years old, and the thought of being a slave for life began to weigh heavily on my
heart. Just about this time, I got hold of a book entitled "The Columbian Orator." Every opportunity I got, I
used to read this book. Among much of other interesting matter, I found in it a dialogue between a master
and his slave. The slave was represented as having run away from his master three times. The dialogue
represented the conversation which took place between them, when the slave was retaken the third time.
In this dialogue, the whole argument in behalf of slavery was brought forward by the master, all of which
was disposed of by the slave. The slave was made to say some very smart as well as impressive things in
reply to his master--things which had the desired though unexpected effect; for the conversation resulted
in the voluntary emancipation of the slave on the part of the master. . . . The moral which I gained from the
dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder."

Q. What did "The Columbian Orator" have to say about slavery?
G.P. Here's an excerpt from the "Dialogue between a master and his slave," referenced by Douglass, above.
Original text (p. 240)

SLAVE: Since you condescended to talk with me, as man to man, I will reply. What have you done, what
can you do for me, that will compensate for the liberty which you have taken away?

MASTER: I did not take it away. You were a slave when I fairly purchased you.
SLAVE: Did I give my consent to the purchase?

MASTER: You had no consent to give. You had already lost the right of disposing yourself.
SLAVE: I had lost the power, but how the right? I was treacherously kidnapped in my own country, when
following an honest occupation. I was put in chains, sold to one of your countrymen, carried by force on
board his ship brought hither, and exposed to sale like a beast in the market, where you bought me. What
step in all this progress of violence and injustice can give a right? Was it in the villain who stole me, in the
slave-merchant who tempted him to do so, or in you who encouraged the slave merchant to bring his
cargo of human cattle to cultivate your lands?

MASTER: It is in the order of Providence that one man should become subservient to another. It ever has
been so, and ever will be. I found the custom, and did not make it.
SLAVE: You cannot but be sensible, that the robber who puts a pistol to your breast may make just the
same plea. Providence gives him a power over your life and property; it gave my enemies a power over my

liberty. But it has also given me legs to escape with; and what should prevent me from using them? Nay,
what should restrain me from retaliating the wrongs I have suffered, if a favourable occasion should offer?
MASTER: But it was my intention not only to make your life tolerably comfortable at present, but to
provide for you in your old age.

SLAVE: Alas! is a life like mine, torn from a country, friends, and all I held dear, and compelled to toil
under the burning sun for a master, worth thinking about for old age? No: the sooner it ends, the sooner I
shall obtain that relief for which my soul pants.

Integrity Seminars: Special Report January 2020 24