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Today's Topics:
1. Cornel West, Spinoza, & opportunism [was: Re: Marxism-Thaxis
Digest, Vol 33, Issue 2] (Ralph Dumain)
2. Cornel West, Spinoza (Charles Brown)
3. To Austin Jackson (Charles Brown)
4. The scribbling class (Charles Brown)
5. Re: Cornel West, Spinoza (Ralph Dumain)
6. Cornel West, Spinoza (Charles Brown)
7. Hegel made his system a Christian system. (Charles Brown)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 01 Aug 2006 16:13:50 -0400
From: Ralph Dumain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Cornel West, Spinoza, & opportunism [was:
Re: Marxism-Thaxis Digest, Vol 33, Issue 2]
To: [email protected]
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
I don't know what this is all about or why this poster couldn't post
directly to the list.
I am not alone in judging Cornel West a shallow and opportunistic
intellectual. Adolph Reed has famously referred to him as (quoting
approximately from memory) "a hundred miles wide and a half inch
deep." Norman Kelley criticizes Cornel as a "market intellectual" in his
book THE HEAD NEGRO IN CHARGE SYNDROME.
Spinoza was the most radical figure of the Enlightenment, esp. in his
head-on assault against revealed religion. Cornel, on the other hand,
insists he's a Christian, and will not budge from that position. He doesn't
place much value in science or an objective, rational comprehension of
reality. Instead, he offers vapid moralism. While prancing around the
country with (now Rabbi) Michael Lerner (an even more inflated gasbag than
Cornel) in search of Black-Jewish healing, Cornel simultaneously shilled
for the fascist scumbag Farrakhan. I noted in Cornel's public statements
that he only criticized Farrakhan for his moral lapse in scapegoating the
Jews, but never said one word about the FALSEHOOD (i.e. objective truth
value) of Farrakhan's world view or specific insinuations about
Jews. Cornel also lied claiming that Farrakhan loves black people, a
patently false assertion. For Cornel to submit himself to authoritarianism
and irrationalism not only illustrates how he is little more than a sound
bite media clown, but that he is the last person to defend the Radical
Enlightenment. The lesson of Spinoza does not pertain only to the Middle
East conflict, it pertains to the authoritarianism and superstition rampant
within black American culture, which Cornel only encourages from his
privileged posts at Harvard and Princeton. One might well question how
someone as intellectually mediocre and philosophically unaccomplished ended
up in these positions.
Now if anyone objects to this statement, please be advised that the line to
kiss my ass forms to my left, and the line to go fuck yourself forms to my
right.
At 12:31 PM 8/1/2006 -0400, Jim Farmelant wrote:
>On Mon, 31 Jul 2006 20:52:35 -0500 "Austin Jackson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>writes:
> > I'm a student of African American and African Studies interested in
> > Black people's experience with Marxism/socialism. I subscribed to
> > this list, on the recommendation of a classmate, hoping to learn
> > more,
> > and just read this assessment of Cornel West's article, The Spirit
> > of
> > Spinoza:
> >
>
>Auatin,
>
>Below is Ralph Dumain's considered opinion
>of Cornel West (minus all the cuss words).
>
>Jim F.
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 09:53:59 -0400
From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Cornel West, Spinoza
To: "'Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl
Marx and the thinkers he inspired'"
<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Spinoza was the most radical figure of the Enlightenment, esp. in his
head-on assault against revealed religion. Cornel, on the other hand,
insists he's a Christian, and will not budge from that position.
^^^^^^^
CB: Hegel made his system a Christian system. ML King, John Brown,
Soujourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass professed Christianity.
Chavez in Venezuela professes Christianity.
Isn't a Marxist position on working with Christians and other believers more
of a case by case basis. There are liberation traditions in religions with
which Marxists can work. So, this aspect of West's persona is not
despositive.
I didn't realize that West is hostile or avoids science. Does he do it
explicitly or by omission ?
^^^^
The lesson of Spinoza does not pertain only to the Middle
East conflict, it pertains to the authoritarianism and superstition rampant
within black American culture, which Cornel only encourages from his
privileged posts at Harvard and Princeton.
^^^^
CB: Is authoritarianism and superstition more rampant in Black American
culture than in other cultures ? Black culture seems less authoritarian
than others, just off the top of my head. What are some of the specifics you
are thinking of ?
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 09:56:09 -0400
From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] To Austin Jackson
To: "'Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl
Marx and the thinkers he inspired'"
<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Apologies for Ralph, Austin. We welcome you to the list.
Charles Brown
^^^^^^
Wrong !
Now if anyone objects to this statement, please be advised that the line to
kiss my ass forms to my left, and the line to go fuck yourself forms to my
right.
Wrong !
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 10:23:42 -0400
From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] The scribbling class
To: "'Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl
Marx and the thinkers he inspired'"
<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Interesting criticism-self-criticism :>)
Charles
^^^^^^^
>From [lbo-talk]
Jim:
It's a touchy thing to get into--- who works hard, who works right, who is
to blame for our historic weakness as a class and movement. I don't want to
broadly indict college people for being college people. And it is good to
have a small bastion in at least one part of society for the left.
But. I do think it's not going overboard for us to work forward from a
statement like this:
"Leftists (less than 5% of the population at least) talk much more to each
other than to the other 95%." I would tentatively add to that statement the
idea that this fact has more to do with our weakness than most questions of
ideology and strategy.
Working forward from this, I usually maintain that if people are making
choices about where to put their lives, time and energy, I encourage:
-Don't move to NYC, the SF Bay Area, or any liberal college town.
-Don't go to college except for a specific skill or trade. All you need to
study 'poly sci', 'labor studies', or history is a library card and a job.
Don't go to grad school. Don't become a college professor.
Maybe it reeks of presumption for a 26 year old to dispense such advice so
freely. But I don't think it's crazy for us to assume that as a movement,
we have enough folks organizing in Berkeley, Madison, teaching lit crit at
fancy colleges, writing books about whatever textual fad is popular among
the tenured gibberish pros this year. The elan that moved generations of
earlier revolutionaries to build a core of radical autoworkers in detroit,
move to youngstown to organize in steel in the 30s, do radical stuff like
voter reg in missippi in the 60s, open a women's liberation center in dayton
ohio in the 70s, even accept the draft and organize against the war inside
the army... we could make our guiding light more than our current base in
universities, sects and subcultures now.
Like I said, I ain't against intellectuals. Just ones who only talk to
other intellectuals. Which is plenty of em. No?
J
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2006 11:31:48 -0400
From: Ralph Dumain <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Cornel West, Spinoza
To: <[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Charles, Austin, etc.: the question is not whether to work with Christians,
whether they be ordinary folks on the street or even university
professors. And if intellectuals are afraid of alienating their
constituencies (real or imagined), they should keep their mouths shut
rather than add to the lies and confusion already piled up to the sky. I
foe wants to work with anyone, it should be on the basis of common rational
interests, and other belief systems need not even be discussed. If people
can't work on the basis of perceived material interests whatever else they
believe, they are hopeless.
It is fascinating in a horrifying and depressing way that black market
intellectuals like Cornel West and bell hooks complain about
anti-intellectualism in the black community but to not say one word against
the main culprit--the church, the main repository of obsolete old school
values, irrational and authoritarian.
Adolph Reed Jr. has written on this issue extensively, at least since his
book THE JESSE JACKSON PHENOMENON, and probably earlier. Curiously, the
white left publishes him constantly, and never listens to him.
BTW, I don't recall Frederick Douglass professing Christianity.
My essay that Jim forwarded to the list mentions Cornel's disregard for
science already in the mid-1970s before he got famous. And again, if you
listen carefully to his sermonizing (i.e. public speaking) and read his
statements, you will find a lot of moralizing and idealistic language, with
a paucity of hard core analysis.
No, I don't think black culture produces more authoritarian offspring than,
say, Catholic white ethnics or fundamentalist rednecks (these two being the
main source of bigotry in this nation), and I don't think particularly
highly of Caucasians, certainly not from listening to their ignorant,
clueless conversation. I can't even say for sure that members of these two
huge clusters would not be subject to ostracism were they to vocalize
unbelief to their peers. America is a very stupid and backward
country--the most backward in the western industrialized world (well,
perhaps not counting a few Catholic countries)--much worse than even I
imagined before the New Right takeover. However, the church, which also
plays a big role in local politics, is indeed authoritarian, and fosters
domineering behavior and delusions of grandeur and disdain for
accountability among its leaders, and sheep-like behavior among its
practitioners, already conditioned to passivity by existing social
conditions. This is why even many religious black people despise preachers.
I could give numerous examples just from life in Washington over the past
two decades, but I'll have carpal tunnel syndrome before I'm through.
One could move on to the educated middle class, college students, etc., and
see a heavily weighted inclination towards religion and tradition that one
would have hoped been bred out of educated people. It is also distressing
to find people with college degrees who apparently never learned the basic
fact that culture is learned and not biologically innate, that melanin has
no magic properties, etc. It's shameful, though in such a stupid country,
it would be unfair to single out one group for exceptional condemnation.
At 09:53 AM 8/2/2006 -0400, Charles Brown wrote:
>Spinoza was the most radical figure of the Enlightenment, esp. in his
>head-on assault against revealed religion. Cornel, on the other hand,
>insists he's a Christian, and will not budge from that position.
>
>
>^^^^^^^
>CB: Hegel made his system a Christian system. ML King, John Brown,
>Soujourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass professed
Christianity.
>Chavez in Venezuela professes Christianity.
>Isn't a Marxist position on working with Christians and other believers
more
>of a case by case basis. There are liberation traditions in religions with
>which Marxists can work. So, this aspect of West's persona is not
>despositive.
>
>
>I didn't realize that West is hostile or avoids science. Does he do it
>explicitly or by omission ?
>
>^^^^
>
>The lesson of Spinoza does not pertain only to the Middle
>East conflict, it pertains to the authoritarianism and superstition rampant
>within black American culture, which Cornel only encourages from his
>privileged posts at Harvard and Princeton.
>
>^^^^
>
>CB: Is authoritarianism and superstition more rampant in Black American
>culture than in other cultures ? Black culture seems less authoritarian
>than others, just off the top of my head. What are some of the specifics
you
>are thinking of ?
------------------------------
Message: 6
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 11:48:05 -0400
From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Cornel West, Spinoza
To: "'Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl
Marx and the thinkers he inspired'"
<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Ralph D
BTW, I don't recall Frederick Douglass professing Christianity.
^^^^^
CB: I think I got that right. I read some of his letters once, and he was
taking a Christian moral position criticizing slaveowners. Lots (most) of
abolitionists were Christians, so...
Frederick Douglass
>From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Frederick Douglass (February 141, 1818 � February 20, 1895) was an American
abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman and reformer. Called "The
Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia," Douglass was among the most
prominent African Americans of his time, and one of the most influential
lecturers and authors in American history.
Contents [hide]
1 Career
1.1 Early Life
1.2 Abolitionist Activities
1.3 Autobiography
1.4 Travels to Europe
1.5 Pre-Civil War
2 Lincoln's Death
2.1 The Reconstruction era
3 Later life
3.1 Death
3.2 Role in Alternative Histories
4 Douglass' works
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References and further reading
8 External links
[edit]
Career
[edit]
Early Life
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who later became known as Frederick
Douglass, was born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland near Hillsboro. He was
separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infant. She
died when Douglass was about seven years old. The identity of Douglass'
father is obscure; Douglass originally stated that his father was a white
man, perhaps his master, Captain Aaron Anthony, but later said that he knew
nothing of his father's identity. When Anthony died, Douglass was given to
Mrs. Lucretia Auld, wife of Captain Thomas Auld; the young man was sent to
Baltimore to serve the Captain's brother, Hugh Auld. When Douglass was about
twelve, Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia, broke the law by teaching Douglass some
letters of the alphabet. Thereafter, as detailed in his Narrative of the
Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (published in 1845), Douglass
succeeded in learning to read from white children in the neighborhood in
which he lived, and by observation of writings of the men with whom he
worked. Douglass later referred to the lessons he received from Sophia Auld
in his first abolitionist speech.
In 1837, Douglass met Anna Murray, who sold a poster bed to buy sailor's
papers needed for Frederick Douglass's escape. Douglass escaped slavery on
September 3, 1838 boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland dressed in a
sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a free black
seaman. After crossing the Susquehanna River by ferry boat at Havre de
Grace, Douglass continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware. From there
Douglass went by steamboat to "Quaker City"�Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His
escape to freedom eventually led him to New York, the entire journey taking
less than twenty-four hours.
[edit]
Abolitionist Activities
Douglass continued reading. He joined various organizations in New Bedford,
Massachusetts, including a black church. He regularly attended Abolitionist
meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, The
Liberator, and in 1841, he heard Garrison speak at the Bristol Anti-Slavery
Society's annual meeting. Douglass was inspired by Garrison, later stating,
"no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments (the hatred of
slavery) as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." Garrison was likewise
impressed with Douglass, and mentioned him in the Liberator.
Several days later, Douglass gave his first speech at the Massachusetts
Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket. Twenty-three years
old at the time, Douglass later said that his legs were shaking. He
conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his life as a
slave.
In 1843, Douglass participated in the American Anti-Slavery Society's
Hundred Conventions project, a six month tour of meeting halls throughout
the east and middle west of the United States. He participated in the Seneca
Falls Convention, the birthplace of the American feminist movement, and was
a signatory of its Declaration of Sentiments.
Douglass later became the publisher of a series of newspapers: North Star,
Frederick Douglass Weekly, Frederick Douglass' Paper, Douglass' Monthly and
New National Era. The motto of The North Star was "Right is of no sex--Truth
is of no color--God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren".
Douglass' work spanned the years prior to and during the Civil War. He was
acquainted with the radical abolitionist Captain John Brown but did not
approve of Brown's plan to start an armed slave revolt. However, Brown
visited Douglass' home for several days shortly before the Harper's Ferry
incident. After the Harper's Ferry incident, Douglass fled for a time to
Canada, fearing he might be arrested as a co-conspirator. Douglass believed
that the Harpers Ferry attack on federal property would enrage the American
public. Douglass would later share a stage in Harpers Ferry with Andrew
Hunter, the prosecutor who successfully convicted Brown.
Douglass conferred with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 on the treatment
of black soldiers, and with President Andrew Johnson on the subject of black
suffrage. His early collaborators were the white abolitionists William Lloyd
Garrison and Wendell Phillips. In the early 1850's, however, Douglass split
with the Garrisonians over the issue of the United States Constitution.
Douglass had five children; two of them, Charles and Rossetta, helped
produce his newspapers.
Douglass was an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
[edit]
Autobiography
Douglass' most well-known work is his autobiography, Narrative of the Life
of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which was published in 1845.
Critics frequently attacked the book as inauthentic, not believing that a
black man could possibly have produced so eloquent a piece of literature.
The book was an immediate bestseller and received overwhelmingly positive
critical reviews. Within three years of its publication, it had been
reprinted nine times with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States; it
was also translated into the French and Dutch languages.
The book's success had an unfortunate side effect: his friends and mentors
feared that the publicity would draw the attention of his ex-owner, Hugh
Auld, who could try to get his "property" back. They encouraged him to go on
a tour in Ireland, as many other ex-slaves had done in the past. He set sail
on the Cambria for Liverpool on August 16, 1845, and arrived in Ireland when
the Irish famine was just beginning.
[edit]
Travels to Europe
Mural featuring Frederick Douglass in Belfast, Northern IrelandDouglass
spent two years in the British Isles and gave several lectures, mainly in
Protestant churches. He remarked that there he was treated not "as a color,
but as a man." He met and befriended the Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell.
When Douglass visited Scotland, the members of the Free Church of Scotland,
whom he had criticized for accepting money from U.S. slave-owners,
demonstrated against him with placards that read "Send back the nigger".
Douglass' work on Catholic emancipation in Ireland earned him the nickname
"The Black O'Connell". He was widely respected for his championing of many
forms of equality; not only slavery and race equality but women's rights
and, in Ireland, Catholic emancipation.
[edit]
Pre-Civil War
In 1851, Douglass merged the North Star with Gerrit Smith's Liberty Party
Paper to form Frederick Douglass' Paper, which was published until 1860.
Douglass came to agree with Smith and Lysander Spooner that the United
States Constitution is an anti-slavery document, reversing his earlier
belief that it was pro-slavery, a view he had shared with William Lloyd
Garrison. Garrison had publicly demonstrated his opinion of the Constitution
by burning copies of it. Douglass' change of position on the Constitution
was one of the most notable incidents of a division that emerged in the
abolitionist movement after the publication of Spooner's book The
Unconstitutionality of Slavery in 1846. This shift in opinion, as well as
some other political differences, created a rift between Douglass and
Garrison. Douglass further angered Garrison by saying that the Constitution
could and should be used as an instrument in the fight against slavery. With
this, Douglass began to assert his independence from the Garrisonians.
Garrison saw the North Star as being in competition with the National
Anti-Slavery Standard and Marius Robinson's Anti-slavery Bugle.
In March 1860, Annie, Douglass' youngest daughter, died in Rochester, New
York, while he was still in England. Douglass returned from England the
following month, taking the route through Canada to avoid detection.
By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men
in the country, known for his oratories on the condition of the black race,
and other issues such as women's rights.
[edit]
Lincoln's Death
At Lincoln's memorial, Douglass was in the audience as a tribute to Lincoln
was being given by a prominent lawyer at the time. The tribute was not as
successful as some of the audience there would have hoped. Resultantly
Douglass was goaded by the people to stand up and speak. At first out of
respect for the speaker he declined but eventually he gave into the pressure
and with no preparation he gave a fantastic tribute to the President for
which he had so much respect. The crowd, roused by his speech, gave him a
standing ovation. A witness later said: "I have heard Clay speak and many
fantastic men, but never have I heard a speech as impressive as that."
Whilst this is anecdotal, it is a commonly accepted fact that Lincoln's wife
gave Douglass Lincoln's favorite walking stick which to this day resides in
Cedar Lodge. This is both a testimony to the success of Douglass' tribute to
Lincoln and also to the effect and influence of his powerful oratory.
[edit]
The Reconstruction era
After the Civil War, Douglass held a number of important political
positions. He served as President of the Reconstruction-era Freedman's
Savings Bank; as marshal of the District of Columbia; as minister-resident
and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti (1889-1891); and as charg�
d'affaires for Saint Domingue. After two years, he resigned from his
ambassadorship due to disagreements with U.S. government policy. In 1872, he
moved to Washington, D.C after his house on South Avenue in Rochester, New
York burned down � arson was suspected. Also lost was a complete issue of
The North Star.
In 1868, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant.
The Klan Act and the Enforcement Act were signed into law by President
Grant. Grant used their provisions vigorously, suspending habeas corpus in
South Carolina and sending troops there and into other states; under his
leadership, over 5,000 arrests were made and the Ku Klux Klan was dealt a
serious blow.
Grant's vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular among many whites,
but Frederick Douglass praised him. An associate of Douglass wrote of Grant
that African Americans "will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of his
name, fame and great services."
In 1872, he became the first African American to receive a nomination for
Vice President of the United States, having been nominated to be Victoria
Woodhull's running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket without his
knowledge. During the campaign, he neither campaigned for the ticket nor
even acknowledged that he had been nominated.
Douglass spoke at many schools around the country in the Reconstruction era,
including Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1873
[edit]
Later life
In 1877, Frederick Douglass purchased his final home in Washington D.C., on
the banks of the Anacostia River. He named it Cedar Hill (also spelled
CedarHill). He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and included a china
closet. One year later, Douglass expanded his property to 15 acres (61,000
m�), with the purchase of adjoining lots. The home is now the location of
the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
After the disappointments of Reconstruction, many African Americans called
Exodusters moved to Kansas to form all-black towns. Douglass spoke out
against the movement, urging blacks to stick it out. He was condemned and
booed by black audiences.
In 1877, Douglass was appointed a United States Marshal. In 1881, he was
appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. His wife (Anna
Murray Douglas) died in 1882, leaving him in a state of depression. His
association with the activist Ida B. Wells brought meaning back into his
life. In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye,
New York. Pitts was the daughter of Gideon Pitts, Jr., an abolitionist
colleague and friend of Douglass. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College (at
that time Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), Pitts had worked on a radical
feminist publication named Alpha while living in Washington, D.C..
Frederick and Helen Pitts Douglass faced a storm of controversy as a result
of their marriage. She was a white woman and nearly 20 years younger than
he. Both families recoiled; hers stopped speaking to her; his was bruised,
as they felt his marriage was a repudiation of their mother. But
individualist feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the two [1].
The new couple traveled to England, France, Italy, Egypt and Greece from
1886 to 1887.
In later life, Douglass was determined to ascertain his birthday. He was
born in February of 1816 by his own calculations, but historians have found
a record indicating his birth in February of 1818.
In 1892 the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner to the
Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. He spoke for Irish Home Rule and on
the efforts of Charles Stewart Parnell. He briefly revisited Ireland in
1886.
[edit]
Death
On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of
Women in Washington, D.C.. During that meeting, he was brought to the
platform and given a standing ovation by the audience.
Shortly after he returned home, Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart
attack or stroke in his adopted hometown of Washington D.C.. He is buried in
Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, NY.
[edit]
Role in Alternative Histories
Douglass plays a major role in several books of Alternative History
describing a different outcome of the anti-slavery struggle than the way it
developed in real history.
In Harry Turtledove's How Few Remain the South wins the American Civil War
and becomes an independent state, and Douglass continues to struggle against
slavery. In a further war which breaks out in 1881, he is captured by
Confederate forces and narrowly avoids being summarily executed. Eventually,
the Confederates are forced to free him and later they emancipate their
slaves (though without granting them civil rights) in order to gain the
support of France and Britain in the war.
In Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain, John Brown succeeds in the Harper's
Ferry raid and sets off a slave rebellion in the South. Douglass expresses
public remorse at not having supported him from the start, and - after
avoiding an assassination attempt by copperheads - makes his way to the
South and joins the rebellion. Eventually, Douglass and Harriet Tubman
become the Founding Father and Founding Mother of an independent black state
created in the Deep South.
[edit]
Douglass' works
A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845)
"The Heroic Slave." Autographs for Freedom. Ed. Julia Griffiths Boston:
Jewett and Company, 1853. 174-239.
My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892)
Douglass also edited the abolitionist newspaper The North Star from 1847 to
1851; The North Star was merged with another paper and became Frederick
Douglass� Paper.
[edit]
See also
List of African-American abolitionists
Slave narrative
African American literature
Frederick Douglass and Self-Made Men
The Columbian Orator
[edit]
Notes
Note 1: His exact birthday was never recorded, but he selected February 14
to celebrate it.
Parts of this article are drawn from Houston A. Baker, Jr. introduction to
the Penguin 1986 edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
[edit]
References and further reading
Scholarship
Foner, Philip Sheldon. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. New
York: International Publishers, 1950.
Huggins, Nathan Irvin, and Oscar Handlin. Slave and Citizen: The Life of
Frederick Douglass. Library of American Biography. Boston: Little, Brown,
1980. ISBN 0316380008
Lampe, Gregory P. Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice, 1818-1845. Rhetoric
and Public Affairs Series. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press,
1998. ISBN 087013485X (alk. paper) ISBN 0870134809 (pbk. alk. paper) (on his
oratory; book available to subscribers at questia.com)
Levine, Robert S. Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and the Politics of
Representative Identity. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1997. ISBN 0807823236 (alk. paper). ISBN 0807846333 (pbk.: alk. paper)
(cultural history; book available to subscribers at questia.com)
McFeely, William S. Frederick Douglass. New York: Norton, 1991. ISBN
0393028232 (book available to subscribers at questia.com)
Quarles, Benjamin. Frederick Douglass. Washington: Associated Publishers,
1948. (book available to subscribers at questia.com)
Wesley, Charles H., The History of Alpha Phi Alpha, A Development in College
Life, Chicago, Foundation Publishers, 1981.
For Young Readers
Weidt, Maryann N. Voice of Freedom: a Story about Frederick Douglass. illus.
by Jeni Reeves. Lerner Publications, 2001. ISBN 1575055538.
Editions of Douglass' work
Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass:
Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. 1845. Eds. William L Andrews and
William S McFeely. A Norton critical edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co,
1996. ISBN 0393969665 (pbk.)
Douglass, Frederick. Autobiographies. Notes by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The
Library of America; 68. New York: Library of America, 1994. ISBN 0940450798
(alk. paper)
Douglass, Frederick. Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings. Ed
by Philip Sheldon Foner, and Yuval Taylor. The Library of Black America. 1st
ed. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1999. ISBN 1556523491 (cloth), ISBN
1556523521 (pbk.)
Documentary Films
Frederick Douglass [videorecording] / produced by Greystone Communications,
Inc. for A&E Network ; executive producers, Craig Haffner and Donna E.
Lusitana.; 1997
Frederick Douglass: when the lion wrote history [videorecording] / a
co-production of ROJA Productions and WETA-TV ; produced and directed by
Orlando Bagwell ; narration written by Steve Fayer.; c1994
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist editor [videorecording] / a production of
Schlessinger Video Productions, a division of Library Video Company ;
produced and directed by Rhonda Fabian, Jerry Baber ; script, Amy A. Tiehel
Race to freedom [videorecording] : the story of the underground railroad /
an Atlantis Films Limited production in association with United Image
Entertainment; produced in association with the Family Channel (US), Black
Entertainment Television and CTV Television Network, Ltd. ; produced with
the participation of Telefilm Canada, Ontario Film Development Corporation
and with the assistance of Rogers Telefund ; distributed by Xenon Pictures ;
executive producers, Seaton McLean, Tim Reid ; co-executive producers, Peter
Sussman, Anne Marie La Traverse ; supervising producer, Mary Kahn ;
producers, Daphne Ballon, Brian Parker ; directed by Don McBrearty ;
teleplay by Diana Braithwaite, Nancy Trites Botkin, Peter Mohan. Publisher
Santa Monica, CA : Xenon Pictures, Inc., 2001. Tim Reid as Frederick
------------------------------
Message: 7
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 11:49:51 -0400
From: "Charles Brown" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [Marxism-Thaxis] Hegel made his system a Christian system.
To: "'Forum for the discussion of theoretical issues raised by Karl
Marx and the thinkers he inspired'"
<[email protected]>
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
This is little mentioned by left discussers of Hegel.
CB
------------------------------
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