A Prophet of Freedom for the 4th of July

The Trump family has now lived in America for five generations (yes, they were immigrants) but not a single one of them has served in the military. That hasn't stopped Emperor Trump from literally weaponizing the 4th of July, throwing a parade in Washington which is even making military leaders queasy. Trust Trump to turn this into another yet another ego exercise. Why don't his supposedly patriotic supporters see the emperor has no clothes?

Today I'll be focusing on an actual great American, Frederick Douglass, one of the most significant figures of the 19th century. I'm reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography by David Blight called Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Douglass was born a slave, escaped to the north, and became the relentless spokeperson for the end of the injustice of slavery. Not only did he spend extended periods on the road in the northern States, he toured Britain, where slavery had been abolished. Tall, imposing, handsome, he was one of the great orators of a golden age of public speaking and often drew large crowds. He was both cheered and threatened in these engagements and was physically attacked on a number of occasions.



Blight is persuasive in contending that Douglass drew upon his knowledge of the bible and the prophetic tradition to fuel his own fervour for the cause of emancipation and that of his listeners and supporters. He was loaned to relatives of his owner as a boy and the woman of the household treated him more like a son than a slave. Douglass wrote that she taught him to read from the book of Job. In a chapter entitled By the Rivers of Babylon, a reference from Psalm 137, Blight shares the many biblical references from the bible used by Douglass, including from Isaiah and other prophets.

As the Trump administration attempts to divert attention from the shameful reality of children treated worse than animals in detention centres with a desperate display of military might, let's remember the courageous, biblical witness of Frederick Douglass.



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