Collected Articles of Frederick Douglass, a Slave | Page 9

a
whaling voyage, upon which there was a heavy job of calking and
coppering to be done. I had some skill in both branches, and applied to
Mr. French for work. He, generous man that he was, told me he would
employ me, and I might go at once to the vessel. I obeyed him, but
upon reaching the float-stage, where others [sic] calkers were at work, I
was told that every white man would leave the ship, in her unfinished
condition, if I struck a blow at my trade upon her. This uncivil,
inhuman, and selfish treatment was not so shocking and scandalous in
my eyes at the time as it now appears to me. Slavery had inured me to
hardships that made ordinary trouble sit lightly upon me. Could I have
worked at my trade I could have earned two dollars a day, but as a
common laborer I received but one dollar. The difference was of great
importance to me, but if I could not get two dollars, I was glad to get
one; and so I went to work for Mr. French as a common laborer. The
consciousness that I was free--no longer a slave--kept me cheerful
under this, and many similar proscriptions, which I was destined to
meet in New Bedford and elsewhere on the free soil of Massachusetts.
For instance, though colored children attended the schools, and were
treated kindly by their teachers, the New Bedford Lyceum refused, till
several years after my residence in that city, to allow any colored
person to attend the lectures delivered in its hall. Not until such men as
Charles Sumner, Theodore Parker, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Horace
Mann refused to lecture in their course while there was such a
restriction, was it abandoned.
Becoming satisfied that I could not rely on my trade in New Bedford to

give me a living, I prepared myself to do any kind of work that came to
hand. I sawed wood, shoveled coal, dug cellars, moved rubbish from
back yards, worked on the wharves, loaded and unloaded vessels, and
scoured their cabins.
I afterward got steady work at the brass-foundry owned by Mr.
Richmond. My duty here was to blow the bellows, swing the crane, and
empty the flasks in which castings were made; and at times this was hot
and heavy work. The articles produced here were mostly for ship work,
and in the busy season the foundry was in operation night and day. I
have often worked two nights and every working day of the week. My
foreman, Mr. Cobb, was a good man, and more than once protected me
from abuse that one or more of the hands was disposed to throw upon
me. While in this situation I had little time for mental improvement.
Hard work, night and day, over a furnace hot enough to keep the metal
running like water, was more favorable to action than thought; yet here
I often nailed a newspaper to the post near my bellows, and read while I
was performing the up and down motion of the heavy beam by which
the bellows was inflated and discharged. It was the pursuit of
knowledge under difficulties, and I look back to it now, after so many
years, with some complacency and a little wonder that I could have
been so earnest and persevering in any pursuit other than for my daily
bread. I certainly saw nothing in the conduct of those around to inspire
me with such interest: they were all devoted exclusively to what their
hands found to do. I am glad to be able to say that, during my
engagement in this foundry, no complaint was ever made against me
that I did not do my work, and do it well. The bellows which I worked
by main strength was, after I left, moved by a steam-engine.

Douglass, Frederick. "Reconstruction." Atlantic Monthly 18 (1866):
761-765.

RECONSTRUCTION
The assembling of the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress

may very properly be made the occasion of a few earnest words on the
already much-worn topic of reconstruction.
Seldom has any legislative body been the subject of a solicitude more
intense, or of aspirations more sincere and ardent. There are the best of
reasons for this profound interest. Questions of vast moment, left
undecided by the last session of Congress, must be manfully grappled
with by this. No political skirmishing will avail. The occasion demands
statesmanship.
Whether the tremendous war so heroically fought and so victoriously
ended shall pass into history a miserable failure, barren of permanent
results,-- a scandalous and shocking waste of blood and treasure,--a
strife for empire, as Earl Russell characterized it, of no value to liberty
or civilization, --an attempt to re-establish a Union by force, which
must