Religion takes a beating in this speech. Not religious faith itself, but religious hypocrites: people who claim to be believing Christians and still condone slavery and racial discrimination. Douglass spends the first half of the speech discussing his experiences in Northern churches—where Christians aren't necessarily pro-slavery, but they aren't necessarily pro-black people, either.
They can talk the talk, but they can't walk the walk.
In the second half of the speech, Douglass calls out pious Southerners who use the Christian Bible to justify slavery. Northern and Southern churches may differ on exactly how to practice their prejudice against black people—but they're bound by that prejudice nonetheless. What makes Douglass effective in rebuking the churches is that he knows his Gospels, too, and he's not buying.
Questions About Religion
- Do some comparative lit and read the Gospels. Do you agree with Frederick Douglass that the Bible is an anti-slavery document, or with William Lloyd Garrison that the Bible is a pro-slavery document? (Douglass and Garrison had disparate views of the U.S. Constitution, too, with Douglass believing it to be anti-slavery and Garrison believing it to be pro-slavery.)
- It seems like both Northern and Southern churches think they're doing the right thing re: religion and slavery and race. What's convinced both of them of this?
- Douglass gave this speech twenty years before the beginning of the Civil War. Consider the historical context. Did anything change in American churches to encourage the beginning of the Civil War? In other words, did religion go clubbing with its BFF politics again?
- While the negative effects of prejudice in Southern churches are obvious, what might be some negative effects of the kind of prejudice practiced in Northern churches?
Chew on This
Both Northern and Southern churches appear to interpret the Bible as condoning racial prejudice.
Slavery and prejudice wouldn't have survived as long as they did without the complicity of the Christian church.