"My soul was set all on fire."
That's how the fugitive slave described his feelings. The year was
1838. The man had escaped from slavery in Maryland. After great
effort, he had managed to make his way to New Bedford in the free
state of Massachusetts. He was a stranger in town, desperate for
work. But four months after he arrived, one seemingly chance
encounter changed his life -- and the political history of the
United States.
One day, a young man came up to that fugitive slave and asked a
simple question: Would he like to subscribe to the country's
leading anti-slavery newspaper?
After the fugitive had earned some money, he became a subscriber.
Here -- in the words of the fugitive -- is what happened next:
"The paper came, and I read it from week to week. ... The paper
became my meat and my drink. My soul was set all on fire. Its
sympathy for my brethren in bonds -- its scathing denunciations of
slaveholders -- its faithful exposures of slavery -- and its
powerful attacks upon the upholders of the institution -- sent a
thrill of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before!"
After encountering the abolitionist movement through someone
selling the abolitionist press, this fugitive slave began to
attend abolitionist meetings. He joined abolitionist
organizations. He eventually spoke out against slavery at public
meetings held in many parts of the United States, and even
traveled to Britain and Ireland to tell people there of the
horrors of slavery. By the time the Civil War began, he was one of
the most prominent leaders of the abolitionists and had convinced
many Northerners of the horrors of slavery.
The man was Frederick Douglass. The newspaper was called The
Liberator.
The encounter about a subscription is described at the end of the
powerful autobiographical work "Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass." Unfortunately, the author never mentions the name of
that "young man" who asked him for a subscription. So, that New
Bedford abolitionist must go down in history as an unsung hero,
one of many people who guaranteed the widespread distribution of
the revolutionary press in the United States at a time when that
was urgent.
Today, this country needs people to speak out like Frederick
Douglass did. It also needs people like that unknown Liberator
salesman: people who will push -- tirelessly, relentlessly,
systematically -- to increase the circulation of the revolutionary
press.
So, during this African American History Month 1998, let's set the
soul of America on fire. Let's reach out to the new Frederick
Douglasses -- the people of both sexes and all nationalities who
are fighting the injustices of capitalism. Like that young man in
Massachusetts 160 years ago, let's ask people to subscribe to and
distribute the most uncompromising revolutionary press of the day.
You can help begin that effort by filling out the coupon on the
right.
-- The National Circulation Committee of the League of
Revolutionaries for a New America
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