The Trial of Frederick Douglass

Last Constitution Day, we traced the origins of free speech in the United States from colonial America to the ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791. In this episode, we jump forward to the antebellum period, where abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass, John Quincy Adams, William Lloyd Garrison, and Angelina Grimké clashed with pro-slavery advocates over the monumental issue of slavery.

Journalist and author Damon Root, FIRE Senior Fellow Jacob Mchangama, and Washington and Lee University professor Lucas Morel join the show this week to explore how free speech and the free press became the essential tools in the abolitionists’ campaign for freedom. 

Show notes:

• Transcript

• “Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media” by Jacob Mchangama

• “Glorious Liberty: Frederick Douglass and the Fight for an Anti-Slavery Constitution” by Damon Root

• “Speaking the Truth” by Lucas Morel (Persuasion)

• “A Plea for Free Speech in Boston” by Federick Douglass (National Constitution Center)

• “Frederick Douglass” (The First Amendment Encyclopedia)

• “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass (Teaching American History)

• “With the Freedom of Speech, the Responsibility to Listen” (Ford Foundation)

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