Frederick Douglass and Adam Smith

by Liberty and Power

In contrast to the anti-globalist modern left and the protectionist right, Frederick Douglass rejected the negative sum view of the world. Like many abolitionists, he understood and appreciated the insights of Adam Smith on this issue:

The old doctrine that the slavery of the black, is essential to the freedom of the white race, can maintain itself only in the presence of slavery, where interest and prejudice are the controlling powers, but it stands condemned equally by reason and experience. The statesmanship of to-day condemns and repudiates it as a shallow pretext for oppression. It belongs with the commercial fallacies long ago exposed by Adam Smith. It stands on a level with the contemptible notion, that every crumb of bread that goes into another man’s mouth, is just so much bread taken from mine. Whereas, the rule is in this country of abundant land, the more mouths you have, the more money you can put into your pocket, the more I can put into mine. As with political economy, so with civil and political rights (Frederick Douglass, November 17, 1864).

The Frederick Douglass Papers, Series One: Debates and Interviews, Volume 4: 1864-80 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 48.

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Stephan Kinsella - 1/26/2006

I'm sure I never got near the level of grief you got, Long Rod.

Roderick T. Long - 1/26/2006

Why yes, Steven.

Stephan Kinsella - 1/26/2006

Roderick, do you think there's anything to the theory that Douglass's lifelong frustration at always having to correct the way people would spell his last name was really what moulded his activist personality?

Roderick T. Long - 1/26/2006

Douglass was also a fan of Lysander Spooner and frequently cited Spooner's Unconstitutionality of Slavery in his speeches.

Stephan Kinsella - 1/25/2006

Agreed. Douglass's pro-freedom views ought to be championed and promoted by libertarians. Not surprisingly, Douglass has also been featured and discussed prominently on LewRockwell.com and Mises.org. E.g., Myles Kantor presented "For the Protection of Rights: The Political Philosophy of Frederick Douglass" at the 2005 Austrian Scholars Conference. DiLorenzo on LRC notes, for example, that "Frederick Douglass had nothing but scorn for Lincoln’s colonization scheme". Kantor has written on Douglass many times on LRC and elsewhere.

I found this comment by John Dwyer in an LRC article very interesting: "Famed former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass expressed his views on these actions, as well as Lincoln’s public declarations regarding the benefits of deporting the bulk of American blacks: "Illogical and unfair as Mr. Lincoln’s statements are, they are nevertheless quite in keeping with his whole course from the beginning of his administration up to this day, and confirm the painful conviction that though elected as an antislavery man by Republican and Abolition voters, Mr. Lincoln is quite a genuine representative of American prejudice and Negro hatred and far more concerned for the preservation of slavery, and the favor of the Border Slave States, than for any sentiment of magnanimity or principle of justice and humanity.""

Seems Douglass did not care much for Lincoln, and bully for him.

David T. Beito - 1/23/2006

fixed. Thanks for catching it.

Tom G Palmer - 1/23/2006

I should note that his portrait and his name are prominently featured at the Cato Institute. I recently hosted leaders of the Mauritanian anti-slavery movement and they were visibly touched to see the great man honored so (along with Lysander Spooner and William Lloyd Garrison).

Kenneth R. Gregg - 1/23/2006

I agree with Tom on this, David. Every time I've read Douglass, he impressed me with his classical liberal credentials. He should be taken as one of the constellation of stellar classical liberals.

Just a thought.
Just Ken
kgregglv@cox.net
http://classicalliberalism.blogspot.com/

Tom G Palmer - 1/23/2006

David, Just checking, but this sentence is a bit hard to parse, so could you check it against your copy?
"Whereas, the rule is in this country of abundant land the more mouths you have the more bread you can put into your pocket, the more I can put into mine."

If you've got it handy, could you check it?

Tom G Palmer - 1/23/2006

David,

That's more important than one might think at first. What about a journal article by a serious scholar (I have one in mind, initials are "DB") in a historical journal on Douglass as classical liberal?

Tom