THE ABOLITONIST MOVEMENT AT HOME AND ABROAD

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in  1817. He escaped in 1833 and in 1841 he gave his first speech. He would tour England and Ireland  in 1845 and 1846. His series of lectures in Limerick, Dublin, and Belfast are quite striking. Douglass and Daniel O'Connell became friends in their struggles for justice. Until his death in 1895 he remained faithful to the Irish Struggle. (Unfortunately, not all Irish reciprocated Douglass' support with their own.)

Marcus Garvey also took a  role of leadership in speaking out for the Irish.

Gerry Adams, born in 1948 and leader of the Sinn Fein spoke at Rice High School in the Spring of 2000. In the school library Adams recounted how the words and deeds of Dr. Martin Luther King inspired him and his colleagues.


Consider the significance of  Douglass' impressions.

I addressed... a  large meeting... of the common people of Ireland... Never did human faces tell a sadder tale. More than five thousand were assembled.. these people lacked only a black skin and wooly hair, to complete their likeness to the plantation negro. The open, uneducated mouth-- the long gaunt arm-- the badly formed foot and ankle-- the shuffling gait- the retreating forehead vacant of expression-- and, their petty quarrels and fights-- all reminded me of the plantation, and my own cruelly abused people... the Irishman educated, is a model gentleman: the Irishman ignorant and degraded, compares in form and feature to the negro......"