Frederick Douglass in Elmira

 By Rachel Dworkin, archivist

 

During his lifetime, Frederick Douglass (February 14, 1818-February 20, 1895) was arguably the most famous Black man in America, if not the world. He was an ardent abolitionist, civil rights advocate, orator, author, and statesman. Douglass went on a series of speaking tours across the United States and Europe from the 1840s through the 1890s. As it turns out, he also spoke in Elmira. Multiple times.

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland. He escaped to freedom in 1838. By the 1840s, he was traveling across the Northeast, speaking on the evils of slavery and the need for abolition. From 1845 to 1847, he toured the British Isles, lecturing and fundraising for the abolitionist cause. Upon returning to the United States, Douglass settled in upstate New York where he began publishing the abolitionist newspaper The North Star in Rochester while continuing to speak around the Northeast. After the Civil War and the end of slavery, Douglass pivoted to speaking about issues including civil rights for Blacks and women. From 1886 to 1887, he toured Europe, visiting the British Isles again as well as France, Italy, Egypt and Greece before returning to the United States.

Douglass first came to Elmira in the 1840s. During a visit in 1840, he inspired the establishment of an AME Zion church which now bears his name. In 1848, he came along with an African-born man named Ward who had been kidnapped into slavery in America. The two of them spoke of their experiences of slavery and the cause of abolition at a small school-room on Carroll Street to a crowd of 50 or so Blacks and a handful of whites. Robert Morris McDowell, then a lad of 14, described the two men’s speeches as “stirring, eloquent and pathetic.” The event seems to have been part of a larger speaking and fundraising tour as they apparently spoke again the following day in Corning. 

Frederick Douglass, ca. 1840s

 

After the Civil War, Douglass had multiple speaking engagements in Elmira. This time, however, he wasn’t drawing tiny crowds in dinky little school-rooms, he was selling out the Elmira Opera House. He spoke here twice in 1872. The first time was on February 23^rd when he spoke at the Opera House in support of the proposed annexation of Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic). The newspaper reported that he was staying at the home of Charles Langdon, the son of Douglass’s old friend and abolitionist ally, Jervis Langdon. Douglass was back in Elmira on October 1^st when he spoke at the Republican meeting being held in downtown Elmira as part of the New York State Fair.

Douglass returned to Elmira on July 17, 1873, to participate in a Grand Celebration of the Civil Rights Bill. The celebration was sponsored and planned by the Colored Citizens of Elmira. The day kicked off with a church service, followed by a parade featuring (in order) officers of the Elmira police department, the LaFrance Cornet Band, Taylor Guards of Williamsport (colored), Excelsior Cornet Band of Williamsport (also colored), a company of colored Elmira soldiers with drum corps, a bunch of kids with flags, and carriages with day’s speakers and public officials, including Douglass himself. The parade ended in Hoffman Grove (now Grove Park), where Mr. William H. Lester of Dryden read the 15^th Amendment and Civil Rights bill, and John W. Jones and William Johnson both spoke. After a break for dinner, Douglass gave a speech at the Opera House on the topic of Civil Rights which the newspaper described as “sound, practical discourse, lit up with many brilliant passages of rhetoric and abounding with eloquent expressions such as Mr. Douglass has long been noted for.” The day was capped by a dance party at Holden Hall and a festival at the AME Zion church. 

Frederick Douglass, 1876

 

Douglass’s last speaking engagement in Elmira was for a similar event on August 3, 1880. This Emancipation Day Celebration commemorated the passage of Great Britain’s Slavery Abolition Law in August 1833, as well as America’s own Emancipation Proclamation. Black folks came to Elmira from a hundred miles around to participate in the festivities. The event was kicked off by a parade from Dickinson Street in the heart of Elmira’s Black community to Grove Park. The parade featured the LaFrance Band, the Palmer Guards of Syracuse, Black Civil War veterans, carriages with various notables, young ladies representing each of the states, the Rescue Hook & Ladder Company of Norwich, the colored Horseheads Hose Company, Elmira Colored Y.M.C.A. band, and members of the colored Masonic lodge. At the park, there was a program of music and prayer followed by a reading of the Emancipation Proclamation by William H. Lester of Dryden and a speech by Douglass. A feast was served at the AME Zion church in the evening followed by a grand ball at the Armory. The Elmira Daily Advertiser pronounced Douglass’s speech to be an “able and eloquent production, and every way worthy of the great reputation of its distinguished author” in a front-page article the following morning. 

Grove Park, ca. 1900

 Just think, if you had been born in a different era, you might have been able to hear Frederick Douglass, world-famous orator and activist, speak right here in Elmira. Not once. Not twice. Multiple times. Kind of wild when you think about it.