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An article by Nicholas Buccola, a professor of political science and the director of the Frederick Douglass Forum on Law, Rights, and Justice at Linfield College in Oregon, makes the case that modern attempts to put Frederick Douglass into an ideological straightjacket are bound to distort his views. The article You Can't Put Frederick Douglass in Chains appeared in the NY Times yesterday. From the article:
Whenever I see an interpretation that attempts to fit his ideas neatly into an ideological box, I am suspicious. Douglass was a deep and complex thinker and he was willing to adapt his principles to new facts. He was indeed committed to many ideas we now call "libertarian," but he also held many views that we now call "progressive" or even "radical." He was, in sum, a statesman, not an ideologue.
As we attempt to make sense of how Douglass's ideas — and those of other prominent historical figures — might apply to our own political lives, we ought to do so with humility and care. This requires that we recognize that we cannot know how time would have altered their views and it imposes on us the obligation to resist the temptation to read them selectively to serve our own agendas. Douglass can indeed speak to us across the expanse of time, but we ought to be willing to hear all that he has to say.
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