Free Republic

It will come as no surprise that this year Hillsdale College has chosen to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Douglass. Born a slave in Talbot County, Maryland, Douglass fled north to freedom in 1838. Eventually, he became a celebrated orator, and a leading figure in the abolition movement. Douglass also became a friend of Hillsdale College. He was twice an honored guest of the college. His first visit took place in January 1863, a few weeks after the final issuance of Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. On that occasion, Douglass delivered an address entitled “Popular Error and Unpopular Truth.”...

...Frederick Douglass is still a controversial figure in his native Talbot County. Plans to erect a statue of him in Easton, the county seat, have been stymied...the County Council oppose putting a Douglass memorial on the courthouse green. Because they believe the site should be reserved to honor war dead. A Vietnam War memorial and a tribute to the county's Confederate Army veterans. The existence of that second statue alone gives reason enough for a Douglass tribute. What are Talbot County visitors to think -- that the county more closely sympathizes with the goals of the Confederacy than with the...