Speech given by Douglass, in Lynn, Mass., April 28, 1845.
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"Christianity can have wide differences. The Christianity of this land and the Christianity of Christ. The difference is so wide that to receive the one as good, pure and holy is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt and wicked.
I hate the corrupt slaveholding, women whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land. I can see no reason, but the most deceitful one, for calling the religion of this land Christianity.
I look upon it as the boldest of all frauds, and the grossest of all libels. I am filled with unutterable loathing when I contemplate the religious pomp and show, together with its horrible inconsistencies that surround me.

We have men-stealers for ministers, women whippers for missionaries, and cradle-plunderers for church members. The man who wields the blood clotted cow skin during the week fills the pulpit on Sunday and claims to be a minister of the meek and lowly Jesus.

The man who robs me of my earnings at the end of the week meets me as a class leader on Sunday morning to show me the way of life and the path to salvation. He who sells my sister for purposes of prostitution, stands forth as the pious advocate of purity.

He who claims it a religious duty to read the Bible denies me the right of learning to read. He who is the religious advocate of marriage robs millions of its sacred influence, and leaves them to the ravages of wholesale pollution. The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relations is the same that scatters families - sundering husbands, wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers - leaving the hut vacant and the hearth desolate.
We see the thief preaching against theft, and the adulterer against adultery. We have men sold to build churches, women sold to support the gospel and babes sold to purchase Bibles for the poor heathen!
all for the glory of God and the good of the souls! The slave auctioneer’s bell and the church-going bell chime in with each other, and the bitter cries of the heart broken slave are drowned in the religious shouts of his pious master. Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave-trade goes hand in hand together.
The slave prison and the church stand near each other. The dealer gives his blood-stained gold to support the pulpit, and the pulpit, in return, covers his inferior business with the garb of Christianity. Here we have religion and robbery the allies of each other - devils dressed in angles robes, and hell representing the semblance of paradise.

Dark and terrible as is this picture, I hold it to be strictly true of the overwhelming mass of professed Christians in America. They strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Could anything be more true of our churches ?
They would be shocked at the preposition of fellowshipping a sheep-stealer; and at the same time they hug to their communion a man-stealer, and brand me with being an infidel, if I find fault with them for it. They love the heathen on the other side of the globe. They can pray for him, pay money to have the Bible put in his hand, and the missionaries to instruct him; while they despise and totally neglect the heathen at their own door."

Powerful. Powerful. Powerful. The clarity he gives with those words makes my heart pound. I have never seen a curtain pulled back so far.

Still applicable. Only the details have changed. The heart of the matter remains.

Thank you Dave. Would have hated to have missed those words.

Old Frederick cheated on his wife with a German heiress and probably countless others.

After his wife's death he promptly married a new woman.

Whereupon the German heiress killed herself in a park in Paris,France.

He didn't remarry until a year and a half after his first wife's death.

The German woman, Otillie, had advanced breast cancer when she committed suicide. Although there were rumors, there is no proof that he was unfaithful to Anna, his first wife. Otillie had been a houseguest for extended periods and he loved to discuss literature with her, which he couldn't do with Anna, who was intelligent, organized and capable but unfortunately illiterate. I think Frederick had too strong a realization of his importance as a role model to carry on an affair with someone who had actually stayed in the same house as his wife and children.

I am a tour guide in the cemetery where Frederick and his two wives are buried.

Thanks Dave, that's very powerful and I was not aware of it. I was only marginally aware of Douglass anyway, but I see I'll have to look more closely.

There is one reference which I didn't understand, though: "The man who wields the blood clotted cow skin during the week"...

Does anyone know what is meant by this?

Thanks

Tom in Paris

Soft Machine Wrote:
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> There is one reference which I didn't understand,
> though: "The man who wields the blood clotted cow
> skin during the week"...
>
> Does anyone know what is meant by this?

He's referring to a whip. Used to whip slaves.
It was usually made of cowhide.

Oh yes. Thanks, Hie ;-)

An easy way to learn more about him is to read the first of his three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. It is short and compelling. It is available for free on the internet as a PDF file. Just google and you will find it.