Joseph P. Reidy earned his bachelor's degree from Villanova University
and his master's and Ph.D. degrees from Northern Illinois University.
His specialty is nineteenth-century United States history. From 1977 to
1984 he was an editor with the Freedmen and Southern Society Project at
the University of Maryland, College Park. Since 1984 he has taught in
the Department of History at Howard University. He is currently a
graduate professor of history and the associate dean of the Graduate
School.
With his associates at the University of Maryland, he has coauthored
Freedom: A Documentary History of Emancipation, 1861-1867 (4 vols,
1982-1993); Free At Last: A Documentary History of Slavery, Freedom, and
the Civil War (1992);Slaves No More: Three Essays on Emancipation and
the Civil War (1992); and Freedom's Soldiers: The Black Military
Experience in the Civil War (1998).
In addition to publishing a
monograph on slavery and emancipation in Georgia, From Slavery to
Agrarian Capitalism in the Cotton Plantation South: Central Georgia,
1800-1880 (1992), he has written on slavery, the Civil War, and
emancipation in both scholarly and popular journals and has received a
number of fellowships and awards, most recently a National Endowment for
the Humanities Fellowship for College Teachers.
Dr. Reidy presently directs the Black Sailors Research Project, an
investigation into the experience of black sailors in the U.S. Navy
during the Civil War. The project has compiled an electronic database of
names of and other personal information about the nearly 18,000 men of
African descent who served in the Civil-War navy; this database
accessible to the public on the Internet website maintained by the National Park Service. The
research team is also at work on a number of publications that promise
to illuminate a chapter in Civil-War history that, more than 130 years
after the end of the war, remains largely in the dark.
Chat Transcript
Club Leader: Thank you for joining the chat. How are you?
Joseph Reidy: Thanks for the invitation to join.
Club Leader: Let's start of our discussion with a look at Frederick Douglass. Can you tell us what his viewers were on human rights?
Joseph Reidy: Douglass had a very broad conception of human rights, particularly for the 19th century. He literally included all people under the protection of the term human rights.
Club Leader: What type of system was in place to help him voice his views and gain support in fighting for human rights?
Joseph Reidy: Part of what is so intriguing about Douglass was that when he was a slave the system was set up to deny his human rights. He never forgot that.
Club Leader: Can you describe his life as a slave?
Joseph Reidy: He was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland but spent much of his youth in Baltimore. He learned a trade (caulking) and interacted with free people regularly. During the times that he lived on the plantation, however, he recalled harsh conditions and frequently severe punishments.
Club Leader: How did Frederick Douglass become involved in the Antislavery movement?
Joseph Reidy: After he escaped from bondage and settled in Massachusetts, he soon came into contact with abolitionists. Almost immediately, he and they identified a common interest in wishing to destory the institution of slavery.
Club Leader: What rights did Frederick Douglass view as basic for human existence?
Joseph Reidy: In one word, freedom. That term meant different things to different people, but to him it meant ownership of one's own body and the discretion to act independently of the will of a master. Once he achieved freedom, he also understood the importance of citizenship as a key defense of such rights of freedom, particularly under the republican form of government of the U.S.
Club Leader: Let's take a question from a book club member. Mayi in Conneaut, OH asks: How do our politicians today define human rights? Are politicians narrowing the definition?
Joseph Reidy: I think that some narrow the definition but others broaden it. The narrowers, so to speak, at times appear to believe that the human rights of Americans are superior to those of persons of other nationalities.
Club Leader: legacyaustin in Battle Creek, MI asks: Dr. Reidy, can the human rights of the minority be respected by the majority in a situation where the majority have competing interests, especially economic?
Joseph Reidy: Our political system allegedly aims to assure that everyone's rights are represented, but the system also displays a structural bias against the rights of minorities. What I mean by that is that if a minority group perceives that its rights are being compromised, they must convince the majority that this is the case!
Club Leader: Can you address the issue of advancing human rights for more than one group simultaneously - race, gender, etc?
Joseph Reidy: Your question gets right at the heart of the dilemma that Douglass confronted repeatedly, but could never quite master. Our political system seems not to be able to register general demands to protect human rights but instead addresses demands on an ad hoc, political, basis.
Salinas02 in Potomac, MD asks: One group arguing for their rights will always try to put their cause above all others and will drop off of another cause when they feel that their needs have been met
Club Leader: any comment?
Joseph Reidy: I agree to some extent, but I don't always think this is done cynically. Douglass, for instance, at one point had to make a decision to advocate for citizenship rights (particularly voting rights) for African American men but not all women, on the supposition that at the time (1869-70) the former was achievable but the latter was not.
Joyce Jones in Phoenix, AZ asks: The interconnectedness of peoples that have been separated by perspectives disturbs me greatly. For instance, 1/5 of Chinese population are of African origin; India is made up of African heritage; Egyptians; etc., etc. How can we encourage historians to recognize and promote these facts rather than continue to keep people so separated from one another to their disadvantage.
Joseph Reidy: In the present political and cultural climate, I'm reluctant to predict that such a change will occur soon.
Salinas02 in Potomac, MD asks: Dr. Reidy, do you believe that we will ever have no more racial tensions in the world and that people will learn to accept others?
Joseph Reidy: My heart says yes such a world is possible, but my head says it won't happen soon. Ethnic and racial and other perceived divisions are the stuff of the daily news.
Mayi in Conneaut, OH asks: Would Mr. Douglas see our two party system as a cause of us being able to unit to protect our republican form of gov't? Aren't we becoming a free market zealot society?
Joseph Reidy: Douglass believed implicitly in the ability of a democratic system to resolve social differences, but he also recognized the imperfections of democracies. As to the free-market slant of much of today's world, he would have found that abhorrent to the human values he espoused.
legacyaustin in Battle Creek, MI asks: Did Frederick Douglass ever make a statement(s) regarding his belief in democracy and its ability to honor the rights of Black people?
Joseph Reidy: He made countless speeches in which that was his main point. He always punctuated those speeches, however, with the advice that the system would respond only to organized agitation on behalf of protecting those rights.
Fitch in Fruitland , ID asks: A basic question but what, in your opinion, would Frederick Douglass think of the existing state of Equality in the United States?
Joseph Reidy: He would not be pleased. Interestingly, he believed that complete integration of the races would provide the only solution to the "race problem" that his contemporaries defined. He would surely be appalled by the extent of racial segregation and the economic, political and social consequences that follow.
Club Leader: Can you tell us about his writings? How he was able to communicate his message about human rights?
Joseph Reidy: Douglass was a powerful yet beautiful speaker and writer. He used biblical references and clear-cut examples from his own past and from the events he had witnessed or experienced in his lifetime to drive home his lessons. He could literally captivate and audience of listeners for hours.
Salinas02 in Potomac, MD asks: how did Douglass plan to help freed blacks after Reconstruction?
Joseph Reidy:That is an interesting question. He believed that their continuing loyalty to the Republican party was the key to racial improvement, but also remember his fixation with the notion of complete integration as the ultimate solution. In that respect, he differed with other African American leaders, particularly by the 1880s and 1890s. He was losing his fight in the view of some.
alcherry in Garysburg, NC asks: Douglas' view of complete integration being the solution to the racial problem is to me the most viable. Was Douglas' marriage to a white woman later in his life the result of such thinking, or was he referring to a more superficial racial integration, much like we have today?
Joseph Reidy: I think he was referring to complete mixing. This idea probably originated in his own mixed racial identity--his father was white and his mother an enslaved African American.
intrdr in Huntington Beach, CA asks: Dear Sir, rather than build his community, Douglas moved to agitate, infiltrate, and destroy the white community. Since he understood the Constitution et al, and knew it wasn't intended for him, why didn't he build like Booker T instead of moving to destroy like DuBois, Randolph, and King?
Joseph Reidy: I don't think he moved to destroy in a total sense. He surely wanted to destroy slavery while it existed, but he did not wish to destroy the American government or the lofty values that the American nation stood for (and still stands for).
hpeters in Inwood, WV asks: I'm studying Human Rights in Africa as part of my dissertation. Some Africans feel there cannot be true human rights for them until there is development and modernization across the continent. What is the connection between development and human rights?
Joseph Reidy: There is a very strong connection, and I think every significant national leader like Douglass has had to confront that reality at some point or another. Democratic political rights implicitly require a certain material foundation to be enjoyed by the citizenry.
Fitch in Fruitland , ID asks: Did Booker T. Washington agree with any of Frederick Douglass's ideas, in private or in public? If not did BTW's message undermine FD?
Joseph Reidy: Interesting BTW rose to national stature in 1895, precisely the year in which Douglass died. Although the two shared many ideas about the future of the United States and its minority populations, it is also clear that Douglass advocated political agitation to his death, whereas Washington was more inclined to preach publicly about peace and reconciliation between the races while working behind the scenes for improvements.
alcherry in Garysburg, NC asks: Without the agitation of Douglas and much later Garvey and Malcolm X, coupled with the more docile ways of Book T. Washington and much later Malcolm X, change in the racial situation in this country would not have taken place at the pace that it has. Remember, it was less than fifty years ago that the country was completely segregated.
Joseph Reidy: You're right. It is interesting to speculate how Douglass would have viewed the positions advocated by Marcus Garvey or other nationalist leaders of the twentieth century. He didn't get along very well with African American nationalists during the nineteenth century, even though they all advocated for political agitation.
Calamityjayne in Berkeley, CA asks: Did Douglass believe that the abolition of slavery would change the hearts and minds of former slave owners, who believed Blacks were subhuman, so that his dream of complete integration could occur?
Joseph Reidy: During his early career as an abolitionist, when he was closely allied with Wm. Lloyd Garrison, he believed in changing people's minds and hearts. But by 1840 he came to the realization that such change would not occur--either spontaneously or by coaxing change--and he turned his energy toward political agitation aimed at affecting social change.
sakwe in Raeford, NC asks: Doesn't human rights come under the jurisdiction of international law? What was Douglass' understanding of human rights versus civil rights--which is a nationalistic concern?
Joseph Reidy: This is a good point too. Beginning in the nineteenth century, governments in the North Atlantic world began paying greater attention to human rights that could be recognized by international law. But such broadly conceived rights--such as that in the Declaration of Independence to the effect that "all men are created equal" obviously don't touch the ground as completely as those who articulate them might believe.
Accompong in E. Hartford, CT asks: Douglas, may have been the most important proponent of integration of his time, though viewed as dangerous by many whites, his protagonists in the black community never enjoyed the exposure he did. Did the establishment media played a role in the promotion and acceptance of Douglas position because they saw him as less threateningly..much in the same way they played Martin against Malcolm?
Joseph Reidy: The media alternately used and ignored Douglass as he might have suited their purposes. It's important to remember, too, that Douglass was not an innocent in media relations. His many years as a newspaper editor developed in him a keen awareness of the political agendas that lie within ostensibly neutral organs of the news.
mksmith in salisbury, MD asks: Did Douglass ever meet or communicate with Thoreau?
Joseph Reidy I can't recall specifically, though I am sure he was well acquainted with Thoreau's works.
alcherry in Garysburg, NC asks: Are not human rights and civil rights one and the same? I don't think a people without civil rights will be treated humanely or vice versa.
Joseph Reidy:I think the two terms overlap, but human rights may not necessarily include such civil rights as the right to vote (which after all is a function of a particular kind of political system). I see you point though. Certainly when groups suffer a denial of civil rights within a society, it is usually the case that their human rights suffer as well.
Salinas02 in Potomac, MD asks: How did Douglass view the racial situations abroad in his time? Were freed blacks in Europe treated with more or less equality than in the United States?
Joseph Reidy: Yes and no. Douglass was probably the most famous African American in the world during his day. So when he traveled abroad, people literally extended him red-carpet treatment. Although he was always aware of oppression in the abstract, he may not have been able to identify quite as closely with persons suffering discrimination that he encountered, simply because his gaze was fixed in another direction.
deegee in The Bahamas asks: The connection between development and human rights? ----- Everything! to the extent that I opine that the best lesson the USA has from Africa is just that, the United States of Arfica. Surveying the globe, given a democratic capitalist paradigm, the 13% black population of the USA is the most significant long term barrier, regardless of knowledge, skills and training.In the rest of the globe, black populations are either too small, too poor or to scientific
technologically unsophisticated relatively speaking to ensure that their human rights are respected. Comment?
Joseph Reidy: The challenge facing the world is to assure a fundmental level of economic rights (shelter, for instance) as a precondition for the enjoyment of political rights.
sierra in Allentown, PA asks: What would Mr Douglass think Of establishment media imposing its views on who would make the best new leading Black Leaders In America?
Joseph Reidy: To the extent that he was the anointed one, he probably had no objection! against, though, seriously, he was a master of the media, and he often manipulated the press as much as the press manipulated him.
nremmeywhite in State College, PA asks: How might Douglass view the needs in our time, assuming he could keep up with the times.? Would he have suggestions for approaches.?
Joseph Reidy: He surely would have had to reassess his insistence on complete integration as the solution, though perhaps he might have been heartened by the recent acknowledgment given to mixed-race persons, both in the census and in popular culture generally.
alcherry in Garysburg, NC asks: Does the legacy of slavery in America result in the differences in racial attitudes in this country verses those in Europe?
Joseph Reidy: This is an interesting question, that I think requires a somewhat different answer than I might have given twententy years ago. Specifically, given the rising number of persons from Africa and the Caribbean who have migrated to the European colonial metropoles, European politics at times appears preoccupied with many issues that in this country we might attribute to the legacy of slavery.
vette in Santa Monica, CA asks: I was told as a young girl that Douglas created a paper called the North Star in Rochester New York in the early 1900's is this true?
Joseph Reidy: He created the paper in the 1850s, but it was called the North Star and he did publish it in Rochester.
Salinas02 in Potomac, MD asks: How influential was The North Star in in the Abolitionist cause?
Joseph Reidy Very influential. Because Douglass had himself been a slave, his point of view was greatly respected.
Club Leader: Who read the paper? How was it distributed?
Joseph Reidy: It circulated quite widely, largely through the mails and by travelers who carried it in bulk with them for distribution. African Americans throughout the Northern states subscribed to the paper as did many white abolitionists. He had readers in Canada as well, particularly among the population of formerly enslaved persons who had fled to freedom in Canada.
historyman in Chicago, IL asks: how significant of a role model, if at all, was Frederick Douglass to other slaves
Joseph Reidy: That is a very good question. Some surely knew his story, and presumably those living in the Upper South states such as Maryland, kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia may have hoped to escape to the North as he did. Persons held in slavery in the plantation areas of the Deep South may have heard his name but probably knew few details about his life.
mksmith in salisbury, MD asks: Did Douglass have any interest in, or see the overlap, the feminist movement?
Joseph Reidy: Yes, he was one of the earliest advocates of women's equality. From the early 1840s, in fact. He attended the famous Seneca Falls convention in 1848 and remained a close associate of leading women's rights advocates throughout his life.
Club Leader: Thank you so much for joining. Do you have any last comments regarding Frederick Douglass which you would like to share? Mr. Reidy??
Joseph Reidy: The one closing comment I'd like to offer is that recent research on Douglass has uncovered a more complex individual than the Great Public Figure image might indicate. We'll learn more interesting details about Douglass the person in the next few years.
Club Leader: PLease continue this discussion in the Reading Room. You will find a Frederick Douglass Forum in the Slavery and Civil War folder.
Club Leader: You will find a transcript of this chat later tonight!
Thank you and please join us in future chats!
Joseph Reidy: Thanks.
sierra in Allentown, PA asks: Douglass speeches are awakeing in me, the need to agitate, Agitate, Agitate in what ever arena Imay find myself in !
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