Ohio History Journal

Brilliant Thoughts and Important Truths

A Speech of Frederick Douglass

edited by LARRY GARA

In the spring of 1852 Frederick Douglass visited Cincinnati to attend an

antislavery convention. Douglass, a former slave, had already gained national

renown as a writer, editor, and speaker.¹ While in Cincinnati Douglass fre-

quently spoke and also took the occasion to carry his message to another

town in the area, Harveysburg in Warren County, Ohio, where he addressed

a church congregation. In his speech2 Douglass predicted an end to slavery

NOTES ARE ON PAGE 67