Letter: It was his being brought to faith in Christ that made the anti slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass what he was

A letter by Rev Ivan Foster:
By Letters
Published 3rd Aug 2023, 05:39 BST
Frederick Douglass Global Fellow, Zoirana Martinez, stands next to the newly unveiled statue of anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass in Belfast. Rev Ivan Foster fears that much of the interest in Douglass will overlook the most important fact about him, his conversion to Christianity. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA WireFrederick Douglass Global Fellow, Zoirana Martinez, stands next to the newly unveiled statue of anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass in Belfast. Rev Ivan Foster fears that much of the interest in Douglass will overlook the most important fact about him, his conversion to Christianity. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
Frederick Douglass Global Fellow, Zoirana Martinez, stands next to the newly unveiled statue of anti-slavery campaigner Frederick Douglass in Belfast. Rev Ivan Foster fears that much of the interest in Douglass will overlook the most important fact about him, his conversion to Christianity. Photo: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

I know that it is likely that the most important fact about the black American former slaver, Frederick Douglass (1817/8-1895) – a statue of whom has just been erected in Belfast city centre – will be overlooked and ignored by the many who will view the statue and especially by those who will be most anxious to sing his praises and make political points.

Frederick Douglass visited in the 1840s at the invitation of the Belfast Anti Slavery Society. It is recorded that Frederick Douglass asked British Christians never to support American churches that permitted slavery, and he expressed his happiness to know that a group of Protestant ministers in Belfast had refused to admit slaveholders into church membership.

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Frederick Douglass was a devote Christian. In his book, ‘The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass’, he gives the story of his conversion. It was his being brought to faith in Christ that made him what he became and it is that which above all we should remember and celebrate. But like so much that has been done by the grace of God in the lives of God’s people, little or no mention is made of that truth!

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Here is his testimony.

“I was not more than 13 years old when, in my loneliness and destitution, I longed for someone to whom I could go, as to a father and protector. The preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson, was the means of causing me to feel that in God I had such a friend. He thought that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God: that they were by nature rebels against His government; and that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God through Christ.

"I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what was required of me, but one thing I did know well: I was wretched and had no means of making myself otherwise. I consulted a good old coloured man named Charles Lawson, and in tones of holy affection he told me to pray, and to "cast all my care upon God. This I sought to do; and though for weeks I was a poor, broken-hearted mourner, travelling through doubts and fears, I finally found my burden lightened, and my heart relieved.

"I loved all mankind, slaveholders not excepted, though I abhorred slavery more than ever. I saw the world in a new light, and my great concern was to have everybody converted. My desire to learn increased, and especially, did I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the Bible.”

We say, to God alone be all the glory.

Rev Ivan Foster (Rtd), Kilskeery, Co Tyrone

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