Samuel Morrison: ​Douglass would not have shared the values of Belfast city council

When I first heard of news to honour Douglass I feared that those behind the move would read too much of his extensive body of literature – and as a consequence not put the statue up.

I even heard a segment on the radio where a presenter attacked street preachers haranguing people about the need for repentance before moving seamlessly to an uncritical piece on Douglass – as if Douglass had nothing to do with street preacher himself.

But he did have much to do with it. He was a Methodist lay preacher. Anyone who reads the work of the former slave turned abolitionist campaigner cannot but be struck by its power.

Read honestly, however, Douglass often articulates ideas which jar with what many would have us believe should be the values of a ‘modern’ and ‘progressive’ Belfast.

One doesn’t have to think too hard to know what side of the argument Douglass would have been on when it comes to laws which clamp down on freedom of speech outside abortion clinics given that he said: “To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker. It is just as criminal to rob a man of his right to speak and hear as it would be to rob him of his money.”

Or on an other occasion when he said: “Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. They know its power. Thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, founded in injustice and wrong, are sure to tremble, if men are allowed to reason of righteousness, temperance, and of a judgment to come in their presence.”

How many of those who attended the unavailing of his statue in 2023 would support such sentiments?

Certainly not the republicans like Gerry Adams who was there. After all, doesn’t he defend a movement that dealt with people saying things they did not like by way of the gun or the bomb? One has only to think of those elected to represent the city of Belfast, like Rev Robert Bradford or Edgar Graham, to find the answer to that question.

While Douglass was certainly friendly with the Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell, he espoused principles and beliefs which are very much at odds with the current establishment in Belfast City Hall. So much so that I can imagine a situation where some radical in a decade or so proposes a motion to remove it!

But I am on dangerous territory when I suggest that there are statues in Belfast that some folk might want to remove. Maybe if councillors start reading Douglass they may also feel the need to enlighten themselves about the other ‘Black Man’ in our capital city (Dr Henry Cooke, the founder of Ulster unionism in its modern sense).

Regardless, one cannot help but wonder if anyone on the council will pick up a copy of Douglass's writings and read about the event which changed his life:

"I was not more than thirteen years old, when in my loneliness and destitution I longed for some one 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.

"Though for weeks I was a poor, broken-hearted mourner, traveling 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.”

Douglass’s ideas of freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the importance of faith in Christ would put him at odds with many of those who are anxious to be photographed with his statue a few days ago. For some of us, those ideals are another reason to welcome to this addition to the street furniture of our capital.