Natural Rights (Re)Construction: Frederick Douglass and Constitutional Abolitionism

This dissertation examines Douglass’s constitutional thought and his role in constitutional abolitionism during the antebellum period and early Reconstruction. Douglass’s constitutional thought uniquely answered the question: What was the Constitution’s posture toward slavery? While some abolitionists simply accepted slavery as an indelible blemish on the Constitution, Douglass sought to redeem the Constitution from the evil of slavery. Indeed, Douglass helped constitutional abolitionists popularize a natural rights theory of interpretation that excised slavery from the Constitution. But Douglass employed a broader natural rights construction of the Constitution than the one favored by more reserved abolitionists who sought to preserve federalism. Douglass, through his natural rights theory, sought to put all persons on equal footing before the law. I shall argue in this dissertation that Douglass’s approach contributed to burgeoning constitutional thought in the antebellum period. To understand that contribution, we must carefully consider Douglass’s approach and how it differed from other constitutional abolitionists. I then examine how these constitutional theories played out in Reconstruction, focusing on Douglass’s actions during that time. I shall argue that Reconstruction reveals Douglass’s prudence, which led him to prioritize the politically necessary over pursuing ends that were theoretically pure but politically impossible.