John Hossack’s Speech on the Fugitive Slave Law
Classroom Materials
Chicago’s Left Bank: Playgrounds for People Who Think
Mister Kelly’s and Midcentury Nightclub Culture in Chicago
The Philippine-American War
Life, Labor, and Culture among Chicago’s Jewish Immigrant Garment Workers, 1880-1910
Accounts of Tenochtitlan
New Lessons for a New Empire: Americans Learn about the Greater United States
Power, Publication, and Liberation: Literature of the American Civil War
![Page of printed text in two columns reading, "Speech of Mr. Frederick Douglass/ Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens--I shall not attempt to follow Judge Kelley and Miss Dickinson in their eloquent and thrilling appeals to colored men to enlist in the service of the United States. They have left nothing to be desired on that point. I propose to look at the subject in a plain and practical common-sense light. There are obviously two vices to be taken of such enlistments--a broad view and a narrow view. I am willing to take both, and consider both. The narrow view of this subject is that which represents the matter of dollars and cents. There are those among us who say they are in favor of taking a hand in this tremendous war, but they add they wish to do so on terms of equality with white men. They say if they enter the service, endure all the hardships, perils and suffering--if they make bare their breasts, and with strong arms and courageous hearts confront rebel cannons, and wring victory from the jaws of death, they should have the same pay, the same rations, the same bounty, and the same favorable conditions every way afforded to other men./ I shall not oppose this view. There is something deep down in the soul of every man present which assents to the justice of the claim thus made, and honors the manhood and self-respect which insists upon it. [Applause.] I say at once, in peace and in war, I am content with nothing for the black man short of equal and exact justice. The only question I have, and the point at which I differ from those who refuse to enlist, is whether the colored man is more likely to obtain justice and equality while refusing to assist in putting down this tremendous rebellion than he would be if he should promptly, generously and earnestly give his hand and heart to the salvation of the country in this its day of calamity and peril. Nothing can be more plain, nothing more plain, nothing more certain than that the speediest and best possible way to open us to manhood, equal rights and elevation, is that we enter this service. For my own part, I hold that if the Government of the United States offered nothing more, as inducement to colored men to enlist, than the bare subsistence and arms, considering the moral effect of compliance upon ourselves, it would be the wisest and best thing for us to enlist. [Applause.] There is something ennobling in the possession of arms, and we of all other people in the world stand in need of their ennobling influence./ The case presented in the present war, and the light in which every colored man is bound"](https://dcc.newberry.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/994767648805867_ord_f_8348_177_add_pg_05-scaled-e1758728924937-768x598.jpg)
Documenting Birds in North America: Science, Art, and Culture
Exploring the History of Photography and Indigenous Peoples
The Jungle and the Community: Workers and Reformers in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago
Representing Indigenous Peoples in the Archive
