Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln: Two Leaders | National Geographic

ROBERTS: This is a story of an unlikely friendship that transformed America forever. (theme music plays) ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God's gonna trouble the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water children ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God's gonna trouble the water ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪

DOUGLASS: Under his wise and beneficent rule we saw ourselves gradually lifted from the depths of slavery to the heights of liberty and manhood... Though we waited long, we saw all this and more.

ROBERTS: Abraham Lincoln is known as "the great emancipator," but the moniker wasn't earned overnight. It would take the tireless work of the abolitionist movement, led by Frederick Douglass, who himself was born enslaved, to guide Lincoln towards the cause of freedom.

DOUGLASS: I am alike familiar with the whip and chain of slavery and the lash and sting of public neglect and scorn; that my back is marked with the one, and my soul is fettered with the other.

ROBERTS: After years of opposition, these two giants would find common ground and change the course of history. Ten years before the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted...

LINCOLN: If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution.

DOUGLASS: O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation's ear, I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. (thunder)

MORRIS Jr.: Frederick Douglass never had a pair of pants or shoes until he was about six or seven years old. He would sleep headfirst in an old corn sack with his feet hanging out on cold winter nights to try and keep himself warm.

ROBERTS: Teaching the enslaved to read was illegal. So young Frederick secretly traded what little food he had in exchange for reading lessons.

MORRIS Jr.: It just shows how much he understood how education was going to be his key to freedom.

ROBERTS: And a key to freedom it was... At the age of 20, Douglass made a daring escape and went north, settling in Massachusetts. There, he soared: From orator...

DOUGLASS: The one cannot be truly free while the other is a slave.

ROBERTS: To newspaper editor...

DOUGLASS: Truth is of no color.

ROBERTS: And best-selling author...

DOUGLASS: From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.

ROBERTS: He was the central voice of the abolitionist movement.

MORRIS Jr.: He had this natural gift for communication. He was eloquent. He was charismatic.

STAUFFER: There wasn't a venue building large enough to hold people who wanted to hear him.

DOUGLASS: Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? That he is the rightful owner of his own body? Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument is needed. (applause).

ROBERTS: Much of Douglass' irony was directed towards Washington, DC and Abraham Lincoln, the anti-slavery president who took office just as the Civil War began in 1861.

STAUFFER: Anti-slavery is very different than being an abolitionist. It was very gradual that most anti-slavery candidates believed in the abolition of slavery.

LINCOLN: I do not suppose that... ultimate extinction would occur in less than 100 years at the least.

STAUFFER: That would have put the end of slavery in 1958. And for Frederick Douglass, that's outrageous.

DOUGLASS: Mr. Lincoln is quite a genuine representative of American prejudice... and far more concerned for the preservation of slavery.

ROBERTS: Douglass was relentless in his fight for freedom... and with the steady drumbeat of the abolitionist movement in his ear, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing enslaved people in the southern states and for the first time, making it legal for all black men to fight in the Civil War. These new soldiers injected the Union army with much needed manpower. But still, they faced discrimination and disparity.

STAUFFER: Douglass is so outraged that he makes a trip to D.C. and decides he wants to meet with Lincoln himself.

ROBERTS: To his surprise, Lincoln agreed to see him immediately.

MORRIS Jr.: He was ushered up past all of the people that were waiting to see Lincoln that day. And just imagine this visual of this Black man just bounding up the steps, and people are looking at him like who is that?

STAUFFER: Lincoln begins the conversation. And he says, "Hello, Mr. Douglass," essentially, "It's good finally to meet you. I've read your writings a lot. I know you've been very critical of me."

ROBERTS: Their one-on-one left a lasting impression on both men, and Lincoln vowed to improve the conditions for black soldiers.

DOUGLASS: My whole interview with the president was gratifying and did much to assure me that slavery would not survive the war and that the country would survive both slavery and war.

ROBERTS: A year later, it is Lincoln who needs Douglass's help.

STAUFFER: He feels he is going to lose reelection. and essentially says you know, "I need you, I think the war is going badly."

ROBERTS: Lincoln entrusted Douglass with creating a plan for aiding the escape of enslaved people from rebel territory, so that they could join the Union cause.

STAUFFER: Douglass writes a detailed letter to Lincoln spelling out his vision of these Special Forces.

DOUGLASS: He did not let me feel for a moment that there was any difference in the color of our skins! The President is a most remarkable man.

ROBERTS: With Douglass' support, Lincoln would go on to turn the tide of the war and win re-election. The following year, Douglass returned to Washington once more... to attend the inauguration.

DOUGLASS: Now in this multitude of elite of the land, I felt myself a man among men.

STAUFFER: It's the first time a President devotes most of the speech to African Americans.

LINCOLN: One eighth of the whole population were colored slaves...

KENNETH: Frederick Douglass heard his words and his language in Lincoln's address.

LINCOLN: Until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword...

MORRIS Jr.: The work that he had done over so many years. He was now hearing this at a very important moment in time in the nation's history.

STAUFFER: Douglass is invited to the White House for a reception. He sees Douglass enter and he yells out...

LINCOLN: Here comes my friend, Frederick Douglass... There is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours.

DOUGLASS: Mr. Lincoln, that was a sacred effort. ♪ Oh, freedom ♪ ♪ Oh, freedom ♪ ♪ Oh, freedom ♪ ♪

MORRIS Jr.: Frederick Douglass spoke truth to power, and he never stopped fighting for his people, and he understood that the struggle continued. He said...

DOUGLASS: Without struggle, there is no progress... Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ Wade in the water ♪ ♪ God's gonna trouble the water ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ (scatting rhythmically)

Captioned by Cotter Media Group.