Frederick Douglass: “Men of Color, To Arms!”

Questions for Further Study

• 1.: Explain how President Abraham Lincoln’s views regarding the enlistment of black troops during the Civil War changed. Why do you think he altered his views?
• 2.: Compare this document with Thomas Morris Chester’s Civil War Dispatches (1864). How did the actions of black troops that Chester wrote about help to realize the views that Douglass expressed?
• 3.: Douglass expressed great optimism about the Civil War and what he believed its impact would be on racial issues and the position of African Americans. Do you believe that after the Civil War he felt vindicated or disappointed?
• 4.: In the twentieth century, numerous black writers urged African Americans to resist the military draft and refuse to fight in the nation’s wars, particularly World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. Yet Douglass urged African Americans to take up arms. Why do you think attitudes changed from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries?
• 5.: Read this entry in conjunction with War Department General Order 143 (1863). What do you think Douglass’s reaction to this order was? Why?