Why Frederick Douglass Called The U.S. Constitution A “Glorious Liberty Document”

By Nathan Richardson
Special to the Guide

What Is Constitution Week?

Constitution Week runs annually from Sept. 17-23, beginning on the anniversary of the 1787 adoption of the United States Constitution. For 238 years, that document has formed the framework for a nation founded upon laws and lofty ideals.

How did Frederick Douglass evolve from his early Garrisonian influences that labeled the United States Constitution a flawed document to his own proclamation that it is a “Glorious Liberty Document?”

Step one; He read it for himself!

Although born into slavery and prohibited from learning to read, Douglass managed to teach himself to read and write. This led him to a fundamental truth. “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

Douglass spoke frequently about how learning to read helped him solve the dramatic contradictions in how the Constitution read and how Americans lived it. Douglass made similar revelations about the contradictions he saw in the church and the Bible. 

His final conclusion after studying the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was that it was not, in his words “a dead letter.” In other words, the Constitution was designed to allow amendments. In fact, in a 1787 letter to James Madison, Thomas Jefferson said the U.S. Constitution should be rewritten, proposing that each generation should establish its own constitution.

Step two; Douglass endeavored to add amendments to change the Constitution in pursuit of a more perfect union. Douglass’s impact on the Constitution was dramatic. Working alongside other abolitionists and radical republicans of the 19th century, three major amendments were added during the Reconstruction Period.

“The union as it was, the constitution as it is” was a political slogan urging the nation to return to the status quo, nevertheless these groundbreaking amendments were ratified: the 13th Amendment which codified the end of slaver; the 14th Amendment which established citizenship and equal protection under the law; and the 15th Amendment granting the elective franchise to all men regardless of race.

Imagine if Frederick Douglass never committed himself to reading the constitution. He might have doomed himself to a life divested from the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

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He insisted the Black man become fully enfranchised in American Democracy.

Likewise, if he had not read the Bible and established his own personal relationship with God, he might have allowed the contradictions he saw in the church to steal his faith. This is how Douglass remained a man of faith and devoted to the ideals American Democracy throughout his entire life.

As we come to the end of Constitution Week 2025, as we consider the many challenges facing our Democracy, as we approach America 250 – the Semiquincentennial – one pointed question is left for every American to answer. During this Constitution Week, did you take the time to actually read the United States Constitution?

Nathan M. Richardso is a Poet / Author / Frederick Douglass Historian and Owner of Spiritual Concepts Publishing in Suffolk, VA.