By: Erica Taylor, Tom Joyner Morning Show
Though his father was a slave master and his mother was a slave, Hezekiah Ford Douglas was a man without fear. He escaped slavery at age 15, only to build a life as an open anti-slavery activist and Captain of an all-black regiment in the civil war.
After he escaped in Virginia, H. Ford Douglas moved to an all black town in Cleveland, OH. Though he made a living as a barber, people of his town knew him as one of the best oratorical masters, specializing in the perils of slavery and encouraging blacks to fight for their freedom. His main argument was that blacks enable slavery by staying in the United States; they should emigrate back to Africa or someplace without open slavery. Douglas was often criticized, even by blacks for speaking against the Republican party and it’s motives. One of his targets included Abraham Lincoln, who he says, occupied the same position that the old Whig party occupied in 1852.
Douglas himself moved to West Canada and in 1856 became the voice of the “Provincial Freedom,” a Canadian newspaper promoting emigration. He encouraged blacks to move to Canada where they could experience a protective government.
But only a few years later, H. Ford Douglas returned to Chicago, and shocked many by openly encouraging violence to end the practice of slavery. Urging blacks to go back to Africa and Haiti, Douglas worked from the inside by enlisting in the Union Army to fight in the civil war in 1862. He was a private in Company G of the 95th Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteers. They would be known as “Douglas’ Battery.’ Only a year later, he was granted permission to raise his own company of black soldiers, and was assigned to the 10th Louisiana Regiment of African Descent. He became Captain H. Ford Douglas. He and his men were given menial guard duty and some died from war-ridden disease and famine – including Captain Douglas.
Unfortunately, Captain Douglas died from malaria after only 2 years of physically fighting for his cause.
Source: http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/news/the_state_of_black_america_news/18347
