Frederick Douglass - Rochester, NY - Statues of Historic Figures on Waymarking.com

The monument to Frederick Douglass was unveiled June 9, 1899 at Central Avenue and St. Paul Street in Rochester, NY. Rochester was home to the Douglass family for many years. Douglass published his newspaper, The North Star, in Rochester. The bronze statue was designed by Sidney W. Edwards, the granite section of the monument was made by Smith Granite Co. of Westerly, RI. The model for the bronze statue was Charles R. Douglass, Frederick's son. The original location was near the railroad station, but due to the fact that smoke and congestion became heavy, city authorities moved it to Highland Park Bowl in 1941. The monument features quotes from speeches by Mr. Douglass:

"Men do not live by bread alone: so with nations they are not saved by art, but by honesty, not by the gilded splendors of wealth but by the hidden treasures of manly virtue; not by the mulititudinous gratification of the flesh, but by the celestial guidance of the spirt."
Extract from speech on the West India Emancipation, delivered at Canandaigua, NY, August 4, 1957.

Three quotes on the back side of the monument are:
"The best defense of free American institutions is the heart of the American people themselves."
"One with God is a majority."
"I know no rights of race superior to the rights of humanity."

"I know no soil better adapted to the growth of reform than American soil. I know of no country, where the conditions for effecting great changes in the settled order of things, for the development of right ideas of liberty and humanity are more favorable than here in these United States."
Extract from speech on Dred Scott Decision, delivered in New York, May 1857.

The website listed is a link to a book written by J.W. Thompson about Frederick Douglass and the history of the Douglass Monument. A quote from his introduction:
This little volume will doubtless be read by all with keen interest and will be a valuable addition to the history of Frederick Douglass and his country, it being the first monument erected by popular contribution, to the memory of an Afro-American statesman, and carried on to completion by one of his own race."

URL of the statue: [Web Link]

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/27/2009 sagefemme visited it