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The Great Orator and Abolitionist At the Potsdam Normal School

            In the cold December of 1874, Potsdam briefly hosted one of the premier civil rights activists and orators of the century. Arriving at 2 pm on Monday the 14th, the renowned Frederick Douglass had come to give one of his most famous lectures, the “Self-Made Men,” at the Normal School at 8 o’clock that night.

            It wasn’t Douglass’s first time in Potsdam, though.  In fact, he had visited fourteen years earlier to give a lecture when the Normal School had been the St Lawrence Academy. On that occasion, also in December, he spent a week in the village and not all his encounters were pleasant.

His return to Potsdam had been promoted since late November. A notice in the previous week’s Courier & Freeman advertised reserved seats at 50 cents each by way of Martin Van Buren Ives at the newspaper’s offices. Popular as the orator was, when the appointed time came the hall was filled with people from Potsdam and beyond despite the reportedly poor weather. Introduced by Principal Malcolm MacVicar, for nearly two hours the audience listened as Douglass gave a delivery described as “strikingly graphic,” “eloquent,” and with “touches of wit and humor.” By the account of those in attendance, his lecture was “…one of the best we ever heard in Potsdam.”

Where Douglass stayed the night and what he did after his lecture is unknown but by 8 am the following morning, the great orator departed.

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Douglass, Frederick. The Frederick Douglass Papers: 1853-1865. United Kingdom: Yale University Press, 2018. Gerrit Smith Letter, 18 December 1860

Courier and Freeman., December 17, 1874, Page 3