“The Fugitive Story” Statue

At first glance, the fugitive story by John Rogers, 1869, seems simple, the man, a woman, and the great abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. But it represents one of the most profound moral transformations in American history.

Garrison didn't just oppose slavery, he sought to destroy the very foundation of the nation, calling the Constitution a covenant with death, and he even burned it publicly. Frederick Douglass, a former slave, believed Garrison's words [at first]. But when Douglass finally read the Constitution for himself, he discovered the truth. Frederick Douglass declared, "The Constitution is not a pro-slavery document. It's a glorious liberty document. If it were intended to be a slave-holding instrument, why can slavery nowhere be found in it?" Douglass realized the Constitution was written to set men free.(...) If we, like Douglass, return to the original sources, we will rediscover not oppression, but the eternal promise of freedom.