Recently acquired Frederick Douglass walking stick now on display

The South Carolina State Museum recently acquired a walking stick belonging to abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. The stick was gifted to him while visiting Charleston, S.C. in March 1888. This one of a kind artifact is now on display on the museum’s 2nd floor gallery.

In early 1888, Douglass embarked on a speaking tour of South Carolina and Georgia, a journey not without peril. In early March 1888, Douglass arrived in Charleston, South Carolina where he delivered versions of his “Self-Made Men” and “European Travels” addresses at Mount Zion church, founded in 1883 and considered a “daughter church” of Mother Emanuel AME, the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church.

Douglass was honored afterward by an African American militia unit calling themselves the Douglass Light Infantry. Most of the men in the militia company would have been formerly enslaved men and named themselves in honor of Douglass. According to a newspaper account, the infantry members serenaded him at their armory. They also presented him with a walking stick, with a gold cap engraved “Hon. F. Douglass / From D.L.I. / Charleston, S.C. / Mar. 6th / 1888” and is decorated with while strawberries which symbolized righteousness and spiritual merit.