President Frederick Douglass

On the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of Frederick Douglass, here's a challenge: is there any way he could have become President of the United States? (Yes, I know that in 1872 in OTL he was nominated as "Victoria Woodhull's running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket. He was nominated without his knowledge. Douglass neither campaigned for the ticket nor acknowledged that he had been nominated."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass In any event, the ticket obviously stood no chance of winning.)

It seems overwhelmingly unlikely, give the prevalance of racism--but here is what I consider, if not a completely plausible scenario, in any event the least implausible:

After the successful (in this ATL) annexation of Santo Domingo, the state (as it eventually becomes) elects Douglass (who becomes a nominal resident of it even though he in fact lives in Anacostia most of the year) to the Senate as a reward for his supporting annexation. https://books.google.com/books?id=KXgrCH0bkHwC&pg=PA88 A Republican Senate eventually elects Douglass (as a reward for his party loyalty, and to appeal to African American voters) to the "mostly symbolic" office of President Pro Tempore. Then all you need (before the 1886 revised Presidential Succession Act) is a double vacancy in POTUS and VPOTUS. And indeed in 1881-5 there was no vice-president--and a president who had been diagnosed with Bright's Disease--which, let us say, in this ATL kills him sooner and more suddenly than anyone had expected...
 
What would be the general reaction in American society to an African-American POTUS in the 1880s? What about among African-Americans specifically, and among white Southerners? After all, this is largely pre-Great Migration, and the period of the nadir of American race relations.
 
The KKK just got a whole lot more aggressive and empowered—but on the other hand it will strengthen equal rights movements tremendously.

I honestly think the true question is how long he can stay safe from assassins? Because they will come, and come en masse
 
Interestingly enough, there's a current political debate on exactly how one would describe Douglass's politics in modern-day terms. Right-wingers insist that he was essentially a libertarian, while progressives of course disclaim this notion. Bearing in mind that modern political labels would have limited utility in describing the politics of someone from the 1880s, which would be closer to the truth for a Douglass Administration?
 
Its hard to describe any of the figures of the 19th century in modern political spectrums.

Anyway, maybe some situation in which the demographics of the US is radically different: say it includes a few Caribbean states like Haiti or Santo Domingo, but also doesn’t have the Dixie states (or, at least, they can’t vote)?

Hmm, ironically either a peaceful secession or a more violent ACW that results in a longer and harsher Reconstruction could get us this result.
 

Schnozzberry

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Hmm, ironically either a peaceful secession or a more violent ACW that results in a longer and harsher Reconstruction could get us this result.

Perhaps the Radical Republicans appeal to poor white southerners with a degree of land redistribution. Seizing land from the wealthy southerners was proposed at a few points, ironically enough being championed by Andrew Johnson.
 
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