Years ago when I was teaching third grade I had a
quiet reading time when my students would be reading books they picked from my
library or the school library and I would sit at my desk reading a book, too,
while still keeping an eye one them to make sure they were reading, too. It was
then I read the biography of Fredrick Douglass. When I read in the newspaper
recently that Fredrick Douglass was born in February, I thought it would make
for a good blog in February.
Several years ago a man who portrayed Fredrick Douglass
came to Warren, Ohio, the city closest to me and gave a talk in our courthouse.
One of my sisters came with me to listen to his talk in one of the courtrooms.
It was fascinating, and we learned that Fredrick Douglass had come to our town
in the 1980s as well as other towns nearby. He was a remarkable speaker just
like the real Fredrick Douglass. Everyone was very interested in his talk and
had questions for him afterwards.
Fredrick Douglass was born in February 200 years ago
this month, but his actual birth date was never written down because he was
born a slave in a slave cabin near the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland on a plantation. At that time slaves were considered non-persons.
Later in life he picked the 14th as his birth date.
Separated from his mother when he was only a few
weeks old he was raised by his grandparents. When he was about eight, his
grandmother took him to the plantation of his mother and left him there. She didn’t
tell him she was going to leave him, and he never recovered from the betrayal
of the abandonment.
After six months of being whipped once a week when
he was about eight (I have no idea why, but probably just to keep him in line.)
he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld,
relatives of his master. It was shortly after he arrived that his new mistress
taught him the alphabet. When her husband forbade her to continue her
instruction, because it was unlawful to teach slaves how to read, Fredrick took
it upon himself to learn. He made the neighborhood boys his teachers by giving
away his food in exchange for lessons in reading and writing. At about the age
of twelve or thirteen, Douglass purchased a of “The Columbian Orator,” a popular schoolbook, of the time, which
helped him to gain an understanding and appreciation of the power of the spoken
and written word, as two of the most effective means by which to bring about
permanent, positive change.
Returning to the Eastern Shore, at approximately the
age of fifteen, he became a field hand, and experienced most of the horrifying
conditions that plagued slaves during the 270 years of legalized slavery in
America. It was during that time that he took on a fight with the slave
breaker, Edward Covey. The fight ended in a draw, but the victory restored
Douglass’self-worth.
He was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld
family, and in early September, 1838, and put to work building ships. At the
age of twenty, he succeeded in escaping from slavery by impersonating a sailor.
He went first to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where
he and his new wife Anna Murray began to raise a family. Whenever he could he
attended abolitionist meetings, and in October 1841, after attending an
anti-slavery convention on Nantucket Island, Douglass became a lecturer for the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and a colleague of William Lloyd Garrison.
The Anti-Slavery Society believed there should be no union with slave holders.
They said what the Supreme Court would say in its execrable 1857 Dred Scott
decision that the constitution was a pro-slavery document. Frederick Douglass,
however knew that Abraham Lincoln knew better.
“Here comes my friend Douglass,” exclaimed Lincoln
at the March 4, 1865 reception following his second inauguration. After the
assassination 42 days later, Lincoln’s widow gave Douglass her husband’s
walking stick.
After Appomattox, Douglass, who had attended the
1848 Seneca Falls Convention on behalf of women’s suffrage movement which was
going on then, said “Slavery is. Not abolished until black man has the ballot.”
This work led him to public speaking and writing. He
published his own newspaper, The North
Star, participated in the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls
in 1848, and wrote three autobiographies. He was internationally recognized as
an uncompromising abolitionist, indefatigable worker for justice and equal
opportunity, and an unyielding defender of women’s rights.
He became a trusted advisor to Abraham Lincoln,
United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds for
Washington, D.C. and minister-General to the Republic of Haiti.
Fredrick Douglass died late in the afternoon or
early evening of Tuesday, 20th, February 1895 in his home in
Anacostia, Washington, D.C.
Douglas said, “What is possible for me is possible
for you.” By taking these keys and making them his own, Fredrick Douglass
created a life of honor, respect and success that he could never have dreamed
of when still a boy on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation on the Eastern Shore of
Maryland.
His
three keys for success are:. * Believe in yourself. * Take
advantage of every opportunity. *Use the power of spoken and written language
to effect positive change for yourself and society.
Note: Most but not all of this blog was taken from “A Short Biography of Fredrick Douglass.”
Other comments came from browsing through the amazing book FREDRICK DOUGLASS by William S. McFeely, a Pulitzer Prize winning
author and a few from a newspaper article written by George Will.
