Frederick Douglass rose from a childhood of hardship and slavery to become a prominent abolitionist and a respected writer and orator who spoke out to demand freedom and equality for African Americans.

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, a slave on a farm in Maryland. His mother was a field hand on a different plantation several miles away, so he saw little of her as a young child. She died when he was only about eight years old. Young Frederick never knew his father. He, like the other slave children, was often treated badly, trying to get by without enough food or warm clothing. Many of his family members were "sold south" during his childhood, and he never saw them again, but he had an aunt and uncle who escaped to freedom, which allowed him to know at a young age that such a thing was possible.

In 1825 Frederick was sent to Baltimore to be a houseboy for the Auld family. His duties included taking care of the baby. Mrs. Sophia Auld liked the little boy and began to teach him how to read and write. By the time her husband found out and stopped her, young Frederick had advanced enough to continue to learn on his own. In 1832 Frederick's "owner," Aaron Anthony, died, and he was passed along to a different relative, Thomas Auld. This owner felt the teenage Frederick was not subservient enough, and so sent him to work for another farmer, named Edward Covey, who was known as a "slave breaker." Covey's tactics consisted of administering numerous whippings until slaves gave up on trying to stand up for themselves. Young Frederick received many beatings until one day, at the age of sixteen, he fought Covey back with a vengeance. They fought for several hours until Covey gave up. He may have been somewhat embarrassed to have been bested by such a youngster, because he told Frederick that if he hadn't put up such a fight his punishment would have been less severe--but Douglass wrote later that he had not been hurt in this incident at all. Soon after, he was removed from Covey and was sent to Baltimore again, this time to be hired out as a caulker, working in the shipyards.

In Baltimore he met and fell in love with Anna Murray, a free Black woman, who encouraged him to try to gain his freedom. In September, 1838, assisted by a free Black sailor who lent him his papers and uniform, Frederick Bailey escaped from slavery and went to New York City. An abolitionist named David Ruggles gave him a place to stay and Frederick Bailey changed his name to Douglass, after a character in a book Ruggles was reading. He married Anna Murray and they moved to Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts Douglass began to attend abolitionist meetings,telling his story to prominent abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison, who he would work with for several years. Within a few years, Douglass became a well-known lecturer and travelled around speaking to abolitionist groups. He was such an accomplished speaker, with a commanding presence, that some members of the public began to question whether it was possible that he had ever been a slave. Douglass decided to combat this notion by writing an account of his experiences in a book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Because of the details of his life as a slave, the publication of the book jeopardized his freedom and he left the country, travelling to England, where he stayed for two years, all the while lecturing and writing for the abolition of the institution of slavery in the United States. He wished to return, however, so some English friends bought his freedom from Auld, even though as abolitionists none of them had any recognition of Auld having any right to own him.

When Douglass returned he began publishing a newspaper called the North Star. Douglass became more and more active in protests against Jim Crow laws, job discrimination, as well as against slavery. He assisted fugitive slaves by using his printing shop as a station for the Underground Railroad. He published the North Star for seventeen years. He became somewhat involved with John Brown, the abolitionist who advocated revolution to end slavery, and at one point a warrant was issued for Douglass's arrest because of his association with Brown. He went to live in Canada for several months.

He returned in 1860. During the Civil War, he called for Blacks to join the Union Army. On January 1, 1863, Douglass took part in celebration of the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln. After the war, he became an agent for the U.S. Government to recruit freed slaves as soldiers. He went to Washington to speak to President Lincoln about the treatment of Black soldiers. He had several government appointments in later years, including U.S. Marshall for the District of Columbia and Minister to Haiti. Douglass continued to be a successful speaker and lecturer for the rest of his life. He died at the age of seventy-eight. He is remembered as one of the greatest voices for African American rights of the nineteenth century.

by
Susan Robinson
3.21.05