Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was "the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century".National Park Service
After escaping from slavery in Maryland in 1838, Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York and gained fame for his oratoryGatewood, Willard B. Jr. 1981. "Frederick Douglass and the Building of a 'Wall of Anti-Slavery Fire,' 1845–1846. An Essay Review." The Florida Historical Quarterly 59(3):340–344. . and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to claims by supporters of slavery that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.Stewart, Roderick M. (1999). "The Claims of Frederick Douglass Philosophically Considered." Frederick Douglass: A Critical Reader, B. E. Lawson and F. M. Kirkland, eds., pp. 155–156. Wiley-Blackwell. .
"Moreover, though he does not make the point explicitly, again the very fact that Douglass is ably disputing this argument on this occasion celebrating a select few's intellect and will (or moral character)—this fact constitutes a living counterexample to the narrowness of the pro-slavery definition of humans." Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.Matlack, James. 1979. "The Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass". Phylon (1960–) 40(1):15–28. . . p. 16: "He spoke too well. ... Since he did not talk, look, or act like a slave (in the eyes of Northern audiences), Douglass was denounced as an imposter."
Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as an enslaved person first in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). Following the Civil War, Douglass was an active campaigner for the rights of freed slaves and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, the book covers his life up to those dates. Douglass also actively supported women's suffrage, and he held several public offices. In 1872, without his knowledge or consent, Douglass became the first African American nominated for vice president of the United States, as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket.
Douglass believed in making alliances across racial and ideological divides, as well as in the anti-slavery interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, after he had broken with William Lloyd Garrison. When radical abolitionists, under the motto "No Union with Slaveholders", criticized Douglass's willingness to engage in dialogue with slave owners, he replied: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."
Early life and slavery
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland. The plantation was between Hillsboro and Cordova;"I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot County, Maryland." (Tuckahoe refers to the area west of Tuckahoe Creek in Talbot County.) his birthplace was likely his grandmother's cabin east of Tappers Corner and west of Tuckahoe Creek.Barker, Amanda. . "The Search for Frederick Douglass' Birthplace . Choptank River Heritage. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
Although Barker's website devoted to the Douglass birthplace states that it could not be found with tour books and guides, that is no longer the case.Barker, Don. February 4, 2014. "The Search for Frederick Douglass's Birthplace ." Choptank River Heritage. Retrieved June 14, 2020."Frederick Douglass | Museums and Gardens." Talbot Historic Society. 2016. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2016. In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it."In successive autobiographies, Douglass gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817. In successive autobiographies, he gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817. However, based on the extant records of Douglass's former owner, Aaron Anthony, historian Dickson J. Preston determined that Douglass was born in February 1818. Though the exact date of his birth is unknown, he chose to celebrate February 14 as his birthday, remembering that his mother called him her "Little Valentine".February 14: Frederick Douglass . The Florida Center for Instructional Technology. US: University of South Florida. 2020.
Birth family
Douglass's enslaved mother was of African descent and his father, who may have been her master, was apparently of European descent; in his Narrative (1845), Douglass wrote: "My father was a white man." According to David W. Blight's 2018 biography of Douglass, "For the rest of his life he searched in vain for the name of his true father." Douglass's genetic heritage likely also included Native American. Douglass said his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and, after he escaped to the North in September 1838, he took the surname Douglass, having already dropped his two middle names.Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, ch. XI.
He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother:
The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing. ... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant. ... It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. ... I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.
After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother Betsy Bailey, who was also enslaved, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who was free. Betsy would live until 1849.Sterngass, Jon. 2009. Frederick Douglass, (Leaders of the Civil War era). Chelsea House Publishers. . p. 16 , 132 Frederick's mother remained on the plantation about away, visiting Frederick only a few times before her death when he was 7 years old.
Returning much later, about 1883, to purchase land in Talbot County that was meaningful to him, he was invited to address "a colored school":
Early learning and experience
The Auld family At the age of six, Douglass was separated from his grandparents and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer and Edward Lloyd was his unofficial master. After Anthony died in 1826, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas's brother Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia Auld in Baltimore. From the day he arrived, Sophia saw to it that Douglass was properly fed and clothed, and that he slept in a bed with sheets and a blanket. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him "as she supposed one human being ought to treat another."Douglass, Frederick. 1845. "Chapter VII." Douglass felt that he was lucky to be in the city, where he said enslaved people were almost freemen, compared to those on plantations.
When Douglass was about 12 years old, Sophia Auld began teaching him the alphabet. Hugh Auld disapproved, feeling that literacy would encourage enslaved people to desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard. Very well', thought I," wrote Douglass. Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.' I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom."Douglass, Frederick. [1881–82] 2003. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself, His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Complete History to the Present Time (Dover Value Editions). p. 50. Courier Dover Publications. .
Under her husband's influence, Sophia came to believe that education and slavery were incompatible and one day snatched a newspaper away from Douglass. She stopped teaching him altogether and hid all potential reading materials, including her Bible, from him. In his autobiography, Douglass related how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked.
Douglass continued, secretly, to teach himself to read and write. He later often said, "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom."Appiah, Kwame Anthony. 2004. "Introduction." In 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave' & 'Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl'. New York: Modern Library. pp. xiii, 4. As Douglass began to read newspapers, pamphlets, political materials, and books of every description, this new realm of thought led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator, an anthology that he discovered at about age 12, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. First published in 1797, the book is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches, and dialogues, to assist students in learning reading and grammar. He later learned that his mother had also been literate, about which he would later declare:
I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any love of letters I possess, and for which I have got—despite of prejudices—only too much credit, not to my admitted Anglo-Saxon paternity, but to the native genius of my sable, unprotected, and uncultivated mother—a woman, who belonged to a race whose mental endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in disparagement and contempt.
William Freeland When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he "gathered eventually more than thirty male slaves on Sundays, and sometimes even on weeknights, in a Sabbath literacy school."Blight, David W., Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, p. 68.
Edward Covey
In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a]s a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas sent Douglass to the Mount Misery plantation, where Edward Covey, a farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker" tried to break Douglass's spirit. He whipped Douglass so frequently that his wounds had little time to heal. Douglass later said the frequent whippings broke his body, soul, and spirit. The 16-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again.Bowers, Jerome. "Frederick Douglass ." Teachinghistory.org. US: Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2020.
Recounting his beatings at Covey's farm in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass described himself as "a man transformed into a brute!" Still, Douglass came to see his physical fight with Covey as life-transforming, and he introduced the story in his autobiography as such: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."
Escape from slavery In 1835, Hugh Auld hired Douglass out to William Gardiner to be a ship caulker in his shipyard in Fell's Point, Baltimore.Blight (2018), p. 75. He suffered abuse by white workers who feared competition from slave labor.