master will not inform him. Most masters prefer for their slaves to stay ignorant. He believes that he was around twenty-seven and twenty-eight when he began writing his narrative – he overheard his master say he was about seventeen years of age during 1835. The farm was owned by Aaron Anthony who is believed to be Douglass father. Douglass mother was Harriet Bailey who worked in the cornfield s on the farm. Douglass rarely saw his mother and was raised by his grandmother Betsey Bailey who was a mid wife. Frederick was separated from his mother when he was only a few weeks old, and was raised by his grandparents until he was six years old. At the age of six, Frederick’s grandmother took him to the plantation that was 12 miles form his the home of his master and left him there. At the age of eight, Frederick was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master.Sophia Auld, Frederick’s “mistress”, was very humane to him and spent time teaching him the A, B, C’s. After he mastered this, she assisted him in spelling three and four letter words. At this point in his lesson Mr. Auld encountered what his wife was doing for Frederick and forbid her to continue. He believed that “if you give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell” and continuing with “learning would spoil the best nigger in the world”. The masters felt that an ignorant slave formed a choice slave and any beneficial learning would damage the slave and therefore be futile to his master.
. Frederick with the desire to learn how to read took it upon himself to do so.Frederick would make friends with as many white boys as he possibly could on the street. His new friends would be transformed into teachers. When he could, Frederick carried bread on him as a means of trade to the famished kids for knowledge. He would also carry a book anytime he had an errand to run.
The errand would be completed quickly, allowing extra study time. When Frederick was working in Durgin and Bailey’s ship-yard he would notice timber marked with various letters. He soon discovered how the letters matched the type of wood and the names of these letters. Any boy he met that could write he would challenge them to a writing contest. Frederick would use the letters he recently learned and told the child to challenge that. He then copied the Italics in Webster’s Spelling Book until he knew them well. One day while running an errand, Frederick ran into two
Irishmen hard at work. Frederick assisted the Irishmen and soon after they asked if he was a slave. The men then advised Frederick to run away to the north to find friends and freedom.
Frederick heard the word abolitionists a few times but it wasn’t for awhile until he found out what it meant. All this hard work and years of practice gave Frederick the knowledge to write. . At the age of thirteen, Frederick brought a copy of The Columbian Orator, a popular school book at that time which helped him to gain an understanding and appreciation of the power of spoken and written words to bring about change. Frederick passed his knowledge on to other blacks in Baltimore. At the age of fifteen, Frederick returned back to the Eastern Shore of Maryland to become a field hand to work for Edward Covery, a known slave breaker. Frederick refused to accept being beaten by fighting back. This was the turning point in Frederick’s life as a slave. At the age of eighteen, Frederick changed his mind about an escape attempt and was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld family. At the age of twenty, Frederick met Anna Murray, a free black woman, and then escaped from slavery by impersonating a sailor. Frederick went to New Bedford, Massachusetts and changed his name to Frederick Douglass. He then sent for Anna Murray, the lady that he had fallen in love with while living in Baltimore. Frederick and Anna Murray got married and settled down in New Bedford, Massachusetts where he found a job and began to raise a family. Frederick attended abolitionist meetings. In 1839, Frederick Douglass made his first anti-slavery speech. In October, 1841 after attending an antislavery convention on Nantucket Island, Frederick Became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and an associate of William Lloyd Garrison. The work with the Anti-Slavery Society led Frederick into public speaking and writing. In 1845, he published a narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. In 1846, his abolitionist friends purchased his freedom for one thousand and two hundred fifty dollars. In 1847, Frederick Douglass began the publication of the newspaper, The North Star, to later be known as The Frederick Douglass Paper. In 1848, Frederick Douglass attended the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y. He was the only man supporting women’s right to vote. In 1855, Douglass published the second version of his autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. In 1859, Frederick Douglass started the publication of the Frederick Douglass Monthly. In 1861, the civil war began and Douglass rallied Northern opinion in support of emancipation and the acceptance of black troops in the union army. In 1863, the Emancipation Proclamation grants freedom to slaves in the areas under confederate control. Douglass recruited troops for black units. In 1865, the thirteenth amendment to the constitution abolishes slavery in the United States. Frederick Douglass promoted issues such as giving free men equal rights and the right to vote.
. During Reconstruction he became deeply involved in the civil rights movement and in 1871 he was appointed to the territorial legislature of the District of Columbia. He served as one of the presidential electors-at-large for New York in 1872 and shortly thereafter became the secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission. After serving for a short time as the police commissioner of the District of Columbia, he was appointed marshal in 1871 and held the post until he was appointed the recorder of deeds in 1881. In 1890 his support of the presidential campaign of Benjamin Harrison won him his minister resident and consul general to the Republic of Haiti. In 1891 he resigned the position in protest of the corrupt business practices of American businessmen. Douglass died at home in Washington, DC in 1895. In 1882, Frederick Douglass’s wife Anna Douglass of forty-four years dies. In 1884, Douglass marries Helen Pitts, a white woman who was a former clerk in his office. From 1886 to 1887 Frederick Douglass traveled to Europe and Africa. In 1894, Douglass wrote his last greatest address” The Lessons of the Hour” and in 1895 he attended a women’s rights rally and dies later that night. In conclusion, I realized how much Frederick Douglass affected the rights that African Americans have today in the United States.
dies. In 1884, Douglass marries Helen Pitts, a white woman who was a former clerk in his office. From 1886 to 1887 Frederick Douglass traveled to Europe and Africa. In 1894, Douglass wrote his last greatest address” The Lessons of the Hour” and in 1895 he attended a women’s rights rally and dies later that night. In conclusion, I realized how much Frederick Douglass affected the rights
