Frederick Douglass
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Frederick Douglass |
Frederick Douglass (
February 14,
1818 –
February 20,
1895) was an
American abolitionist,
editor,
orator,
author,
statesman and
reformer. Called "The Sage of
Anacostia" and "The Lion of
Anacostia," Douglass was among the most prominent
African Americans of his time, and one of the most influential lecturers and authors in American history.
Early Life
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who later became known as Frederick Douglass, was born a slave in
Talbot County, Maryland near
Hillsboro. He was separated from his mother,
Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infant. She died when Douglass was about seven years old. The identity of Douglass' father is obscure; Douglass originally stated that his father was a white man, perhaps his master,
Captain Aaron Anthony, but later said that he knew nothing of his father's identity. When Anthony died, Douglass was given to Mrs. Lucretia Auld, wife of
Captain Thomas Auld; the young man was sent to Baltimore to serve the Captain's brother, Hugh Auld. When Douglass was about twelve, Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia, broke the law by teaching Douglass some letters of the alphabet. Thereafter, as detailed in his
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (published in
1845), Douglass succeeded in learning to read from white children in the neighborhood in which he lived, and by observation of writings of the men with whom he worked. Douglass later referred to the lessons he received from Sophia Auld in his first abolitionist speech.
In
1837, Douglass met Anna Murray, who sold a poster bed to buy sailor's papers needed for Frederick Douglass's escape. Douglass escaped slavery on September 3,
1838 boarding a train to
Havre de Grace, Maryland dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying identification papers provided by a free black seaman. After crossing the
Susquehanna River by ferry boat at Havre de Grace, Douglass continued by train to
Wilmington, Delaware. From there Douglass went by steamboat to "Quaker City"â€"
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His escape to freedom eventually led him to
New York, the entire journey taking less than twenty-four hours.
Abolitionist Activities
Douglass continued reading. He joined various organizations in
New Bedford, Massachusetts, including a black church. He regularly attended Abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to
William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal,
The Liberator, and in
1841, he heard Garrison speak at the
Bristol Anti-Slavery Society's annual meeting. Douglass was inspired by Garrison, later stating, "no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments (the hatred of slavery) as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass, and mentioned him in the
Liberator.
Several days later, Douglass gave his first speech at the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in
Nantucket. Twenty-three years old at the time, Douglass later said that his legs were shaking. He conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his life as a slave.
In 1843, Douglass participated in the
American Anti-Slavery Society's Hundred Conventions project, a six month tour of meeting halls throughout the east and middle west of the
United States. He participated in the
Seneca Falls Convention, the birthplace of the American feminist movement, and was a signatory of its
Declaration of Sentiments.
Douglass later became the publisher of a series of newspapers:
North Star,
Frederick Douglass Weekly,
Frederick Douglass' Paper,
Douglass' Monthly and
New National Era. The motto of
The North Star was "Right is of no sexGod is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren".
Douglass' work spanned the years prior to and during the
Civil War. He was acquainted with the radical abolitionist Captain
John Brown but did not approve of Brown's plan to start an armed slave revolt. However, Brown visited Douglass' home for several days shortly before the Harper's Ferry incident. After the Harper's Ferry incident, Douglass fled for a time to
Canada, fearing he might be arrested as a co-conspirator. Douglass believed that the
Harpers Ferry attack on federal property would enrage the American public. Douglass would later share a stage in Harpers Ferry with
Andrew Hunter, the prosecutor who successfully convicted Brown.
Douglass conferred with President
Abraham Lincoln in 1863 on the treatment of black soldiers, and with President
Andrew Johnson on the subject of black suffrage. His early collaborators were the white abolitionists
William Lloyd Garrison and
Wendell Phillips. In the early 1850's, however, Douglass split with the
Garrisonians over the issue of the
United States Constitution.
Douglass had five children; two of them, Charles and Rossetta, helped produce his newspapers.
Douglass was an ordained minister of the
African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Autobiography
Douglass' most well-known work is his autobiography,
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which was published in 1845. Critics frequently attacked the book as inauthentic, not believing that a black man could possibly have produced so eloquent a piece of literature. The book was an immediate bestseller and received overwhelmingly positive critical reviews. Within three years of its publication, it had been reprinted nine times with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States; it was also translated into the
French and
Dutch languages.
The book's success had an unfortunate side effect: his friends and mentors feared that the publicity would draw the attention of his ex-owner, Hugh Auld, who could try to get his "property" back. They encouraged him to go on a tour in
Ireland, as many other ex-slaves had done in the past. He set sail on the
Cambria for
Liverpool on
August 16,
1845, and arrived in Ireland when the
Irish famine was just beginning.
Travels to Europe
Douglass spent two years in the
British Isles and gave several lectures, mainly in
Protestant churches. He remarked that there he was treated not "as a color, but as a man." He met and befriended the
Irish nationalist
Daniel O'Connell. When Douglass visited
Scotland, the members of the
Free Church of Scotland, whom he had criticized for accepting money from U.S. slave-owners, demonstrated against him with placards that read "Send back the
nigger". Douglass' work on Catholic emancipation in Ireland earned him the nickname "The Black O'Connell". He was widely respected for his championing of many forms of equality; not only slavery and race equality but women's rights and, in Ireland, Catholic emancipation.
Pre-Civil War
In 1851, Douglass merged the
North Star with
Gerrit Smith's Liberty Party Paper to form
Frederick Douglass' Paper, which was published until 1860. Douglass came to agree with
Smith and
Lysander Spooner that the
United States Constitution is an anti-slavery document, reversing his earlier belief that it was pro-slavery, a view he had shared with
William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison had publicly demonstrated his opinion of the Constitution by burning copies of it. Douglass' change of position on the Constitution was one of the most notable incidents of a division that emerged in the abolitionist movement after the publication of Spooner's book
The Unconstitutionality of Slavery in 1846. This shift in opinion, as well as some other political differences, created a rift between Douglass and Garrison. Douglass further angered Garrison by saying that the Constitution could and should be used as an instrument in the fight against slavery. With this, Douglass began to assert his independence from the Garrisonians. Garrison saw the
North Star as being in competition with the
National Anti-Slavery Standard and
Marius Robinson's
Anti-slavery Bugle.
In March 1860, Annie, Douglass' youngest daughter, died in
Rochester, New York, while he was still in
England. Douglass returned from
England the following month, taking the route through
Canada to avoid detection.
By the time of the
Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country, known for his oratories on the condition of the black race, and other issues such as women's rights.
At Lincoln's memorial, Douglass was in the audience as a tribute to Lincoln was being given by a prominent lawyer at the time. The tribute was not as successful as some of the audience there would have hoped. Resultantly Douglass was goaded by the people to stand up and speak. At first out of respect for the speaker he declined but eventually he gave into the pressure and with no preparation he gave a fantastic tribute to the President for which he had so much respect. The crowd, roused by his speech, gave him a standing ovation. A witness later said: "I have heard Clay speak and many fantastic men, but never have I heard a speech as impressive as that." Whilst this is anecdotal, it is a commonly accepted fact that Lincoln's wife gave Douglass Lincoln's favorite walking stick which to this day resides in Cedar Lodge. This is both a testimony to the success of Douglass' tribute to Lincoln and also to the effect and influence of his powerful oratory.
The Reconstruction era
After the Civil War, Douglass held a number of important political positions. He served as President of the
Reconstruction-era
Freedman's Savings Bank; as marshal of the
District of Columbia; as minister-resident and
consul-general to the Republic of
Haiti (1889-1891); and as chargé d'affaires for
Saint Domingue. After two years, he resigned from his ambassadorship due to disagreements with U.S. government policy. In 1872, he moved to
Washington, D.C after his house on South Avenue in
Rochester, New York burned down — arson was suspected. Also lost was a complete issue of
The North Star.
In 1868, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of
Ulysses S. Grant. The Klan Act and the Enforcement Act were signed into law by President Grant. Grant used their provisions vigorously, suspending
habeas corpus in
South Carolina and sending troops there and into other states; under his leadership, over 5,000 arrests were made and the
Ku Klux Klan was dealt a serious blow.
Grant's vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular among many whites, but Frederick Douglass praised him. An associate of Douglass wrote of Grant that African Americans "will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of his name, fame and great services."
In
1872, he became the first African American to receive a nomination for
Vice President of the United States, having been nominated to be
Victoria Woodhull's running mate on the
Equal Rights Party ticket without his knowledge. During the campaign, he neither campaigned for the ticket nor even acknowledged that he had been nominated.
Douglass spoke at many schools around the country in the Reconstruction era, including
Bates College in
Lewiston, Maine in 1873
In 1877, Frederick Douglass purchased his final home in
Washington D.C., on the banks of the
Anacostia River. He named it
Cedar Hill (also spelled
CedarHill). He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and included a china closet. One year later, Douglass expanded his property to 15 acres (61,000 m²), with the purchase of adjoining lots. The home is now the location of the
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
After the disappointments of
Reconstruction, many African Americans called
Exodusters moved to
Kansas to form all-black towns. Douglass spoke out against the movement, urging blacks to stick it out. He was condemned and booed by black audiences.
In 1877, Douglass was appointed a
United States Marshal. In 1881, he was appointed
Recorder of Deeds for the
District of Columbia. His wife (
Anna Murray Douglas) died in 1882, leaving him in a state of depression. His association with the activist
Ida B. Wells brought meaning back into his life. In 1884, Douglass married
Helen Pitts, a white feminist from
Honeoye, New York. Pitts was the daughter of
Gideon Pitts, Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass. A graduate of
Mount Holyoke College (at that time
Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), Pitts had worked on a radical feminist publication named
Alpha while living in
Washington, D.C..
Frederick and Helen Pitts Douglass faced a storm of controversy as a result of their marriage. She was a white woman and nearly 20 years younger than he. Both families recoiled; hers stopped speaking to her; his was bruised, as they felt his marriage was a repudiation of their mother. But individualist feminist
Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the two [
1].
The new couple traveled to
England,
France,
Italy,
Egypt and
Greece from 1886 to 1887.
In later life, Douglass was determined to ascertain his birthday. He was born in February of 1816 by his own calculations, but historians have found a record indicating his birth in February of 1818.
In 1892 the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner to the
Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. He spoke for
Irish Home Rule and on the efforts of
Charles Stewart Parnell. He briefly revisited
Ireland in 1886.
Death
On
February 20,
1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in
Washington, D.C.. During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and given a standing ovation by the audience.
Shortly after he returned home, Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart attack or stroke in his adopted hometown of
Washington D.C.. He is buried in
Mount Hope Cemetery in
Rochester, NY.
Role in Alternative Histories
Douglass plays a major role in several books of
Alternative History describing a different outcome of the anti-slavery struggle than the way it developed in real history.
In
Harry Turtledove's
How Few Remain the South wins the
American Civil War and becomes an independent state, and Douglass continues to struggle against slavery. In a further war which breaks out in 1881, he is captured by Confederate forces and narrowly avoids being summarily executed. Eventually, the Confederates are forced to free him and later they emancipate their slaves (though without granting them civil rights) in order to gain the support of France and Britain in the war.
In
Terry Bisson's
Fire on the Mountain,
John Brown succeeds in the
Harper's Ferry raid and sets off a slave rebellion in the South. Douglass expresses public remorse at not having supported him from the start, and - after avoiding an assassination attempt by
copperheads - makes his way to the South and joins the rebellion. Eventually, Douglass and
Harriet Tubman become the Founding Father and Founding Mother of an independent black state created in the
Deep South.
*
A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845)
*"The Heroic Slave."
Autographs for Freedom. Ed. Julia Griffiths Boston: Jewett and Company, 1853. 174-239.
*
My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)
*
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1892)
* Douglass also edited the abolitionist newspaper
The North Star from 1847 to 1851;
The North Star was merged with another paper and became
Frederick Douglass' Paper.
"Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters"
*
List of African-American abolitionists*
Slave narrative*
African American literature*
Frederick Douglass and Self-Made Men*
The Columbian Orator* His exact birthday was never recorded, but he selected February 14 to celebrate it.
*Parts of this article are drawn from Houston A. Baker, Jr. introduction to the Penguin 1986 edition of
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.Scholarship*
Foner, Philip Sheldon.
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. New York: International Publishers, 1950.
*Huggins, Nathan Irvin, and Oscar Handlin.
Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass. Library of American Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. ISBN 0316380008
*Lampe, Gregory P.
Frederick Douglass: Freedom's Voice, 1818-1845. Rhetoric and Public Affairs Series. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1998. ISBN 087013485X (alk. paper) ISBN 0870134809 (pbk. alk. paper) (on his oratory; book available to subscribers at
questia.com)
*Levine, Robert S.
Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and the Politics of Representative Identity. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. ISBN 0807823236 (alk. paper). ISBN 0807846333 (pbk.: alk. paper) (cultural history; book available to subscribers at
questia.com)
*McFeely, William S.
Frederick Douglass. New York: Norton, 1991. ISBN 0393028232 (book available to subscribers at
questia.com)
*Quarles, Benjamin.
Frederick Douglass. Washington: Associated Publishers, 1948. (book available to subscribers at
questia.com)
*Wesley, Charles H.,
The History of Alpha Phi Alpha, A Development in College Life, Chicago, Foundation Publishers, 1981.
For Young Readers*Weidt, Maryann N.
Voice of Freedom: a Story about Frederick Douglass. illus. by Jeni Reeves. Lerner Publications, 2001. ISBN 1575055538.
Editions of Douglass' work*Douglass, Frederick.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: Authoritative Text, Contexts, Criticism. 1845. Eds. William L Andrews and William S McFeely. A Norton critical edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 1996. ISBN 0393969665 (pbk.)
*Douglass, Frederick.
Autobiographies. Notes by
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. The Library of America; 68. New York: Library of America, 1994. ISBN 0940450798 (alk. paper)
*Douglass, Frederick.
Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings. Ed by Philip Sheldon Foner, and Yuval Taylor. The Library of Black America. 1st ed. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1999. ISBN 1556523491 (cloth), ISBN 1556523521 (pbk.)
Documentary FilmsFrederick Douglass [videorecording] / produced by Greystone Communications, Inc. for A&E Network ; executive producers, Craig Haffner and Donna E. Lusitana.; 1997
Frederick Douglass: when the lion wrote history [videorecording] / a co-production of ROJA Productions and WETA-TV ; produced and directed by Orlando Bagwell ; narration written by Steve Fayer.; c1994
Frederick Douglass, abolitionist editor [videorecording] / a production of Schlessinger Video Productions, a division of Library Video Company ; produced and directed by Rhonda Fabian, Jerry Baber ; script, Amy A. Tiehel
Race to freedom [videorecording] : the story of the underground railroad / an Atlantis Films Limited production in association with United Image Entertainment; produced in association with the Family Channel (US), Black Entertainment Television and CTV Television Network, Ltd. ; produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Ontario Film Development Corporation and with the assistance of Rogers Telefund ; distributed by Xenon Pictures ; executive producers, Seaton McLean, Tim Reid ; co-executive producers, Peter Sussman, Anne Marie La Traverse ; supervising producer, Mary Kahn ; producers, Daphne Ballon, Brian Parker ; directed by Don McBrearty ; teleplay by Diana Braithwaite, Nancy Trites Botkin, Peter Mohan. Publisher Santa Monica, CA : Xenon Pictures, Inc., 2001. Tim Reid as Frederick Douglass.
Douglass' works online*
Free ebook of Frederick Douglass at
Project Gutenberg*
Extensive summary, analysis, and important quotes from "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass"
*
Online Books Page (University of Pennsylvania)
*
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass at Project Gutenberg.
* Audio book of
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass at FreeAudio.org.
*
The Heroic Slave at the Documenting the American South website.
My Bondage and My Freedom at Project Gutenberg.
*
Collected Articles Of Frederick Douglass, A Slave (Project Gutenberg)
*
Fourth of July Speech*
The Louverture Project:
Frederick Douglass lecture on Haiti - Given at the World's Fair in Chicago, January 1893.
*
Important quotes from "Narrative of the Life" as well as potential thesis statements.
Biographical information*
Frederick Douglass (American Memory,
Library of Congress) Includes timeline.
*
Timeline of Frederick Douglass and family*
Frederick Douglas Timeline*
Read more about Frederick Douglass*
Frederick Douglass NHS - Douglass' Life*
Frederick Douglass NHS - Cedar Hill National Park Service site
*
Frederick Douglass Western New York Suffragists
*
Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Frederick Douglass*
Mr. Lincoln's White House: Frederick DouglassMemorials to Frederick Douglass*
Cultural Tourism DC - African American Heritage Trail*
Frederick Douglass Gardens at Cedar Hill Frederick Douglass Gardens development & maintenance organization
*
The Frederick Douglass Prize A national book prize sponsored by The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and The Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition
