"Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters, U.S., let
him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his
pockets, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the
right to citizenship in the United States."
DOUGLASS, FREDERICK (1817—1895), American orator and journalist, was born
in Tuckahoe, Talbot county, Maryland, probably in February 1817.
His mother was
a negro slave of exceptional intelligence, and his father was a white man. Until
nearly eight years of age, he was under the care of his grandmother; then he
lived for a year on the plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd, of whose vast estate
his master, Captain Aaron Anthony, was manager. After a year he was sent to
Baltimore, where he lived in the family of Hugh Auld, whose brother, Thomas, had
married the daughter of Captain Anthony; Mrs Auld treated him with marked
kindness and without her husband’s knowledge began teaching him to read. With
money secretly earned by blacking boots he purchased his first book, the
Columbian Orator; he soon learned to write “free passes” for runaway slaves.
Upon the death of Captain Anthony in 1833, he was sent back to the plantation to
serve Thomas Auld, who hired him out for a year to one Edward Covey, who had a
wide reputation for disciplining slaves, but who did not break Frederick’s
spirit. Although a new master, William Freeland, who owned a large plantation
near St Michael’s, Md., treated him with much kindness, he attempted to escape
in 1836, but his plans were suspected, and he was put in jail. From lack of
evidence he was soon released, and was then sent to Hugh Auld in Baltimore,
where he was apprenticed as a ship caulker.
He learned his trade in one year,
and in September 1838, masquerading as a sailor, he escaped by railway train
from Baltimore to New York city. For the sake of greater safety he soon removed
to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he changed his name from Frederick Augustus
Washington Bailey to Frederick Douglass, “Douglass” being adopted at the
suggestion of a friend who greatly admired Scott’s Lady of the Lake. For three
years he worked as a day labourer in New Bedford. An extempore speech made by
him before an anti-slavery meeting at Nantucket, Mass., in August 1841 led to
his being appointed one of the agents of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society,
and in this capacity he delivered during the next four years numerous addresses
against slavery, chiefly in the New England and middle states.
To quiet the
suspicion that he was an impostor, in 1845 he published the Narrative of the
Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Fearing his recapture, his
friends persuaded him to go to England, and from August 1845 to April 1847 he
lectured in Ireland, Scotland and England, and did much to enlist the sympathy of the British
public with the Abolitionists in America. Before his return a sum of £150 was
raised by subscription to secure his legal manumission, thus relieving him from
the fear of being returned to slavery in pursuance of the Fugitive Slave Law.
From 1847 to 1869 he conducted an anti-slavery weekly journal, known as The
North Star, and later as Frederick Douglass’s Paper, at Rochester, New York,
and, during this time, aMo was a frequent speaker at anti-slavery meetings. At
first a follower of Garrison and a disunionist, he allied himself after 1851
with the more conservative political abolitionists, who, under the leadership of
James G. Birney, adhered to the national Constitution and endeavoured to make
slavery a dominant political issue.
He disapproved of John Brown’s attack upon
Harper’s Ferry in 1859, and declined to take any part in it. During the Civil
War he was among the first to suggest the employment of negro troops by the
United States government, and two of his sons served in the Union army. After
the war he was for several years a popular public lecturer; in September 1866 he
was a delegate to the national Loyalist convention at Philadelphia; and in 1869
he became the editor, at Washington, of a short-lived weekly paper, The New
National Era, devoted to the interests of the negro race. In 1871 he was
assistant secretary of the Santo Domingo commission, appointed by President
Grant. He was marshal of the District of Columbia from 1877 to 1881, was
recorder of deeds for the district from 1881 to 1886, and from 1889 to 1891 was
the American minister resident and consul-general in the Republic of Haiti. He
died in Anacostia Heights, District of Columbia, on the 20th of February 1895.
He was widely known for his eloquence, and was one of the most effective orators
whom the negro race has produced in America. Source: http://27.1911encyclopedia.org/D/DO/DOUGLAS.htm
How Frederick Douglass got his name
The following is an extract from 'A Narrative on the Life of Frederick
Douglass, an American Slave - by Frederick Douglass'.
On the morning after our arrival at New Bedford, while at
the breakfast-table, the question arose as to what name I should be called
by. The name given me by my mother was, "Frederick Augustus Washington
Bailey." I, however, had dispensed with the two middle names long before I
left Maryland so that I was generally known by the name of "Frederick
Bailey." I started from Baltimore bearing the name of "Stanley." When I got
to New York, I again changed my name to "Frederick Johnson," [He had changed
his name from Frederick BAILEY] to that of JOHNSON. and thought that
would be the last change. But when I got to New Bedford, I found it
necessary again to change my name. The reason of this necessity was, that
there were so many Johnsons in New Bedford, it was already quite difficult
to distinguish between them. I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing me
a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of "Frederick." I
must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of my identity. Mr. Johnson had
just been reading the "Lady of the Lake," and at once suggested that my name
be "Douglass." From that time until now I have been called "Frederick
Douglass;" and as I am more widely known by that name than by either of the
others, I shall continue to use it as my own.
Birth |
Feb 1817 |
Talbot
Co., MD, USA |
Died |
20 Feb 1895 |
Washington,
District of Columbia Co., DC, USA |
Buried |
May 1895 |
Mount
Hope Cemetery, Rochester, Monroe Co., NY, USA |
|
Mother |
Harriet
Bailey |
|
Family
1 |
Anna
Murray |
Married |
1838 |
New York
City, New York Co., NY, USA |
Children |
|
Anna Murray was born free in Denton,
Maryland, around 1813. As a young woman, she moved to Baltimore, where
she met and helped a young man named Frederick Bailey escape from
slavery in 1838. After Frederick escaped to New York City, Anna joined
him there and they married. They decided to move to Massachusetts, where
they adopted the last name "Douglass" and began their family. Anna
supported Frederick's public career and participated in anti-slavery
activities, even opening their home to fugitives on the Underground
Railroad when they lived in Rochester, New York. She and Frederick
remained married for 44 years until her death from a stroke in 1882. |
|
Helen Pitts was born into an
abolitionist family in Honeoye, New York, in 1838. She worked for racial
equality and women's rights, eventually finding employment as a clerk in
Frederick Douglass's office in the 1880s. Helen and Frederick married in
1884, after Anna's death. When Frederick died in 1895, Helen devoted
herself to making Cedar Hill a memorial to his life and legacy. Before
her death in 1903, she created the Frederick Douglass Memorial and
Historical Association to carry on her preservation work. |
See also: •
Descendants to
Nettie Washinton Douglass tree (Illustrated) |
|