Douglass, Frederick (1818–1895)

STATESMAN, WRITER, humanitarian, and diplomat, former slave Frederick Douglass was known and respected throughout the world. He never knew his white father and only saw his mother rarely. Douglass was brought up by his grandmother on a Maryland plantation. The Christian faith that Douglass learned as a child remained with him throughout his life, and he often peppered his speeches with quotes from Scriptures. He was particularly drawn to the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

At the age of eight, Douglass was bought by a liberal Baltimore family, Hugh and Sophia Auld. His mistress began teaching Douglass to read, but she backed away when her husband reminded her that it was against state law to do so. Douglass secretly continued his education with the aid of young, white playmates. Reading opened a new world to Douglass, awakening a keen intellect and insight. At 16, Douglass was thought to need “breaking,” so he was sent to Edward Covey, a well-known “slave breaker.” The experience made Douglass even more determined to escape his bondage.

From 1836 to 1838, Douglass worked as a caulker in Baltimore, Maryland, where he married Anna Murray, a free black. In 1839, at 21, Douglass escaped to New York by way of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He began attending meetings of the Massachusetts Antislavery Society. On August 16, 1841, under guard, Douglass spoke publicly for the first time at a Nantucket, Massa-chusetts, antilavery rally, attended by noted abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Wendell Phillips, and Parker Pillsbury. Stanton would later write that Douglass reminded her of a powerful and majestic prince. Douglass became an antislavery agent, lecturing throughout the North. Afraid of the impact that Douglass had on his listeners, his detractors spread rumors that he had never been a slave. In response, Douglass published his first autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. In 1846, while in Europe, friends negotiated his freedom.

Douglass spent several years in close association with his mentor William Lloyd Garrison, the leading abolitionist of the day. Douglass originally accepted Garrison's belief that the U.S. Constitution was proslavery. However, as Douglass's views expanded, he began to feel that reform could come by using the Constitution to work within the existing political system. In 1847, Douglass and Garrison severed their ties. Douglass moved to Rochester, New York, and began publishing his own newspaper, the North Star, often contradicting opinions expressed in Garrison's Liberator. The following year, Douglass attended the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, and defended the radical notion of female suffrage in the North Star. In 1852, at a Fourth of July celebration, Douglass gave what became one of his best-known speeches. He reminded his audience of several hundred that while the Founding Fathers had freed themselves from British tyranny, they had continued to accept a greater tyranny within their own borders.

Anna, Douglass's wife, never learned to read, and she was often reluctant to travel with Douglass. On his tours, Douglass became friends with two white sisters, Julia and Eliza Griffiths. People whispered that Douglass and Julia were involved in an interracial relationship, and Douglass's opponents used the relationship rumors to attack his legitimacy. Douglass began to spend time with Gerrit Smith, the cousin of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and an ardent abolitionist. The two men were threatened with arrest for assisting John Brown, a white abolitionist who was hanged in 1859 for leading a slave rebellion at Harper's Ferry, West Virginia. Douglass had indeed given Brown money that had been collected for his cause, but he refused to join him in the rebellion. After Brown's arrest, Douglass escaped to Europe by way of Canada.

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