Frederick Douglas's Struggles to Attain Literacy and Breaking Free from Slavery
Author: Arthur Edgar E. Smith
Category: News and Society
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Frederick Douglass previously known as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, one of the foremost leaders of the abolitionist movement, which fought to end slavery within the United States in the decades prior to the Civil War was born a slave in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Eastern Shore, Maryland, near Hillsborough,in February of 1817, as it is commonly believed. The exact date of his birth is uncertain.
Much speculation surround Douglas's earliest years as much as his parentage. One was that he was the descendant of early American Muslims. The identity of Douglass' father is obscure: Douglass once stated that his father was a white man, refering perhaps to his owner, Aaron Anthony; whom he took as a surrogate father, but later said he knew nothing of his father's identity.
He was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infant.as she was working as a slave in a plantation that was twelve miles away from her six children. He was therefore being cared for by his grandmother until he was five years of age.. Although Douglas never learnt the exact date of his birth, he clearly remembers the details of his early life as a slave on a plantation in Maryland.
Once as he remembers, he was visited unexpectedly by his mother who had walked all the way to see him, bringing for him a large gingercake. Frederick as he recalled dropped off to o sleep and only woke up the next morning to find her one. He couldn't remember ever seeeing her again.She died not long after when Douglass was about 7. At that age or thereabout, Douglass was separated from his grandmother and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Anthony worked as overseer of the vast plantations of Colonel Edward Lloyd. Here he diexperiwenced much of the bitterness of slave life. He was often so pinched with hunger that he competed with the dog old Nep for the crumbs falling off from the kitchen table cloth
When Anthony died, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld. Mrs. Auld sent Douglass to Baltimore to serve Thomas' brother, Hugh Auld.when Douglas was 9.
When Douglass was about 12, Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia, broke the law by teaching him 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 observing the writings of the men with whom he worked. When Hugh Auld discovered this, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom; Douglass later referred to this as the first anti-abolitionist speech he had ever heard which stirred much urge in him to equip himself well for his education as a key to his liberation..
In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from his brother after a dispute ("as a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass wrote).
Unable to put up with Douglas's rebellious spirit, Thomas Auld then sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker," for a year to have his spirit tamed. There Douglass was regularly whipped.
Sixteen-year-old Douglass was indeed nearly broken psychologically by his ordeal under Covey, but he finally rebelled against the beatings and fought back. Covey lost in a confrontation with Douglass and never tried to beat him again. This incident was kept under wraps, possibly because Covey was afraid the news of Douglass' victory would ruin his reputation as a "slave-breaker" or simply because he was ashamed of his defeat.
In 1837, Douglass met Anna Murray, a free African American, in Baltimore while he was still enslaved. They were married soon after he obtained his freedom.
In 1836, Douglass first attempted unsuccessfully to escape from his owner, Covey. He successfully 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 at Havre de Grace, Douglass continued by train to Wilmington, Delaware. From there Douglass went by steamboat to "Quaker City" - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His escape to freedom eventually led him to New York, the entire journey taking less than 24 hours. Douglass "officially" won his freedom when British sympathizers paid the slaveholder who legally still owned him.
Douglass joined various organizations in New Bedford, Massachusetts, including a black church, and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, The Liberat and in 1841, he heard Garrison speak at a meeting of the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass was unexpectedly asked to speak at one of these meetings, where he told his story and was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. Douglass was inspired by Garrison, later stating that "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 wrote of him in The Liberator. Several days later, Douglass delivered his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket. Twenty-three years old at the time, Douglass said that his legs were shaking. He conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his rough life as a slave.
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Keywords: frederick douglas, slave, fleeing to freedom, stage fright, England, oratory
View Count: 113
Date Submitted: 7/18/2008
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