- The Life & Legacy of Frederick Douglass
William S. Connery
World and I
- Born a slave in Maryland, Frederick Douglas eventually
escaped to freedom. His lifelong struggles for liberty and the rights of
others have become a stirring episode in the darkest chapter of American
- A modern painting of Frederick Douglass by Richard
- On November 13, 2002, at Adrian College, Michigan, Frederick
Douglass IV and his wife, B.J., announced that they were embarking on a
mission to empower young people. "We're celebrating my great-great-grandfather's
escape from slavery--on September 3, 1838--by taking what we think is a
vital message to America's young people," said Douglass. "We
tell them that if Frederick Douglass could come into this world as a totally
impoverished slave and transform himself into an orator, author, member
of the middle class, and confidant of presidents, then their potential--in
an era of free access to public education--is unlimited. But they must
begin charting their successful futures today.
- "We hope
to inspire and empower 165,000 young people to develop their skills in
reading, writing, arithmetic, and public speaking. We hope to admonish
young people to preserve their brains through abstaining from drugs, drinking,
and wallowing in self-pity; advise them to use Wait Power through deferring
their involvement in premarital sex and other distracting activities; and
encourage young people to begin charting their successful futures today,
by planning to attend college or a trade school and/or to become entrepreneurs."
- "We want
to uplift and empower a thousand young people for each of the years that
have passed since Frederick Douglass empowered himself by fleeing from
slavery," added B.J. "We believe that each young person whose
life we touch will go out and influence other youths to transform their
lives for the better. Ultimately, we hope there will be a cumulative effect,
a compounding social interest on this investment in youth, that will have
tremendous benefits for all Americans."
- "We have
chosen to come to Adrian College to announce the 'Frederick Douglass 165
Years of Freedom Tour' [a variety of presentations and performances featuring
Douglass IV and his wife] because we believe in the mission of the Sojourner
Truth Technical Training Center," said Douglass IV. "We think
that it is imperative to document and preserve the awesome history of Underground
Railroad activities in Michigan through the use of computers, digital video,
still cameras, and other futuristic technology. My great-great-grandfather
was also active in the Underground Railroad in Michigan and spoke at various
locations in this region."
- The culmination
of the Years of Freedom Tour will take place on September 3, 2003, during
the national Frederick Douglass Freedom Day observance. "The central
idea of the celebration," said Douglass, "involves encouraging
young people to strengthen their reading, writing, and public speaking
skills through doing live presentations in front of audiences. Part of
the celebration involves encouraging people throughout America to read
The Narrative of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave: Written by Himself,
which is an inspiring book."
- Douglass IV
was born in Pennsylvania and came to Baltimore in 1965 to enroll at Morgan
State University (then Morgan College). His ancestor's statue graces the
campus. After a varied career in the private and public sector, Douglass
IV became Morgan's director of public relations. Starting in 1997, he and
B.J. began portraying Frederick and Anna Douglass in powerful dramatic
presentations. They also conduct workshops in conjunction with their performances.
These sessions are structured, they explain, "to encourage participants
from differing racial, gender, and age groups to engage in dialogues that
promote greater understanding of how we must change to become more sensitive
and caring Americans. We must come to understand that we are all Americans."
- Douglass IV
is also a leading proponent of preserving and commemorating the memory
of Frederick Douglass in Baltimore. "This was his home," he explains
simply. Despite harsh memories and a long exile, Frederick always considered
himself a Marylander. He regarded Baltimore as his hometown and thought
of his years in Fells Point as formative, the foundation of all that he
- His early life
- Frederick Douglass was born in Talbot County, on the
Eastern Shore of Maryland, in either 1817 or 1818. His mother was a slave
woman named Harriet Bailey. His father, a white man, is unknown, though
it was probably Aaron Anthony, the manager of the plantations of Edward
Lloyd V, Bailey's white owner. There was no birth certificate for Frederick
Augustus Washington Bailey. Born a slave, he came into this world considered
little more valuable than livestock.
- Young Frederick
lived mostly with his grandmother, Betsey Bailey. He barely knew his mother.
She was forced to work twelve miles away, on a neighboring farm, and could
only visit her child at night, after finishing her own work and walking
from farm to farm.
- Frederick Douglass IV and his wife, B.J., portray
Frederick and Anna.
- Harriet always
referred to Frederick as her "little Valentine," so he adopted
February 14 as his birthday. When he was seven his grandmother took him
to the Main House, where he became one of the household slaves. There he
began to encounter the evils of slavery more directly. One incident had
particular impact. His Aunt Hester was caught out of the house in the company
of a young male slave. For this transgression she was tied and whipped
until her blood flowed. Thinking he was next, Frederick hid in a closet,
hearing Hester's shrieks and Anthony's curses as he administered the flogging.
- Shortly thereafter
something happened to Frederick that he later declared an "act of
Providence." He was sent to Fells Point in Baltimore to be a slave
to Hugh Auld, the brother of Anthony's son-in-law. (Anthony's daughter
Lucretia, who in some respects served as Frederick's protector on the plantation,
was married to a ship's captain named Thomas Auld.)
- Frederick was
grateful to escape from the farm and travel across the Chesapeake Bay.
Baltimore had a large population of free blacks, and he discovered that
slaves were generally better treated in the city. He attributed this phenomenon
to the fact that there were many people around to observe how slaves were
- Douglass later
wrote that "going to live at Baltimore laid the foundation, and opened
the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity. I have ever regarded it as
the first plain manifestation of that kind providence which has ever since
attended me, and marked my life with so many favors. ... I may be deemed
superstitious, and even egotistical, in regarding this event as a special
interposition of divine Providence in my favor. ... This good spirit was
from God, and to him I offer thanksgiving and praise."
- Frederick was
also enthralled by his new mistress. Sophia Auld was the first white person
who actually smiled at and was kind to him. She taught him not to be servile--that
he should hold his head up and look people squarely in the eye. She also
began to teach him the alphabet and a few simple words. This whole enterprise
ended when her husband found out about it. Auld told his wife she had poor
judgment. What he said was clearly remembered by Frederick: "If you
give a nigger an inch, he will take an ell [45 inches]. A nigger should
know nothing but to obey his master--to do as he is told to do. Learning
would spoil the best nigger in the world. If you teach this nigger to read,
there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave.
He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master."
- Frederick had
lost his original teacher, but he learned a valuable lesson concerning
the importance of education on his own road to freedom. He found time after
doing his chores to go outdoors and interact with white children. He would
find a piece of chalk, write a letter on a fence, and challenge the others
to give him the next letter. In this way, he learned his alphabet.
- A Soul Awakened
- When he was around twelve, Frederick bought a book of
speeches called The Columbian Orator. He was particularly moved by one
dialogue between a master and a slave, where the servant proved the necessity
of his being set free. Yet Frederick was perplexed. He began to see that
there was perverse truth in what Auld had said. The more he read and learned,
the more tormented he felt with his present situation. He had been given
a view of his wretched circumstances without hope of a remedy. He realized
the hell he was in but had no ladder to escape. He even envied his fellow
slaves for their ignorance.
- Anna Douglass, first wife of Frederick Douglas.
- Another moment
of enlightenment came to him one day on the docks of Fells Point. Unasked,
he helped two Irishmen unload stone from a ship. One asked him if he were
a slave. He answered yes. The Irishman responded that it was shame for
such a fine young fellow to be a slave for life. They advised him to run
off to the north, where he would be free.
- Frederick pretended
not to understand. He knew that there were treacherous white men who deceived
slaves into escape, then would capture and return them to their masters
for a reward. But the seed of his eventual freedom, the idea of the possibility
of escape, had been planted.
- While in Baltimore,
Frederick also achieved religious awakening. The 1820s and '30s were a
time of preaching throughout the states. Some slaveholders were fearful
of allowing slaves to become Christians. Others hoped religion would make
blacks more accepting of their fate. The message most white preachers offered
was one of resignation and acceptance of their lot. They taught that slavery
was the benevolent creation of God and that faithful and obedient slaves
would be rewarded in heaven.
- This is not
how Frederick interpreted Christianity. For him it meant the equality of
all people before God and deliverance from bondage in this life. Religion
taught Frederick to value himself, love others, and work to achieve freedom.
His religious faith was life affirming and gave him both comfort and a
degree of personal autonomy. In his later years he would have little use
for organized religion because of the hypocrisy of many professed believers,
who both went to church and supported slavery. Nevertheless, throughout
his life, Christianity's ideals helped inspire his work and guide his actions.
- Finally, Frederick
confronted the need to fight for his freedom. Following Anthony's death,
Frederick was shipped back to Talbot County. There he became a fieldhand
and experienced the true suffering of a slave. Hands were forced to work
from dawn to past dark, if the moon was bright. Soon thereafter Frederick
was hired out to Edward Covey, a well-known "slave breaker."
- Covey's job
was to beat Frederick into submission and acceptance of slavery. A slave's
job was very simple: do exactly what the master ordered. For Frederick,
who had not experienced field life before, most of the time this was impossible.
For six months he was beaten at least once a week.
- It must be
remembered that this happened in the relatively free state of Maryland,
less than a hundred miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line. Always hanging
over the slave was the possibility of being sold far south, to Alabama
or Mississippi, where the conditions were far worse. Submission to beatings
was compounded by fear: better the devil you know than the devil you don't
- At one point
Covey almost beat him to death. Subsequently Frederick met another slave
who told him to keep a special root with him at all times to ward off beatings
from the whites. Shortly after this, Covey attacked him again. This time
Frederick fought the overseer to a standstill. About eighteen at the time,
Frederick considered this the turning point of his life as a subordinate.
He had repelled by force the bloody arm of slavery. He also convinced himself
that the next white man to try to whip him would have to kill him.
- Escape to Freedom
- After a year under Covey, Frederick was hired out to
William Freeland. He felt this new master did treat him more like an individual,
but his determination to reach freedom was becoming stronger. Frederick
forged passes for a few fellow slaves and himself, allowing them to go
to Baltimore for the Easter holidays. Their actual aim was to take a boat
up the Chesapeake and escape into Pennsylvania. When the plan was found
out, the group was sent to jail. Luckily, Frederick was sent back to Baltimore,
not to the horrors of the Deep South.
- This picture of a praying slave on a medallion
was first published by Josiah Wedgewood (1730-1795). It was adopted as
the seal of the Anti-Slavery Society in London.
- Auld hired
Frederick out and he learned how to caulk ships. During this time he attended
a Methodist church on Strawberry Lane (now Dallas Street). He also fell
in love with a free black woman named Anna Murray. Eventually Frederick
arranged a deal whereby he could hire himself out while paying his master
three dollars a week. By
- the end of August 1837 he had another dispute with Auld.
Frederick realized that he would soon be sold south if he did not make
- With his small
savings, and with money from his fiancZe, Frederick bought a sailor's outfit.
He then borrowed travel papers from a black sailor he knew. On September
3, he boarded a train for Wilmington at Canton, just north of Fells Point.
When the conductor came around, he showed his paper and bought a ticket.
From Wilmington he caught a steamboat to Philadelphia. He felt some sense
of freedom entering Pennsylvania but kept going until he reached New York
- He wrote for
Anna to come north, and they were married on September 15. Soon afterward
Frederick went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he attempted to renew
his trade as a ship's caulker. It was there that an abolitionist friend
suggested that he change his name from Bailey to Douglass. The name comes
from a character in Walter Scott's novel The Lady of the Lake.
- As prejudice
against blacks was still considerable, Douglass was forced to take on odd
jobs. In 1841 he gave his first speech at the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society;
soon, he became an agent for the society, traveling throughout the Northeast
and Midwest, lecturing against slavery and campaigning for the rights of
free blacks. By 1845 it was suggested that he publish his life story, to
tell the nation the reality of slavery. Thus he published the first of
three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An
- Soon he was
forced to go abroad to England to escape recapture. He spoke throughout
the British Isles concerning the American antislavery movement. In 1846
British supporters purchased his freedom from his former master. So, the
following year, Douglass returned to America and settled in Rochester,
New York. There he started a weekly newspaper called the North Star. He
wrote scathing editorials on a variety of topics, slavery being just one
of his targets. About the need to be adamantly concerned about the plight
of slaves, he wrote, "Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet
deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground."
- In 1848 Douglass
attended the Seneca Falls Women's Convention, where he began to advocate
equal rights and the vote for women. He considered the handling of women
as practically chattel almost as horrific as the inhumane treatment of
slaves. The 1850s were spent in publishing, speaking, and working with
fellow abolitionists, including John Brown, who tried to convince him to
join the raid on Harper's Ferry. After Brown's capture and death, Douglass
mourned him as being one greater than himself: he was willing to live to
free the slaves, but Brown was willing to give his life.
- Due to his
support of Brown, Douglass had to flee the United States once again. He
went first to Canada and then to Great Britain. He returned to the States
in 1860, after hearing of the death of his eleven-year-old daughter, Annie.
- The Civil War
- Immediately after the Civil War began in April 1861,
Douglass began to call for the use of black troops to fight the Confederacy.
He argued for the establishment of colored regiments in the Union army.
President Lincoln's first concern was preserving the Union, however, so
Douglass' call was not heeded.
- Douglass saw
the Civil War as a struggle between freedom and slavery. For him, the sin
of slavery could only be ended if Americans were forced to shed their blood.
Brown would be vindicated and blacks could take their place as citizens
and equals. It was not until January 1863, following the promulgation of
the Emancipation Proclamation, that Gov. John Andrew of Massachusetts was
given permission to raise the 54th Regiment of Colored Troops. Douglass
became a recruiter, personally enlisting two companies of men, including
two of his own sons (Charles and Lewis).
- Negro recruitment
was extremely important for Douglass. Only through black participation
in the war, he believed, could abolition and full citizenship for Negroes
be established: "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 pocket, and there is no power on earth ... which can
deny that he has earned the right of citizenship in the United States."
- In July 1863,
Douglass met with Lincoln in the White House to redress the grievances
that the black troops were suffering as second-class citizens. Both men
had risen from humble origins to become leaders in America. Only days after
their meeting, the president ordered that retaliatory measures be taken
for every Union prisoner killed or sold into slavery in violation of the
rules of law. Before the end of the war, many black soldiers were receiving
equal pay and promotions. During the last two years of the war nearly 200,000
African Americans served in Union regiments. When given the chance to fight,
blacks proved as brave as anyone. More than 30,000 blacks died fighting
for freedom and the Union. After Lincoln's assassination in April 1865,
Mrs. Lincoln presented Douglass with Abe's cane as a token of respect and
- Return to Baltimore
- Two weeks after Maryland abolished slavery in 1864, Douglass
returned to Fells Point to celebrate. It was his first sojourn in his home
state since 1838. He contemplated moving back to the city to live but was
dissuaded by friends. They warned that he could be assassinated. Although
he never again lived in Baltimore, he returned repeatedly over the years
to speak, invest, and revisit the scenes of his tumultuous youth.
- He went to
the Strawberry Alley church to join in the emancipation celebration. Sounding
a theme of fondness for his home state, he declared that "Maryland
is now a glorious free state ... the revolution is genuine, full and complete."
He went on to argue that white Marylanders--some of whom were sprinkled
throughout the audience--had nothing to fear from racial equality, and
that Maryland should move to give blacks the right to vote and hold office.
(It was not until 2002, when Republican Michael Steele was elected lieutenant
governor, that any African American was voted to statewide higher office
- Nine months
after speaking at the Strawberry Alley church, Douglass received an even
warmer welcome from a group of black Baltimoreans. They, with help from
white philanthropists, christened the Douglass Institute as a center for
the intellectual advancement of "the colored portion of the community."
Douglass gave the opening speech, touching on postwar race relations, including
his disappointed hopes for racial integration and the idea that "wealth,
learning and ability ... convert a Negro into a white man [in terms of
status and rights] in this country. When prejudice cannot deny the black
man ability, it denies his race."
- In May 1870,
after President Grant signed the Fifteenth Amendment giving male blacks
the right to vote, Douglass went on a prolonged speaking tour to spread
the news. One of his stops was Baltimore. Here he spoke as a homecoming
hero to a crowd of twenty thousand at Monument Square. Following the speech,
Baltimoreans acclaimed Douglass as "the foremost man of color of our
times" and called on him to "return to us, and by the power of
his magnificent manhood help us to a higher, broader and nobler manhood."
The following year he returned to visit the shipyards where he had worked
and often fought.
- While he was
visiting Washington in 1872, his home in Rochester burned down under suspicious
circumstances. At that point he moved his family to the District of Columbia.
In 1877 Douglass purchased Cedar Hill, a nine-acre estate in Anacostia
where he would spend the remainder of his life. He returned often to Baltimore
and in 1891 found that the old Strawberry Alley church had been abandoned
by the congregation. He bought the property, demolished the decrepit building,
and built five new row houses on its foundation, which he intended as housing
for the neighborhood's shack-dwelling residents. Those houses still stand.
- The Year of Frederick Douglass
- Agitate, agitate, agitate!" With these words, Frederick
Douglass exhorted a woman's suffrage meeting on February 20, 1895. After
returning to Cedar Hill, he was dramatizing his speech to his second wife,
Helen, when he suffered a fatal heart attack. It was just a week past his
seventy-seventh birthday, or maybe it was his seventy-eighth. He wasn't
- Though he didn't
know his own age, this remarkable man had a unique impact on the age in
which he lived and this nation's history. Born a slave, he spent most of
his life fighting: first for personal freedom, then for the freedom of
his own people, and then for female equality. He always cited his youth
in Fells Point as crucial in forming his character and defining his life's
in Baltimore, a city that celebrates its connections to Edgar Allan Poe,
Babe Ruth, and H.L. Mencken, the heritage of Frederick Douglass is often
overlooked or forgotten. Possibly this is because he was originally a slave.
The era of slavery is now a part of history that many Americans would like
to forget. All the places in Baltimore where Douglass lived and worked--except
for the row homes he constructed--are long gone, but efforts to resurrect
his memory and legacy are ongoing.
- New plaques (and possibly a statue) marking a "Frederick
Douglass Trail" will be dedicated throughout Fells Point on February
17, 2003. Frederick Douglass IV, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley, and other
dignitaries will be there to dedicate the trail and commemorate the life
of a man who fought for the freedom of all men and women.
- During 2003,
Douglass IV and his wife will serve as honorary chairpersons of the "Read
Across America" campaign in Maryland. They will also be involved in
a wide array of other activities.
- They will join residents of Rochester, New York, to celebrate
2003 as the Year of Frederick Douglass. Centered in Rochester, Baltimore,
and Washington, the celebration will focus on Douglass' call in 1863 for
"men of color" to sign up to fight in the Civil War on the side
of the Union. A highlight of the celebration will be the U.S. Colored Troops
Institute conference. During Frederick Douglass Week--February 14 to 21--numerous
celebrations commemorating his birth and death will be held across the
- The legacy
of Frederick Douglass in Baltimore was given a boost when O'Malley declared
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass the Baltimore Book of 2002.The
mayor ordered two thousand copies of the Dover Thrift edition and distributed
them to middle-school student council members during his visits. O'Malley
declared that he chose the book because it stirred his imagination when
he first read it in the fourth grade. When he reread it last summer, he
was particularly intrigued by Douglass' equation of the Catholic emancipation
cause in Ireland with his struggle to be free of slavery. "It's a
very empowering book," O'Malley says. "It's difficult to whine
after reading it."
- Douglass IV
and his wife have been busy distributing copies of the book after talks
given in libraries around Baltimore. They hope that it will be adopted
as a curriculum staple nationwide. They also frequently perform their play,
Frederick and Anna: Alive and in Love.
- Last year they
performed at the Central Branch of the Enoch Pratt Library on September
3, 2002, to celebrate National Frederick Douglass Freedom Day. Lynne Cheney,
author and wife of Vice President Dick Cheney, was a distinguished guest
at the event. She received the Frederick Douglass Leadership Award for
her efforts to promote the study of American history among children for
her book Patriotism: An American Primer, which includes a page on Frederick
Douglass never went to school, he realized how important it was to be able
to read and write, to acquire knowledge," said Cheney. "I can't
think of a story more inspiring than that of Frederick Douglass."
- Additional Reading
- Frederick Douglass, Autobiographies, Library of America,
New York, 1994.
- ----, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Collier Books,
New York, 1962.
- ----, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Dover
Thrift Edition, Mineola, New York, 1995.
- Nathan Irvin Huggins, Slave and Citizen: The Life of
Frederick Douglass, HarperCollins, New York, 1980.
- Douglass T. Miller, Frederick Douglass and the Fight
for Freedom, Facts on File Publications, New York, 1988.
- Sharman A. Russell, Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist
Editor, Chelsea House Publishers, New York, 1988.
- William S. Connery is an editor in the Current Issues
section of The World & I. His essays on immigration into Fells Point,
the death of Edgar Allan Poe, and Polish Christmas in East Baltimore were
previously published in the Culture section.
- © Copyright 2002 THE WORLD & I. All rights reserved.
- The World & I is published monthly by News World