Frederick Douglass: Contributions to the Abolitionist Movement

Following up on the last post, “Mohandas Ghandi: Pioneer of Mass Nonviolent Civil Disobedience” today’s LinkedIn newsletter features Frederick Douglass. Born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland, he'd become one of the foremost African American leaders of the nineteenth century.

‘No man can put chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.’

---

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey on or near Valentine’s Day in 1818 to Harriet Bailey, a slave on Holmes Hill farm, part of an estate owned by Aaron Anthony, a former ship's captain and the manager of the plantations belonging to Edward Lloyd V, one of the wealthiest men in Maryland.

During his lifetime, he was a member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, which was formed in Philadelphia in 1833, he served as a preacher at the black Zion Methodist Church. For a while, Frederick Douglass was president of the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, a bank that had been founded to encourage blacks to invest and save their money.

Douglass was raised by his grandparents Betsey and Isaac Bailley. His mother would on at least four or five occasions leave her plantation—about twelve miles away—to visit him at night. She died when he was seven. He knew little about his father, except that he was white, and rumors that he may have been Captain Anthony.

He learned to read as a house slave for Sophia and Hugh Auld, where he was sent as a gift for his owner’s son, Tommy Auld. The first book he owned was the Columbian Orator, which contained passages from orators such as Lord Chatham, William Pitt, Fox, and Sheridan.

“Never teach a slave to read,” Hugh Auld said. “He won’t want to stay a slave.”

Forever seeking to live as a free man, Frederick Douglass escaped by boarding a train for New York dressed as a sailor, traveling with a “sailor’s protection,” a document that certified that the person named on it was a free seaman. He made it to New York, a free state, on September 4, 1838 and changed his name to Frederick Augustus Douglass in an attempt to avoid slave hunters.

There, he sent for Anna, a free black woman, whom he met in Baltimore, MD and wanted to marry when he’d become free. They married on September 15, 1838 and moved to New Bedford, MA.

Douglass joined the abolitionists in speaking out against slavery all over the North. He made his first speech against slavery in 1841 to an audience of about 500 people.

In May 1845, Douglass published 5,000 copies of his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.

In 1833 the British had passed a law granting a gradual emancipation of all slaves within the British Empire. In order to avoid being recaptured and enslaved, Douglass left his wife and kids and went to England.

On December 5, 1846, 28-year-old Frederick Douglass was truly freed and came back to the U.S .with his own free papers. Two English friends and abolitionists had raised enough to purchase his friend from Hugh Auld, to whom Thomas Auld has transferred the title to Frederick Douglass. In his farewell speech, Douglass joked “I have as much right to sell Hugh Auld as Hugh Auld has to sell me.”

The Douglass family moved to Rochester, NY where he started the North Star, a weekly newspaper which printed poems and stories by African Americans. It also reported on the fight against slavery. On the masthead appeared the motto, "Right is of no sex—Truth is of no color—God is the Father of all of us, and we are all Brethren."

Rochester’s women were active in antislavery societies, and through them Douglass kept in close contact with the leaders of in the fight for women’s rights, among them Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In 1848, he attended the first women’s rights convention.

In 1857, the Supreme Court struck down almost all restrictions on slavery. In the Dred Scott ruling, a slave who sued for his freedom after living or our years in a state where slavery was illegal, the Supreme Course declared that slaves were property just like a cow or a kettle; they could be taken by their masters into free states and remain legally bound to their owners.

After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, Douglass became strongly involved in the underground railroad. His home in Rochester was near the Canadian border and became an important station on the underground railroad. Eventually, he became superintendent of the entire system in his area.

In November 1860 Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. South Carolina seceded from the Union in late December 1860. In February 1861, six more Southern states—Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas—seceded and established a separate government under the name of the Confederate States of America. Mississippi senator Jefferson Davis was elected as their president. The Civil War began in April 1861. Two of Douglass’ sons, Lewis and Charles, were the first black men to join the Union Army.

Despairing of any hope that slavery could be ended, Douglass began to consider the possibility of organizing a black emigration to Haiti, the first black republic.

Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863.

During the Civil War, Frederick Douglass fought for equal pay among black and white troops. Following he worked to win the right for African Americans to vote.

At a meeting of the American Anti-Slavery Society in May 1865, Douglass stated that "Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot." The society voted to continue to struggle for black right, but many abolitionists left the movement.

In June 1866, Congress passed the 14th Amendment which was designed to ensure that rights guaranteed under the Civil Right Bill were protected by the Constitution. The new amendment declared that no state could deny any person his full rights as an American citizen but did not guarantee blacks the right to vote. In most states, many were already voting.

The 15th Amendment passed through Congress guaranteeing all citizens the right to vote regardless of race.?Douglass' push for state approval caused a breach between him and women suffragists since the measure did not include voting rights for women. Women would not receive the right to vote until 1920.

In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison offered Douglass an appointment as the Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti (1889-1891). He became embroiled in attempts of the U.S. government to establish a naval base in Haiti.

In his final years, Douglass devoted much of his energy to speaking out against the country's lack of concern about the lynching of blacks in the South. He died the evening of February 20, 1895 after a heart attack at his home in Washington, D.C. following a meeting of women’s rights activists by the National Council of Women.

---

Hope you enjoyed this week’s Notable People in History newsletter. ?Subscribe to Notable People in History on your favorite podcasting platform.

Come along with me and explore the lives of Archimedes, Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Wangari Maathai, Ctesibius, Valentina Tereshkova, Chiune Sugihara, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett… and others who’ve greatly influenced society.

What life choices led them to be so extraordinary… what can we learn from them?

About the Author: Lawrence Jean-Louis is the founder and creative behind beYOUteous, an eCommerce store offering a line of handcrafted beaded jewelry which aims to spread the message for embracing individuality, feminine strength, and empowerment. Her latest book, That’s Just My Baby Daddy! 12 Men Who've Contributed Greatly to Society is available from retailers worldwide.