In the moral and political struggle to end slavery in America, great personal courage and sacrifice was required in order to attack the foundations of racism and prejudice that helped prop up the institution. No demonstration of courage was more significant than the publication of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, in 1845. In telling the story of his life to that point, Douglass also exhibited a brilliant understanding and instinct of what was required to break down the system of slavery. He insisted on accuracy and detail in the work, listing specific names and places of his former owners and masters, even though at the time he was still a fugitive, having escaped from slavery in 1837. The danger was real and significant, and as soon as the book was published by the Massachusetts Antislavery Society, Douglass traveled to England, Ireland, and Scotland, primarily for his own safety. (1)
With approximately 3 million, soon to be 4 million people held in the bondage of chattel slavery in the United States for over 200 years, in the midst of the intense 40-year struggle to end the evil system, Frederick Douglass emerged as a hero of the antislavery movement, a living example of what a person could become if freed from the chains. By means of speaking, writing and personally representing his story in social interaction with groups small and large in travels across the abolitionist movement, Douglass represented a living demonstration of the possibilities for African Americans outside of the bondage of slavery.
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He was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1817 or 1818. Douglass states that he was not able to know his mother, having been separated from her at less than a year of age. It was reported that he had a white father. He saw his mother four of five times before her death when he was about seven, and in each case, she walked approximately twelve miles to and from his location in the night so as to see him and then to be back in her required field hand post before sunrise. (Douglass, 215) As a young boy he was sent to Baltimore to work as a house servant, and there the owner’s wife began to teach him to read. (Douglass, 184) As she became more familiar with the acceptable practices of owning a slave, she turned against his education. Frederick continued on his own with extreme resourcefulness, including befriending white children that he encountered about town on his household errands so as to inquire about whatever school lessons they may be engaged in, and studying the used instruction books that he could find about the house. (Douglas, 657) It was during this time in 1830 that Frederick came across The Columbian Orator, a commonly used schoolbook which contained a series of articles by famous historical orators on such topics as individual liberty, religious faith, and the value of education. The volume so impressed Frederick as a resource that he used money he had earned to purchase a second-hand copy. Douglass would come to regard the book as a turning point is his life, and it became his most prized possession and one of the few things that he personally carried during his escape from slavery. (Blight, 43,44)
Space does not here permit an adequate examination of the impact of Frederick’s years in Baltimore on his intellectual, moral and spiritual formation. He encountered a variety of people on the streets of Baltimore, accomplished a significant education primarily by his own resources, and in addition, he encountered religious environments and spiritual mentors, including several African American preachers, who influenced his future message and oratorical style, and among whom he experienced a conversion to faith in Jesus Christ and a love for the Bible. (Blight, 53)
In 1833, at approximately the age of 15, a series of unfortunate circumstances in the family that owned Frederick led to his return to Talbot County, the county in which he was born. There he was separated from his educational resources, assigned to the work of field hand, often hungry as a growing teenager, and placed under the watch of Thomas Auld, a master who proved to be the source of some of the most difficult experiences that he would ever encounter. In this place and time Douglass would observe as well as suffer the worst abuses to which slaves could be subjected, including repeated, severe, physical abuse. His biography details the most horrendous treatment for himself and for others. Eventually, Douglass went through what he describes as a turning point in his life. In a time of desperation due to the physical and mental abuse, he stood up to the master to whom he had been hired out, in an extended hand to hand combat in which the master could not get the better of him. From this time on the physical abuse against Douglas ceased, and his self-confidence surged, along with his desire to be free. He remained a slave for about four more years, but was never whipped again. (Douglas 971-987) In his later teen years Douglass encountered more reasonable masters with less abusive practices. Given his ability to read and desire to teach others, Douglass held a sabbath school with approximately forty students for for a period of almost a year.
In 1838, at approximately the age of 20, Frederick (still at this time, Frederick Bailey) planned and executed his escape from slavery. His journey led him to New York. While his autobiography provides detail about much of his young life, he deliberately refrained from providing any information about the manner of his escape, so as not to hinder in any way the similar ambitions of other slaves by informing his masters of how he had accomplished the feat. From New York he wrote for his intended wife Anna to join him there, and she was at that time free. She made the journey, and there they were befriended by several individuals in the manner of the underground railroad. Every step was precarious and fraught with danger, given the presence of “merciless men-hunters,” along with the more ordinary challenges of finding food and shelter. (Douglas, 1383).
Frederick and Anna were married September 15, 1838, and without delay they continued their journey via the underground railroad by foot travel, steamboat, and stagecoach, with the destination of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Seeking advice from the owner of the boarding house in which he had lodged, Mr. David Ruggles, the destination of New Bedford was chosen as a promising place of employment, given Douglass’ skills in labor and the presence of a thriving whaling port, soon to become one of the largest on the entire east coast.
In New Bedford, they were directed to the home of free blacks Nathan and Mary Johnson. Part of establishing a free identity was claiming a new name. Frederick felt a sense of identity by retaining his first name, and chose to drop the middle names Augustus Washington. Johnson suggested the name Douglas, from the Sir Walter Scott novel Lady of the Lake, and Frederick added an extra s. Thus he took on his new chosen name, Frederick Douglass. (Blight, 88-89) Douglass spoke highly of Johnson’s generosity and also observed Johnson’s comfortable manner of living, support by hard work, and his evident familiarity with moral, religious and political issues of the day.(2)(Douglass, 1446) In New Bedford Douglass spoke of finding employment on the third day, loading ships. “…I went at it with a glad heart and willing hand. I was now my own master. It was a happy moment, the rapture of which can be understood only by those who have been slaves. It was the first work, the reward of which was to be entirely my own.” (Douglass, 1462)
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Douglass describes that he was invited to take The Liberator within about four months of arriving in New Bedford. His description bears repeating in full: “The paper came, and I read it from week to week with such feelings as it would be quite idle for me to attempt to describe. The paper became my meat and my drink. My soul was set all on fire. Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds – its scathing denunciations of slaveholders – its faithful exposures of slavery – and its powerful attacks upon the upholders of the institution – sent a thrill of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before!” Douglass continues … “I had not long been a reader of the “Liberator,” before I got a pretty correct idea of the principles, measures and spirit of the anti-slavery reform. I took right hold of the cause. I could do but little; but what I could, I did with a joyful heart, and never felt happier than when in an anti-slavery meeting.” (Douglass, 1478)
The time in New Bedford was for Frederick and Anna a time of working a variety of jobs, developing new relations and establishing a home. Frederick and Anna were eventually to have five children. While work was plentiful, and the racial dynamic was certainly different in a free state populated by a diverse population, discrimination was ever present. Frederick attempted to gain employment using his skill as a caulker, but the white laborers prohibited his application, fearing a negative impact on their own job stability of allowing a black man into their trade. Blight describes Douglass’ account of the subsequent three years of steady labor in which he “sawed wood, dug cellars, shoveled coal, swept chimneys, rolled oil casks, loaded and unloaded vessels, worked in the candle works, brass foundry, and elsewhere.” (Blight, 91)
Fittingly, Douglass concludes his first autobiography by describing the significant turning point in his life by which his career was launched as an orator for the anti-slavery cause, ultimately, arguably, to become the most famous orator in America, and later to lend his voice also to the women’s rights movement and other causes. Douglass’ emergence as an orator did not appear de novo at his first abolitionist conference, but had been in development as lay leader and eventually as a preacher, between 1839-41, in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New Bedford. He had settled upon that congregation as a spiritual home after trying several different church environments. (Douglass, 5257) Douglass' leadership and oratorical skills developed rapidly and by 1841 he was listed as a Reverend in the congregation. His intelligence and skill as a natural speaker with a deep passion for the plight of others could not be repressed. (Blight, 93)
An abolitionist convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts, served as the time and the place in which Douglass was urged by Mr. William C. Coffin to speak what was on his mind about his experience with slavery. Thus began his explosive career with the movement, beginning what he described as “pleading the cause of my brethren.” Onlookers to the occasion could barely come up with words to describe the impact. William Lloyd Garrison’s response is recorded in the Introduction, written by James Mccune Smith, to Douglass’ second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. “I shall never forget his first speech at the convention – the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind – the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise. I think I never hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; certainly my perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by it on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear than ever. There stood one in physical proportions and stature commanding and exact – in intelligence richly endowed – in natural eloquence a prodigy.” (Douglass, 1727)
To be continued.
Notes:
(1) Douglass describes the situation as follows: "The writing of my pamphlet, in the spring of 1845, endangered my liberty, and let me to seek a refuge from republican slavery in monarchial England. A rude, uncultivated fugitive slave was driven, by stern necessity, to that country to which young American men to to increase their stock of knowledge, to seek pleasure, to have their rough, democratic manners softened by contact with English aristocratic refinement." (Douglass, 5379)
(2) “I will venture to assert, that my friend Mr. Nathan Johnson, (of whom I can say with a grateful heart, “I was hungry, and he gave me meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger, and he took me in”) lived in a neater house; dined at a better table; took, paid for, and read, more newspapers; better understood the moral, religious, and political character of the nation, - than nine tenths of the slaveholders in Talbot county Maryland. Yet Mr. Johnson was a working man. His hands were hardened by toil, and not his alone, but those also of Mrs. Johnson."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTE: Number references for Douglass used in this article are position references for the Kindle electronic version of The Complete Autobiographies.
Blight, D. W. (2018). Frederick Douglass. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Douglass, F. (1845). Narrative of the LIfe of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Boston: Massachusetts Antislavery Society.
Douglass, F. (2012). The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass. Start Publishing LLC.
Mayer, H. (1998). All On Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Rapley, R. (Writer), & Rapley, R. (Director). (2013). American Experience: The Abolitionists [Motion Picture]. PBS / Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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He was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1817 or 1818. Douglass states that he was not able to know his mother, having been separated from her at less than a year of age. It was reported that he had a white father. He saw his mother four of five times before her death when he was about seven, and in each case, she walked approximately twelve miles to and from his location in the night so as to see him and then to be back in her required field hand post before sunrise. (Douglass, 215) As a young boy he was sent to Baltimore to work as a house servant, and there the owner’s wife began to teach him to read. (Douglass, 184) As she became more familiar with the acceptable practices of owning a slave, she turned against his education. Frederick continued on his own with extreme resourcefulness, including befriending white children that he encountered about town on his household errands so as to inquire about whatever school lessons they may be engaged in, and studying the used instruction books that he could find about the house. (Douglas, 657) It was during this time in 1830 that Frederick came across The Columbian Orator, a commonly used schoolbook which contained a series of articles by famous historical orators on such topics as individual liberty, religious faith, and the value of education. The volume so impressed Frederick as a resource that he used money he had earned to purchase a second-hand copy. Douglass would come to regard the book as a turning point is his life, and it became his most prized possession and one of the few things that he personally carried during his escape from slavery. (Blight, 43,44)
Space does not here permit an adequate examination of the impact of Frederick’s years in Baltimore on his intellectual, moral and spiritual formation. He encountered a variety of people on the streets of Baltimore, accomplished a significant education primarily by his own resources, and in addition, he encountered religious environments and spiritual mentors, including several African American preachers, who influenced his future message and oratorical style, and among whom he experienced a conversion to faith in Jesus Christ and a love for the Bible. (Blight, 53)
In 1833, at approximately the age of 15, a series of unfortunate circumstances in the family that owned Frederick led to his return to Talbot County, the county in which he was born. There he was separated from his educational resources, assigned to the work of field hand, often hungry as a growing teenager, and placed under the watch of Thomas Auld, a master who proved to be the source of some of the most difficult experiences that he would ever encounter. In this place and time Douglass would observe as well as suffer the worst abuses to which slaves could be subjected, including repeated, severe, physical abuse. His biography details the most horrendous treatment for himself and for others. Eventually, Douglass went through what he describes as a turning point in his life. In a time of desperation due to the physical and mental abuse, he stood up to the master to whom he had been hired out, in an extended hand to hand combat in which the master could not get the better of him. From this time on the physical abuse against Douglas ceased, and his self-confidence surged, along with his desire to be free. He remained a slave for about four more years, but was never whipped again. (Douglas 971-987) In his later teen years Douglass encountered more reasonable masters with less abusive practices. Given his ability to read and desire to teach others, Douglass held a sabbath school with approximately forty students for for a period of almost a year.
In 1838, at approximately the age of 20, Frederick (still at this time, Frederick Bailey) planned and executed his escape from slavery. His journey led him to New York. While his autobiography provides detail about much of his young life, he deliberately refrained from providing any information about the manner of his escape, so as not to hinder in any way the similar ambitions of other slaves by informing his masters of how he had accomplished the feat. From New York he wrote for his intended wife Anna to join him there, and she was at that time free. She made the journey, and there they were befriended by several individuals in the manner of the underground railroad. Every step was precarious and fraught with danger, given the presence of “merciless men-hunters,” along with the more ordinary challenges of finding food and shelter. (Douglas, 1383).
Frederick and Anna were married September 15, 1838, and without delay they continued their journey via the underground railroad by foot travel, steamboat, and stagecoach, with the destination of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Seeking advice from the owner of the boarding house in which he had lodged, Mr. David Ruggles, the destination of New Bedford was chosen as a promising place of employment, given Douglass’ skills in labor and the presence of a thriving whaling port, soon to become one of the largest on the entire east coast.
In New Bedford, they were directed to the home of free blacks Nathan and Mary Johnson. Part of establishing a free identity was claiming a new name. Frederick felt a sense of identity by retaining his first name, and chose to drop the middle names Augustus Washington. Johnson suggested the name Douglas, from the Sir Walter Scott novel Lady of the Lake, and Frederick added an extra s. Thus he took on his new chosen name, Frederick Douglass. (Blight, 88-89) Douglass spoke highly of Johnson’s generosity and also observed Johnson’s comfortable manner of living, support by hard work, and his evident familiarity with moral, religious and political issues of the day.(2)(Douglass, 1446) In New Bedford Douglass spoke of finding employment on the third day, loading ships. “…I went at it with a glad heart and willing hand. I was now my own master. It was a happy moment, the rapture of which can be understood only by those who have been slaves. It was the first work, the reward of which was to be entirely my own.” (Douglass, 1462)
Douglass describes that he was invited to take The Liberator within about four months of arriving in New Bedford. His description bears repeating in full: “The paper came, and I read it from week to week with such feelings as it would be quite idle for me to attempt to describe. The paper became my meat and my drink. My soul was set all on fire. Its sympathy for my brethren in bonds – its scathing denunciations of slaveholders – its faithful exposures of slavery – and its powerful attacks upon the upholders of the institution – sent a thrill of joy through my soul, such as I had never felt before!” Douglass continues … “I had not long been a reader of the “Liberator,” before I got a pretty correct idea of the principles, measures and spirit of the anti-slavery reform. I took right hold of the cause. I could do but little; but what I could, I did with a joyful heart, and never felt happier than when in an anti-slavery meeting.” (Douglass, 1478)
The time in New Bedford was for Frederick and Anna a time of working a variety of jobs, developing new relations and establishing a home. Frederick and Anna were eventually to have five children. While work was plentiful, and the racial dynamic was certainly different in a free state populated by a diverse population, discrimination was ever present. Frederick attempted to gain employment using his skill as a caulker, but the white laborers prohibited his application, fearing a negative impact on their own job stability of allowing a black man into their trade. Blight describes Douglass’ account of the subsequent three years of steady labor in which he “sawed wood, dug cellars, shoveled coal, swept chimneys, rolled oil casks, loaded and unloaded vessels, worked in the candle works, brass foundry, and elsewhere.” (Blight, 91)
Fittingly, Douglass concludes his first autobiography by describing the significant turning point in his life by which his career was launched as an orator for the anti-slavery cause, ultimately, arguably, to become the most famous orator in America, and later to lend his voice also to the women’s rights movement and other causes. Douglass’ emergence as an orator did not appear de novo at his first abolitionist conference, but had been in development as lay leader and eventually as a preacher, between 1839-41, in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in New Bedford. He had settled upon that congregation as a spiritual home after trying several different church environments. (Douglass, 5257) Douglass' leadership and oratorical skills developed rapidly and by 1841 he was listed as a Reverend in the congregation. His intelligence and skill as a natural speaker with a deep passion for the plight of others could not be repressed. (Blight, 93)
An abolitionist convention in Nantucket, Massachusetts, served as the time and the place in which Douglass was urged by Mr. William C. Coffin to speak what was on his mind about his experience with slavery. Thus began his explosive career with the movement, beginning what he described as “pleading the cause of my brethren.” Onlookers to the occasion could barely come up with words to describe the impact. William Lloyd Garrison’s response is recorded in the Introduction, written by James Mccune Smith, to Douglass’ second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. “I shall never forget his first speech at the convention – the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind – the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise. I think I never hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; certainly my perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by it on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear than ever. There stood one in physical proportions and stature commanding and exact – in intelligence richly endowed – in natural eloquence a prodigy.” (Douglass, 1727)
To be continued.
Notes:
(1) Douglass describes the situation as follows: "The writing of my pamphlet, in the spring of 1845, endangered my liberty, and let me to seek a refuge from republican slavery in monarchial England. A rude, uncultivated fugitive slave was driven, by stern necessity, to that country to which young American men to to increase their stock of knowledge, to seek pleasure, to have their rough, democratic manners softened by contact with English aristocratic refinement." (Douglass, 5379)
(2) “I will venture to assert, that my friend Mr. Nathan Johnson, (of whom I can say with a grateful heart, “I was hungry, and he gave me meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger, and he took me in”) lived in a neater house; dined at a better table; took, paid for, and read, more newspapers; better understood the moral, religious, and political character of the nation, - than nine tenths of the slaveholders in Talbot county Maryland. Yet Mr. Johnson was a working man. His hands were hardened by toil, and not his alone, but those also of Mrs. Johnson."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NOTE: Number references for Douglass used in this article are position references for the Kindle electronic version of The Complete Autobiographies.
Blight, D. W. (2018). Frederick Douglass. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Douglass, F. (1845). Narrative of the LIfe of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Boston: Massachusetts Antislavery Society.
Douglass, F. (2012). The Complete Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass. Start Publishing LLC.
Mayer, H. (1998). All On Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. New York: W.W. Norton and Company.
Rapley, R. (Writer), & Rapley, R. (Director). (2013). American Experience: The Abolitionists [Motion Picture]. PBS / Corporation for Public Broadcasting.