Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass, 1818-1895

• Was a “prolific speaker, social activist, journalist, author of a novella…as well as three volumes of autobiography. These autobiographies, each covering Douglass’s life in increasing detail, narrate the life of the most remarkable, successful, and influential American lives of the nineteenth century” (Baym 939)
• 1845: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself
• 1855: My Bondage and My Freedom
• 1881, 1893: The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
• Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in February 1818 on Holme Hill Farm in Tablot County, Maryland (although he didn’t really know for sure during his lifetime)
• His mother, Harriet, was a slave, and his father was an unknown white man (possibly her mother’s owner, Aaron Anthony)
• Mother dies when he is about seven, and he is soon sent to Baltimore (in 1826) to live with Anthony’s daughter and son-in-law, Sofia and Hugh Auld
• Sophia begins to teach him to read, until Hugh puts a stop to it, as it would “unfit” Douglass to be a slave
• He is relentless in learning, though, and teaches himself to read and write
• 1833: Sent back to the plantation of Thomas Auld, Hugh’s brother and is miserable
• Sent to “slave-breaker” Thomas Covey; their eventual conflict is a turning point in Douglass’s life
• 1836: Sent back to Baltimore; works as a caulker; saves some money and plots an escape
• 1838: Escapes to NY, marries Anna Murray, a free black woman, and eventually settles in New Bedford, Massachusetts
• They have five children and are married until her death in 1882
• Douglass remarries in 1884, to Harriet Pitts, a white woman, a source of some controversy
• 1841: Gives his first public address and soon becomes a popular abolitionist speaker
• He is so good that some people doubt he really was a slave, so he writes his first autobiography
• “With the publication in 1845 of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, his career as a writer made him within a few years, an international spokesperson for freedom, and equality. Though earlier slave narratives has been ghost-written, the vivid detail, the unmistakable individuality of its style, and the reputation Douglass had earned as a traveling speaker of eloquence left no doubt that Douglass had in fact written his own story in his own words—even if they were in the service of Garrisonian abolitionism” (Baym 940)
• Sells 4,500 copies in first 5 months; editions are soon published in England, Ireland, France, and Germany
• “One of the reasons for the popular appeal…would certainly be the skill with which he appropriated the language and symbolism of American middle-class culture and religion to denounces the evils of slavery and racism” (Miller 1881)
• “…Narrative excoriated American society for its lapses at the same time that it affirmed its original promise” (Miller 1881)
• “…establishes a convincing case for himself as a lonely outcast in his own land and, more importantly, as a prophet ordained to warm American society against perversity and error” (Williams 1881)
• Description of Douglass by an admirer: “He was more than six feet in height, and his majestic form, as he rose to speak, straight as an arrow, muscular, yet lithe and graceful, his flashing eye, and more than all, his voice, that rivaled Webster’s in its richness, and in the depth and sonorousness of its cadences, made up such an ideal of an orator as the listeners never forgot” (qtd. in Baym 940)
• 1845-1847: Flees to England (for his own safety) where he speaks against slavery extensively
• 1847: Begins publishing The North Star, later called Frederick Douglass Weekly
• 1848: Attends first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, NY
• 5 July 1852: Delivers “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” to an audience in Rochester, NY
• One of the most powerful anti-slavery speeches ever
• Eventually splits from Garrison over a number of issues (constitution, individual expression, etc.)
• Sometimes told by Garrisonians “Give us the facts…we will take care of the philosophy,” yet he wanted to discuss those matters, too (Miller 1880-1881)
• During the Civil War, he lobbies for the rights of free blacks to serve in the army, and often makes his case to important leaders, including Lincoln
• After the Civil War, he is a critic of Lincoln’s successors and the failed policies of Reconstruction
• Holds a number of government positions during the rest of his life and is quite successful financially

Works Cited

Baym, Nina, editor.  The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Shorter Sixth Edition.  NY: W.W. Norton and Company, 2003.
Miller, James A. “Frederick Douglass.” The Heath Anthology of American Literature: Volume B.  Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006. 1879-1881.