The Life of Fredrick Douglass
Like most formerly enslaved people, Frederick Douglass, whose birth name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, never knew the exact date of his birth. He later chose February 14th as his birthday and settled on 1818 as his likely birth year. He was separated from his mother as an infant and raised by his grandmother, Betty Bailey. A slave owner’s kind wife secretly taught him the alphabet, perhaps the most significant event of Douglass’s childhood. With this very basic knowledge, Douglass, an inquisitive, bright boy, taught himself to read by simply observing poor white children read their lessons. The ability to read sparked a lifetime of learning and a deep commitment to education and enabled him to further develop his innate talent for writing and public speaking. These gifts served him well in later life as a social reformer, abolitionist, orator, journalist and statesman. When, at sixteen, he was discovered teaching slaves from neighboring plantations how to read, he was sold to a brutal slave owner as punishment. Years later, in his first autobiography, he wrote that “he was broken in body, soul and spirit” during these years.
In 1838, after two failed attempts, Douglass succeeded in escaping his harsh master and his life of purpose and true freedom began. He married Anna Murray and moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where the couple met Nathan and Mary Johnson, a freed married couple. The Johnsons encouraged Frederick and Anna to change their surname to hide their former identities from slave catchers, thereby protecting and their newly gained freedom. Frederick dropped his middle names and adopted the surname of Douglass after a character from Sir Walter Scott’s poem, The Lady of the Lake.
During his time in New Bedford, Douglass became active in the abolitionist movement and met many notable abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison. After hearing details of his enslavement and escape, Garrison encouraged Douglass to share his story with others in the community as a way of building support for the abolitionist movement. Douglass then became active in the American Anti-Slavery Society’s “Hundred Conventions” project, a six-month speaking tour through the United States. Despite being repeatedly attacked by pro-slavery supporters, Douglass continued to travel, share his experiences with others and eventually publish the first of his three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which was a commercial success. In 1847, Douglass began publishing an abolitionist newspaper, The North Star, another successful vehicle for the freedom movement, with a readership of over 4,000 in the United States, Europe and the Caribbean.
In addition to his dedication to the anti-slavery movement, Douglass became a strong advocate for women’s suffrage during this period and was one of the very few men, and the only African American, to attend the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. His support for women’s voting rights continued throughout his life.
Fredrick Douglas became a preacher and as a preacher began around 1839 to speak at “Anti-Slavery” organizations and activities. His reputation grew About the time Douglas published his first Autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave, his friends and mentors feared his former “owner,” Auld, would attempt to retrieve his “property.” They encouraged him to go by boat to Ireland, and Douglas sailed to Liverpool, England on 8/16/1845. There he toured the British Isles. There he found
“the chattel [i.e., slave] become a man . . . . I find myself treated at
every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people.”[i]
In 1846 his supporters in England funded the purchase of his freedom from his owner, Auld. When he returned, he used $57,716 additional given to him by supporters in England to start publishing his first anti-slavery newspaper, the North Star.
[i] Frederick Douglass, [Letter], Victoria Hotel, Belfast, January 1, 1846. To William Lloyd Garrison. Foner, Philip (ed). Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass. New York: International Publishers, 1950. Vol. I, p. 125. (Copy online.)
Douglass would later describe in letters and speeches, the fullness of his freedom and the sense of equality he enjoyed while living in Ireland. Many of these writings have been published in more recent editions of his original works, including his autobiographies. What astounded him was how under a monarchical government, no one questioned his “equal humanity, claim[ed] [him] as a slave, or offered [him] an insult,” in sharp contrast to his perilous life as a slave living in a country that boasted of a democratic government. He reveled in his ability to sit beside white people in cabs; to enter public buildings by the same door as white people; to dine at the same table and to be “treated with kindness and deference paid to white people.”
The abolition movement in Great Britain had a very different trajectory than that of the United States. The British Empire’s abolition movement began in 1772 with a limited legal ruling that held there was no common law or statutory justification in England for slavery. The movement which was driven by moral, religious (mostly Quaker and Evangelical) and humanitarian efforts would evolve and influence important legislation over a period of years. The Slave Trade Act of 1807 outlawed the trading of slaves within the British Empire but slavery would remain in the colonies until 1833 with the enactment of the Slavery Abolition Act. A short-lived apprentice system would follow requiring slaves to work for their former masters for a period of time and slave owners received compensation from the government for the loss of their “property,” though no reparations were paid or would be paid to former slaves. This was the Ireland and England that Douglass first encountered when he arrived in 1845.
During his time, Douglass continued his public lecturing, mostly in churches, to large crowds. He developed a following of supporters who raised funds to buy his freedom from Thomas Auld. Although his friends wanted him to remain in England, because Douglass’s wife and children were in Massachusetts and his work on behalf of those still in bondage remained unfinished, he was strongly motivated to return to America.
While his time abroad greatly enriched his life, what was sadly reminiscent of his life in slavery was the extreme poverty of so many Dubliners. Douglass began to embrace the belief that a true abolition movement must include freedom from poverty and all other human afflictions that degrade the dignity of human beings. While in Ireland, he befriended Daniel O’Connell, an Irish nationalist, and Thomas Clarkson, who had been extremely effective in persuading Parliament to abolish slavery in the British colonies. The work of these well-seasoned abolitionists helped Douglass enlarge his views of freedom and enhance his beliefs in the scope and power of a fuller abolition movement and its hope for the future. It is with these views and a renewed sense of purpose that he returned to America in 1847.
If you want more details, this Wikipedia website provides information and links to details about his stay in the British isles
https://frederickdouglassinbritain.com/
A prayer for Black History Month