In doing so, Douglass went on to become a great writer, orator, publisher, civil rights leader and government official. Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted, but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.”Īfter settling in the northeast with his wife, Anna, the man who would be forever known to the world as “Frederick Douglass” dedicated his life to the abolitionist movement and the equality of all people. Frederick Bailey, who changed his last name to Douglass soon after his arrival, would later write in his autobiography, “A new world has opened upon me.
” Frederick DouglassĪt the age of 20, after several failed attempts, he escaped from slavery and arrived in New York City on Sept. 4, 1838. “I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted. From that moment on, Frederick knew that education would be his pathway to freedom. Frederick’s lessons ended abruptly one day when he heard Auld scold his wife, telling her that if a slave knew how to read and write it would make him unfit to be a slave.
In defiance of a state law banning slaves from being educated, Frederick, as a young boy, was taught the alphabet and a few simple words by Sophia Auld, the wife of Baltimore slaveholder Hugh Auld. His journey from an enslaved child, separated at birth from his mother, to one of the most articulate orators of the 19th century, was nothing short of extraordinary. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1818, became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time.
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