Auld taught Douglass the alphabet, unlocking the gateway to education-which he would extol the rest of his life. In defiance of the codes that explicitly forbade teaching enslaved people how to read, Mrs. (Credit: James Lawler Duggan/MCT via Getty Images) Education, abuse and escapeīorn in Maryland in 1818, Douglass, like many enslaved children, was separated from his mother at birth he resided with his loving maternal grandmother until he turned seven.Īt the age of eight, he became a servant in the home of Hugh Auld in Baltimore. READ MORE: Frederick Douglass's Emotional Meeting with the Man Who Enslaved HimĪ statue of Frederick Douglass on display in the U.S. Underpinning it all was his relentless process of self-education-a theme that runs throughout Douglass’s life story. He also published an abolitionist newspaper for 16 years.supported the Underground Railroad by which enslaved people escaped north.became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States during roll call at the 1888 Republican National Convention.and even was known to play America’s national anthem on the violin. Not once, but continually and for the good of the nation, he argued, we must bring the “thunder.”ĭouglass’s extraordinary life and legacy can be understood best through his autobiographies and his countless articles and speeches. Indeed, Douglass knew, as he argued so ardently in his famed 1852 July Fourth speech, that for democracy to thrive, the nation’s conscience must be roused, its propriety startled and its hypocrisy exposed. And he knew it after Emancipation, when he continued to battle for equal rights under the law. He knew it when he lobbied relentlessly to abolish slavery. Eyerman/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images) He wanted to rouse the nation's conscience-and expose its hypocrisyĭouglass’s voluminous writings and speeches reveal a man who believed fiercely in the ideals on which America was founded, but understood-with the scars to prove it-that democracy would never be a destination of comfort and repose, but a journey of ongoing self-criticism and struggle. The first Dublin edition of his book (shown here) was published in September 1845.Framed daguerreotype portrait of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Fearing for his safety, he fled to Britain and began an abolitionist tour of the country. The book was an instant bestseller, but it put Douglass at risk as in it he had 'named and shamed' his white slave owners. He published his first autobiography 'Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave' in May 1845 in Boston. He was compelled to 'tell the story of the slave'. Frontispiece of the first Dublin edition of Frederick Douglass's 'Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave', published in 1845.įrederick Douglass escaped from slavery in Maryland, USA to the Northern United States in 1838.
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