“When justice is denied, where poverty is enforced,
where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that
society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob, and degrade
them, neither persons nor property will be safe.”
- Frederick Douglass -
In 1818, Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey to his mother Harriet Bailey and father Aaron Anthony, the man who owned them both. Anthony kept them as slaves at Douglass’s birthplace, Holme Hill Farm in Tuckahoe, Maryland, although Douglass rarely saw his mother throughout his life and was raised primarily by his grandmother. (a)
In 1826, Aaron Anthony died, and Douglass was sent to Hugh and Sophia Auld in Baltimore. According to Douglass’s writings, Sophia Auld was initially a kind, caring woman who even began to teach Douglas how to read. However, it was taught that teaching slaves such skills made slaves rebellious, and Hugh Auld soon ordered the practice between the two to stop at once. (a) Sophia had never owned a slave before, giving her a kind demeanor towards Douglass, but as Douglass grew older, Sophia would evolve into a cruel slave owner, becoming more corrupted by the misogynistic and racist culture as Douglass would later recount. (g)
However, the early days of reading with Sophia would set the foundation for the rest of Douglass’s life and the legacy he would leave behind in American history. When Douglass was sent to work at a shipyard, he often practiced reading and writing in secret. In the year 1831, Douglass developed an interest in newspaper articles about John Quincy Adams. Through stories of Adams’s antislavery position on the Congress floor, he learned about the abolitionist movement.
After buying a book entitled The Columbian Orator, a compilation of writings from poems to speeches, that was used to teach public speaking, Douglass found himself the perfect practice material. (a) (f) Still, Douglass was sent to work in different places and often received harsh beatings from the slave owners he worked for as time went on. In one instance, his newfound knowledge of the abolitionist movement and its supporters through reading even led him to fight back against a slave owner named Edward Covey, causing Covey to never try beating him again. (e)
In the year 1836, Douglass planned an escape from slavery. His first attempt failed on a bit of a good note, as he met his wife Anna Murray who helped him with his second escape, this one successful. Douglass was then on the run. He soon changed his name to Frederick Douglass to stay hidden from his previous owners. Now living in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Douglass spent his time becoming an influential voice in the antislavery movement of the time. He was often asked to share his life story at meetings and went on to speak in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1841 at an antislavery convention.
At this time, Douglass was only 23 years old but was so driven by a passion for the movement that he executed his speech with eloquence using the communication skills he had developed at a young age. After this speech, he was asked to work as a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, and he soon found himself speaking to crowds all over the nation. He was an excellent speaker but this trait led many to believe that he was never a slave at all. Because of this, Douglass went on to write his first book, an autobiography titled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave which was published in 1845. In this book, he detailed his early life as a slave, explaining that slaves were essentially made at birth after young children were taken from their families, destroying their support networks. (b)
Douglass also went on to explain the use of slave songs, noting that “[he] did not, when a slave, understand the deep meaning of those rude and abhorrent songs. I was myself within the circle; so that I neither saw nor heard as those without might see and hear”. He further explained that while these songs may have sounded happy, they represented dark feelings felt by the slaves in their times of entrapment. (d) In this book, Douglass also addressed how slaves that lacked education would stay slaves, but proper education gave slaves paths to freedom. This book would impact the masses during the Civil War by influencing a much larger anti-Confederate sentiment.
At the time his autobiography was published, Douglass was still technically on the run. The book he had written contained direct references to those who still legally owned him. Because of this, Douglass left America for 20 months and stayed in England, a decision that would lead to his freedom after his British friends bought him from the Aulds in 1846.
As his life went on, Douglass wrote two more books--My Bondage and My Freedom and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Both books elevated the fight against slavery in America as Douglass recounted his time as a slave again and explained his views on racial equality in America’s Reconstruction period. In 1895, Douglass died in Washington D.C. Many would say he died with a pen in his hand, always on the lookout to write about his life as a slave and his fight for equality. (b)
Reflection
When we learn about Frederick Douglass, we explore his passion for reading and writing and how he practiced in secret. His education limited by racism, in a way, can still be seen today due to systemic inequalities. As a result of a long history of discriminatory practices and employment discrimination, many Black people in America find it hard to own homes, leading to decreased access to savings and an absence of tax benefits. In addition, less money has resulted in many Black children growing up with lower-quality school supplies and in more impoverished areas with worse schools--schools often being worse in these areas as they are funded by property taxes coming out of the most disadvantaged areas.
This, of course, has led too many Black children to not be able to attend college because of the lack of money, which has further led to many students teaching themselves critical skills--like Douglass did--without the advantages of other students living in wealthier neighborhoods who can access more connections and information by attending college.
Implicit biases also still exist as many people have prejudices but don’t think of them too often, making the Black unemployment rate much higher than the white unemployment rate due to Black names not sounding as attractive as white names, for example.
While Black children will not be entrapped by slavery, the very thing stopping young people like Douglass who had few opportunities due to his limited education is the fact that the education system is not acceptable to begin with. When the American education system decides to bypass specific details about slavery and America’s long history of racial injustice, fewer students are inspired to fight for changes like ending voter suppression and prison reform.
One can even go as far as to mention that America should seek to replace or revitalize the current educational system altogether by encouraging thoughtful discussion and more hands-on projects over standardized testing that often limits what can be covered in school. Overall, better education is essential to ensure that young Black people like Douglass can rise above systemic racism and thrive to the same extent that their white peers do.
It’s crazy how much you can learn from history and just how little America has actually learned.
Sources & Links
b. Douglass’s True Story
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