USH - Frederick Douglass - Church

Frederick Douglass was born in February of 1818 (the exact day is unknown), near Easton, Maryland. His mother was a slave and a man named Aaron Anthony claimed ownership of the young boy. He spent his early childhood living with his grandmother in a cabin, as his mother was hired out and he only saw her on rare visits. He was separated from his grandmother at the age of 6 to live on a large plantation where Captain Anthony worked, before being sent to live with in-laws of the captain’s daughter two years later.

While there (Baltimore) from the ages of 8 to 15, he had his first job, looking after the Aulds’ son, Tommy. Also there, he learned to read and write until Sophia Auld’s husband forbade her to teach him. After that, Douglass taught himself in secret. (He also taught himself the art of public speaking). Once he knew how to read, Douglass would read newspapers and thus learned about the debate over slavery.
In 1833 (age 15), Douglass was brought to St. Michael’s, Maryland by this master. While there, he organized secret schools for slaves and refused to submit to whipping. Although one of these schools was broken up by a mob and he was hired out to “slave breakers” (farmers who sought to control the rebellious activities of slaves), he continued to defy his master and his slave status. Three years later, he planned to escape, but was caught, imprisoned, and sent back to Thomas Auld (his master).

He finally successfully escaped from slavery in September 1838, when he was 20 years old. He settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he attended anti-slavery meetings held in African-American churches. He sometimes even told these groups of his experiences.

Throughout his life, Frederick Douglass was “first and foremost an abolitionist and civil rights activist.” By the time of the Civil War, “he was one of the most famous black men in the country, known for his orations on the condition of the black race, and other issues such as women’s rights.” During the Civil War, he and other abolitionists argued that the war was aimed to end slavery, so African-Americans should thus be allowed to fight in the war, be allowed to fight for their own freedom. After the war was over, and after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation that freed the slaves of the Confederacy, he began to fight for equality of his people. He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, having been quoted as saying “I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong.”