Frederick Douglass

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Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey ; c. February 1818 - February 20, 1895) is an African social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After fleeing slavery in Maryland, he became the national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining notes for fancy writings and speeches. In his time, he was described by the abolitionist as an example of a life counter to the argument of slave owners that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. The Northern people at the time found it hard to believe that the great orator had ever been a slave.

Douglass wrote some autobiographies. He describes his experience as a slave in his 1845 autobiography, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave, who became a bestseller, and influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as the two books, My Bondage and My Freedom, i> (1855). After the Civil War, Douglass remained actively campaigning against slavery and writing his last autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, it covers events during and after the Civil War. Douglass also actively supports women's suffrage, and holds several public positions. Without his consent, Douglass became the first African American to be nominated as Vice President of the United States as vice presidential and vice presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull, on Equal Rights Party tickets.

Douglass strongly believes in the equality of all people, whether black, women, Native Americans, or recent immigrants. He is also a believer in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological differences, and in the liberal values ​​of the US Constitution. When radical abolitionists, under the motto "No Union With Slaveholders", criticize Douglass's willingness to dialogue with slave owners, he famously replied: "I will unite with anyone to do right and with nothing to do wrong."

Video Frederick Douglass

Life as a slave

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born as a slave on the East Coast of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland. The plantation is between Hillsboro and Cordova; his birthplace is probably his grandmother's cabin in eastern Tappers Corner, ( 38,8845 Â ° N 75,958 Â ° W / 38.8845; -75.958 ) and west of Tuckahoe Creek. The exact date of his birth is unknown, and he then chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14th. In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I do not have an accurate knowledge of my age, never saw an authentic record containing it."

Douglass is a mixed race, which is likely to include Native Americans on the side of his mother, as well as Africa and Europe. He was named by his mother, Harriet Bailey. After fleeing to the North many years later, he took the name of the Douglass family, having already dropped his two middle names. He wrote about his early days with his mother:

That opinion... whispered that my master was my father; but about the truth of this opinion, I do not know anything.... My mother and I were separated when I was a baby... It was a common practice, in the part of Maryland where I escaped, to part. children of their mothers at a very early age.... I do not remember ever seeing my mother with the light of day.... He will lie with me, and make me fall asleep, but long before I wake him away.

After this initial separation from his mother, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. At the age of six, he was separated from his grandmother and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Aaron Anthony worked as a supervisor. Douglass's mother died when she was about ten years old. After Anthony died, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent her to serve Thomas Hugh Auld's brother in Baltimore.

When Douglass was about twelve years old, the wife of Hugh Auld, Sophia began to teach him the alphabet. Douglass describes her as a kind and gentle woman who treats her "because she should be a human being should treat the other". Hugh Auld disagreed with les, feeling that literacy would encourage slaves to desire freedom; Douglass later referred to this as the first "antislavery lecture" he had ever heard. Under her husband's influence, Sophia became convinced that education and slavery were not appropriate and one day picked up a newspaper from Douglass. In his autobiography, Douglass recounts how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood, and by observing the writings of the men who worked with him.

Douglass went on, quietly, to teach himself how to read and write. He then often said, "knowledge is the path of slavery to freedom." When Douglass began reading newspapers, pamphlets, political material, and books from every depiction, this new realm of thought led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In the following years, Douglass praised The Columbian Orator, an anthology he discovered at around the age of twelve, by clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. The book, first published in 1797, is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches, and dialogues, to assist students in learning to read and grammar.

When Douglass was hired to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament in the weekly Sunday school. As the news spread, interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that in each week, more than 40 slaves would attend the lesson. For about six months, their studies were relatively unnoticed. While Freeland remained complacent about their activities, other planters became angry because their slaves were educated. One Sunday they broke into a meeting, armed with batons and stones, to disperse the trial permanently.

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a] how to punish Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas Auld sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor peasant who had a reputation as a "slave". He whipped Douglass regularly, and almost broke it psychologically. The sixteen-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again.

Maps Frederick Douglass

From slavery to freedom

Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him from his owner, Colonel Lloyd, but to no avail. In 1836, he tried to escape from his new master, Covey, but failed again. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love with Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore about five years older than her. His free status reinforces his belief in the possibility of obtaining his own freedom.

On September 3, 1838, Douglass escaped by riding the train from Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Railroad (P.W. & amp; B.) railroads to the new towns of the North. The area in which he rides is a short distance east of P.W. & amp; B. train depot in a recently developed environment between modern environments at Harbor East and Little Italy. The depot is located on the streets of President and Fleet, east of "The Basin" in the port of Baltimore, in the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. (The depot was replaced by the historic President Street Station, built in 1849-1850, listed as a slave escape along one of the many famous "Underground Railway" routes and during the Civil War.)

The young Douglass reaches Havre de Grace, Maryland, in Harford County, in the northeastern corner of the state, along the southwest coast of the Susquehanna River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Although this puts it about 20 miles from the free state of Pennsylvania, it is easier to travel through Delaware, another slave state. Wearing the sailor uniform given to him by Murray, who also gave him a share of his savings to cover his travel expenses, he brought the identification paper and protection paper he obtained from free black sailors. Douglass crossed the vast Susquehanna River with a steam train ferry in Havre de Grace to Perryville on the opposite shore of Cecil County, then continued by train across the state border to Wilmington, Delaware, a large port at the head of Delaware Bay. From there, as the railway line is unfinished, it goes by steamship along the Delaware River farther northeast to Quaker City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, an anti-slavery camp, and continues into the safe house of renowned abolitionist David Ruggles in New York City. His entire journey to freedom took less than 24 hours.

Frederick Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York City:

I am often asked how I felt when I first found myself in a free land. And my readers can share the same curiosity. There is hardly anything in my experience that I can not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world has opened up to me. If life is more than just a breath, and a 'quick blood splash', I live longer in a day than a year of my slave's life. This is a time of joyful excitement that words can explain. In a letter written to a friend shortly after arriving in New York, I said, "I feel like someone who might escape from a hungry lion's den." Sadness and sadness, like darkness and rain, can be described; but excitement and joy, like a rainbow, against the skills of a pen or pencil.

As soon as Douglass arrived, he told Murray to follow him north to New York. He brings the basics necessary for them to set up a house. They were married on September 15, 1838, by a black Presbyterian minister, just eleven days after the arrival of Douglass in New York. At first, they adopted Johnson as their marriage name, to distract.

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Abolitionist and preacher

The couple settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1838, then moved to Lynn, Massachusetts in 1841. After meeting and living with Nathan and Mary Johnson, they adopted Douglass as their wedding name: Douglass had previously been named Bailey, but he now again felt the need to find a new name and ask Johnson to choose a suitable family name. Johnson had read The Lady of the Lake, and suggested "Douglass" after the main character in the poem.

Douglass thought of joining the white Methodist Church, but from the beginning he was disappointed when he saw it apart. Then he joined the Methodist African Zionist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination founded in New York City, calculated among its members Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. He became a licensed preacher in 1839, and this helped him hone his oratory skills. He holds various positions, including flight attendants, Sunday School supervisors, and sexton. In 1840, Douglass delivered a speech in Elmira, New York, then a station on the Underground Railroad. (Years later a black congregation was formed there and in 1940 it became the largest church in the region).

Douglass also joins several organizations in New Bedford, and regularly attends abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to the weekly journal William Lloyd Garrison The Liberator . Inspired by Garrison, Douglass later said, "no faces and shapes ever impressed me with the [slave-like] slavery sentiments like William Lloyd Garrison did." So in this influence that in his last biography, Douglass acknowledged "his paper took place in my second heart after The Bible." Garrison was also impressed with Douglass, and has written about his anti-colonialism at The Liberator as early as 1839. In 1841, Douglass first heard Garrison speaking at the meeting of the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society. At another meeting, Douglass was suddenly invited to speak. After telling his story, Douglass was compelled to become an anti-slavery lecturer. A few days later Douglass spoke at the annual convention of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in Nantucket. Then 23 years old, Douglass conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his rough life as a slave.

While living in Lynn, Massachusetts, Douglass was involved in an early protest against segregation in transport. In September 1841 at Lynn Central Square station Douglass and friend James N. Buffum were thrown off the East Railroad train because Douglass refused to sit on a separate train trainer.

In 1843, Douglass joined other speakers on the "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month tour of the conference hall throughout the Eastern and Western United States. During this tour, supporters of slavery often greet Douglass. At a lecture in Pendleton, Indiana, angry mobs chased and defeated Douglass before the local Quaker family, the Hardys, rescued him. His hand was broken in the attack; it heals incorrectly and harasses it for the rest of its life. The stone marker at Falls Park in the Pendleton Historic District commemorates this event.

Autobiography

Douglas's most famous work is his first autobiography. The Narrative of Life Frederick Douglass, an American slave , was written during his time in Lynn, Massachusetts and published in 1845. At that time, some skeptics questioned whether Blacks could have producing eloquent literary works. This book generally receives positive reviews and becomes a bestseller directly. In three years, it has been reprinted nine times, with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States. It was also translated into French and Dutch and published in Europe.

Douglass published three versions of his autobiography during his lifetime (and revised the third), each time extending to the previous one. The 1845 Narrative is his greatest seller, and may allow him to raise funds for his legal freedom the following year, as discussed below. In 1855, Douglass published My Bondage and My Freedom . In 1881, after the Civil War, Douglass published the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, which he revised in 1892.

Travel to Ireland and the United Kingdom

Douglass's friends and mentors fear that publicity will attract the attention of former owner, Hugh Auld, who may try to get his "hers" back. They encouraged Douglass to tour Ireland, as did many ex-slaves. Douglass sailed at Cambria for Liverpool on August 16, 1845. He traveled in Ireland when the Irish Potato Famine began.

The feeling of freedom from American racial discrimination made Douglass amazed:

Eleven and a half days passed and I had crossed three thousand miles from dangerous depths. Instead of a democratic government, I was under a monarchical government. Instead of a bright blue American sky, I was enveloped in a soft gray mist from the Emerald Isle [Ireland]. I breathe, and lo! slave [slave] becomes male. I looked in vain for anyone who would question my same humanity, claim me as a slave, or offer me humiliation. I took a taxi - I sat next to a white man - I reached the hotel - I entered the same door - I was shown to the same living room - I ate at the same table - and no one was offended... I find myself rewarded and treated at every opportunity with the kindness and respect paid to the whites. When I go to church, I meet with no upside down noses and screaming lips to tell me, ' We do not allow niggers here! '

He also met and became friends with Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell who became a great inspiration.

Douglass spent two years in Ireland and England, where he gave many lectures in churches and chapels. The draw is such that some facilities are "congested to suffocate". One example is his very popular London Acceptance Reception, delivered by Douglass in May 1846 in Finsbury Chapel Alexander Fletcher. Douglass says that in England he was treated not "as a color, but as a human being."

In 1846 Douglass met Thomas Clarkson, one of the last surviving British abolitionists, who had persuaded Parliament to abolish slavery in the British colony. During this journey Douglass became legally free, as British supporters led by Anna Richardson and his brother-in-law Ellen from Newcastle over Tyne raise funds to buy his freedom from American owner Thomas Auld. Many supporters tried to encourage Douglass to remain in England, but, with his wife still in Massachusetts and three million of his black brothers in bondage in the United States, he returned to America in the spring of 1847, immediately after the death of Daniel O ' Connell.

In the 21st century, historical plaques were installed in buildings in Cork and Waterford, Ireland and London to celebrate the visit of Douglass: the first was at the Imperial Hotel in Cork and inaugurated on 31 August 2012; the second is on the face of Waterford City Hall and inaugurated on October 7, 2013. It commemorates his speech there on October 9, 1845. The third plaque adorned Nell Gwynn House, South Kensington in London, where Douglass lives with British abolitionist George Thompson.

Return to the United States

Upon returning to the United States in 1847, Douglass began publishing his first abolitionist newspaper, North Star, from the basement of the Memorial AME Zion Church in Rochester, New York. The North Star motto is "Right is not Sex - No Truth Color - God is the Father of all of us, and we are all brothers." The AME Church and the North Star have vigorously opposed the mostly white Caucasian Society and the proposal to send blacks back to Africa. This and the slavery papers later Douglass was mainly funded by British supporters, who gave Douglass five hundred pounds to use as he chose. Douglass also soon split with Garrison, probably because North Star competed with Garrison National Anti-Slavery Standard and Marius Robinson Anti-Slavery Bugle .

Douglass also considers Garrison too radical. Douglass had previously agreed with Garrison's position that the Constitution was pro-slavery, because of the compromise associated with the division of the seat of Congress, based on a partial count of the slave population to the total state; and protection of international slave trade until 1807. Garrison has burned a copy of the Constitution to express his opinion. But Lysander Spooner publishes The Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1846), which explores the US Constitution as an anti-slavery document. Douglass's change of opinion on the Constitution and its separation from Garrison around 1847 became one of the most important divisions in the abolitionist movement. Douglass angered Garrison by saying that the Constitution could and should be used as a tool in the war against slavery.

In September 1848, Douglass published an open letter addressed to his former master, Thomas Auld, dismissing him for his conduct, and asking after his family members were still detained by Auld. In the graphical section, Douglass asks Auld how he feels when Douglass comes to bring his daughter Amanda as a slave, treats her as he and his family members have been treated by Auld.

Women's rights

In 1848, Douglass was the only African-American to attend the Seneca Falls Convention, the first women's rights convention, in northern New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton asked the assembly to pass a resolution calling for women's suffrage. Many of those present were against the idea, including influential Quakers James and Lucretia Mott. Douglass stands up and speaks eloquently; he says that he can not accept the right to vote as a black man if a woman can not also claim that right. He suggested that the world would be a better place if women were involved in the political sphere.

In denial of the right to participate in this government, not only the degradation of women and the perpetuation of the great injustices that took place, but the defect and rejection of half of the moral and intellectual power of world governments.

After strong words of Douglass, the participants passed the resolution.

Also behind the Seneca Falls Convention, Douglass uses an editorial place in his newspaper, the North Star, to press the case for women's rights in this public place. The article doubled: he recalled the "obvious ability and dignity" of the process and briefly conveyed some of the feminist conventions and ideas at the time.

At first count, Douglass admits "courtesy" of the participants in the face of the dispute. The final round discusses the main documents emerging from the conference, the Sentiment Declaration, and his own discussion of the causes of "baby" feminists. Conspicuously, he expressed the belief that "[a] discussion of animal rights would be considered far more complacent... than a discussion of women's rights," and Douglass noted the relationship between abolisionism and feminism, overlapping between communities.

His opinion as a leading editor of the paper is likely to carry a burden, and he states the North Star position explicitly: "[w] e hold women to justly be entitled to everything we claim to humans." This letter, written a week after the convention, reaffirms the first part of the newspaper slogan, "there really is no sex."

Then, after the Civil War when the 15th Amendment to liberate and free the blacks the right to vote was disputed, Douglass parted ways with Stanton-led factions of the women's rights movement. Douglass endorsed the amendment, which would grant blacks the right to vote. Stanton opposed the 15th Amendment for limiting the extension of suffrage for blacks; he estimates that his share will delay for decades the cause of women's right to vote. Stanton argues that American women and black men must unite to fight for universal suffrage, and oppose any bill that separates the matter. Douglass and Stanton both knew that there was not enough male support for women's suffrage, but an amendment that gave blacks, voting could pass in the late 1860s. Stanton wants to attach women's suffrage to black men so that his struggle will be brought to success.

Douglass thinks such a strategy is too risky, that there is virtually no sufficient support for black men's suffrage. He was afraid that linking the cause of women's suffrage with black men would result in failure for both. Douglass argues that white women, who have been empowered by their social relationships with fathers, husbands, and brothers, have at least a representative voice. African-American women, she believes, will have the same level of empowerment as white women when African-American men have a voice. Douglass convinced American women that he never opposed women's right to vote.

Douglass purifies his ideology

Meanwhile, in 1851, Douglass merged the North Star with Gerrit Smith's Liberty Party Paper to form Frederick Douglass' Paper, published until 1860. [

On July 5, 1852, Douglass delivered a speech to the women at the Rochester Anti-Slavery Sewing Society. This speech was eventually known as "What should slave is July 4?"; a biographer called it "probably the largest anti-slavery oration ever given." In 1853, he was a prominent participant of the African American National Convention in Washington. His is one of 5 names attached to the convention address for the United States people published under the heading, The Claims of Our Common Cause , along with Amos NoÃÆ'Â «Freeman, James Monroe Whitfield, Henry O. Wagoner, and George Boyer Vashon.

Like many abolitionists, Douglass believes that education will be very important for African Americans to improve their lives. This led Douglass to be an early supporter for school desegregation. In the 1850s, Douglass observed that New York's facilities and instructions for African-American children were much lower than that of whites. Douglass called for court action to open all schools for all children. He says that full inclusion in the education system is a more pressing need for African-Americans than political issues such as voting rights.

On March 12, 1859, Douglass met with John Brown's radical extermination, George DeBaptiste, and others at William Webb's home in Detroit to discuss emancipation. Douglass met Brown again, when Brown visited his home two months before leading an attack on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, Virginia. However, Douglass disagrees with Brown's plan to start an armed slave uprising in the South. Douglass believes that invading federal property will infuriate the American public. After the attack, Douglass fled for a while to Canada, fearing guilt by the association as well as the arrest as a conspirator. Years later, Douglass shared the stage at Harpers Ferry with Andrew Hunter, the prosecutor who ensured Brown's conviction and execution.

In March 1860, while Douglass was once again traveling in England, his youngest daughter Annie died in Rochester, New York. Douglass sailed back from England the following month, traveling through Canada to avoid detection.

Photography

Douglass considers photography to be very important in ending slavery and racism, and believes that cameras will not lie, even in the hands of racist white people, since photographs are an excellent tribute to many racist caricatures, especially in blackface minstrelsy. He was the most photographed American in the 19th century, consciously using photography to advance his political views. He never smiled, especially not to play in the racist caricature of a happy slave. He tends to look directly into the camera to face the audience, with a firm look.

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Religious view

As a child, Douglass was exposed to a number of religious sermons, and in his youth he sometimes heard Sophia Auld read the Bible. Later, he became interested in literacy; he began reading and copying Bible passages, and he eventually became a Christian. He describes this approach in his last biography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass :

I am no more than thirteen years old, when in solitude and destitution I miss someone I can meet, like a father and a protector. The preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson, is the means by which I feel that in God I have a friend like that. He thinks that all human beings, big and small, bondage and freedom, are sinners before God: that they naturally rebel against his rule; and that they should repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God through Christ. I can not say that I have a very different idea of ​​what is required of me, but one thing I know well: I have been wretched and have no means to make myself the opposite. I consulted a nice old man named Charles Lawson, and with a tone of pure affection he told me to pray, and to "give all my attention to God." This is what I am trying to do; and for weeks I was a poor man, a broken-hearted priest, traveling through doubt and fear, I finally found my burden to be light, and my heart was relieved. I love all mankind, slave owners are not excluded, even though I hate slavery more than ever. I see the world in a new light, and my great concern is to get everyone to repent. My desire for learning increases, and most of all, whether I want to get acquainted with the Bible.

Douglass is mentored by Rev. Charles Lawson, and, early in his activity, he often included biblical allegories and religious metaphors in his speeches. Although a believer, he strongly criticizes religious hypocrisy and accuses slaves of crime, lack of morality, and failure to follow the Golden Rule. In this sense, Douglass distinguishes between "Christian Christianity" and "American Christianity" and considers the holders of religious slaves and pastors who defend slavery as the most brutal, sinful, and cynical of all who represent "the wolf in sheep's clothing."

Notably, in the famous speech given at the Corinthian Hall of Rochester, he sharply criticized the religious attitudes of silence about slavery, and declared that religious ministers abused when they taught him as sanctioned by religion. He considers that the law authorized to support slavery is "one of the gravest offenses of Christian Freedom" and says that pro-slavery ministers in the American Church "strip God's love of its beauty, and abandon the great, disgusting form ", and" an abomination in the eyes of God ". Ministers like John Chase Lord, Leonard Elijah Lathrop, Ichabod Spencer, and Orville Dewey, he said they taught, against Scripture, that "we must obey the law of men before the law of God." He further asserted, "in speaking of the American church, however, let it be clearly understood that I mean the great mass of religious organizations in our land." There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are noble ones to be found. scattered throughout North America... Henry Ward Beecher from Brooklyn, Samuel J. May from Syracuse, and my esteemed friend [Robert R. Raymonde] ". He maintains that "upon these men there is a duty to inspire our ranks with high faith and religious fervor, and to encourage us in the great mission of the redemption of slaves from His chain." In addition, he called on religious people to embrace abolitionism, stating, "Let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, conference meetings, great ecclesial associations, missionaries, the Bible, and the tracts of the land extend their great powers to slavery and hold slaves, and the whole system of evil and blood will spread to the wind. "

During his visit to England between 1846 and 1848, Douglass asked British Christians to never support American Churches who allowed slavery, and he expressed his joy to know that a group of ministers in Belfast refused to accept slave owners as members of the Church.

Upon his return to the United States, Douglass founded the North Star, a weekly publication with the motto "The right of no gender, Truth no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren." Douglass then wrote the letter to his former slave, where he denounced him for leaving an illiterate Douglass family:

Your crimes and cruelty committed in this respect to fellow beings, are greater than all the lines you put on my back or them. It is the anger of the soul, the war against the eternal spirit, and the one that you have to hold in the bar of our Father and Creator together.

Sometimes regarded as the forerunner of a non-denominational liberation theology, Douglass is a very spiritual man, as his home continues to show. The mantelpiece features a statue of two of his favorite philosophers, David Friedrich Strauss, author of The Life of Jesus, and Ludwig Feuerbach, author of "The Essence of Christianity". In addition to several Bibles and books on various religions in the library, pictures of angels and Jesus are shown, as well as photos of the interior and exterior of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church of Washington. Throughout his life, Douglass attributes the individual's experience to social reform, and like other Christian exterminations, he follows practices such as avoiding tobacco, alcohol, and other substances that he believes harm the body and soul.

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Year of the Civil War

Before the Civil War

At the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the country's most famous blacks, known for his oratory about black race conditions and other issues such as women's rights. His eloquence gathered a lot of people in every location. His acceptance by leaders in England and Ireland adds to his stature.

Fight for emancipation and suffrage

Douglass and the abolitionists argue that since the purpose of the Civil War was to end slavery, African-Americans should be allowed to engage in the struggle for their freedom. Douglass published this view in the newspapers and several of his speeches. In August 1861, Douglass published a report on the First Run Battle, noting that there were some blacks already in the Confederate ranks. A few weeks later, Douglass raised the topic again, quoting a battle witness who said they saw a black Confederacy "with a gun on a shoulder and a bullet in their pocket." Douglass conferred with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 about the treatment of black troops, and with President Andrew Johnson on the issue of black suffrage.

The proclamation of President Lincoln's Emancipation, which came into force on 1 January 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in the Confederate-held territory. (Slaves in Union-controlled areas and Northern states were freed with the adoption of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865.) Douglass illustrates the spirit of the people waiting for the proclamation: "We are waiting and listening as a sign from heaven...we watch... by the dim stars' light for the dawn of a new day... we yearn for answers to painful prayers for centuries. "

During the US Presidential Election of 1864, Douglass supported John C. FrÃÆ'Ã… © mont, who was a candidate of the abolitionist Radical Democratic Party. Douglass was disappointed that President Lincoln did not openly support the right to vote for black free men. Douglass believes that since African-American men fight for the Union in the American Civil War, they are entitled to vote.

With the North no longer obliged to return slaves to its owners in the South, Douglass fought for equality for his subjects. He made plans with Lincoln to move freed slaves out of the South. During the war, Douglass also assisted Unity by serving as a recruiter to the 54th Infantry Infantry Regiment. His eldest son, Charles Douglass, joined the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, but was ill for most of his ministry. Lewis Douglass fought at the Battle of Fort Wagner. Another child, Frederick Douglass Jr., also served as a recruiter.

After Lincoln's death

Ratification of the post-war (1865) of the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery. The 14th Amendment is granted for the same citizenship and protection under the law. The 15th Amendment protects all citizens from discrimination in vote because of race.

On April 14, 1876, Douglass delivered a keynote speech at the opening of the Emancipation Warning in Lincoln Park, Washington. In the speech, Douglass spoke frankly about Lincoln, noting what he regarded as the positive and negative attributes of the late President. Calling Lincoln "the white man's president", Douglass criticized Lincoln's inaction to join the cause of emancipation, noting that Lincoln initially opposed the expansion of slavery but did not support its abolition. But Douglass also asked, "Can a colored man, or a white man who is friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night that followed the first day of January 1863, when the world wanted to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove as good as his words?" said: "Even though Mr. Lincoln shares his prejudices against his white compatriots against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart he hates and hates slavery...."

The crowd, awakened by his speech, gave Douglass a standing ovation. The Lincoln widow, Mary Lincoln, should have given Lincoln's favorite rod to Douglass in recognition. The walking stick is still located in Douglass's last residence, "Cedar Hill", now preserved as the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

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The reconstruction era

After the Civil War, Douglass continued to work for equality for African-Americans and women. Due to his excellence and activism during the war, Douglass received some political promises. He served as president of the Savings Bank Freedman Reconstruction era. Douglass also became chargÃÆ'Â Â d'affaires for the Dominican Republic, but withdrew from that position after two years out of disagreement with US government policy.

Meanwhile, white rebels quickly emerged in the South after the war, first set up as secret gangster groups, including the Ku Klux Klan. Armed guerrillas take on different forms. Strong paramilitary groups including the White League and the Red Shirts, both active during the 1870s at the Southern End. They operate as "the military arm of the Democratic Party", change the Republican office and disrupt the election. More than 10 years after the end of the war, Democrats regained political power in every former Confederate state and began to reassert white supremacy. They apply this to a combination of violence, the late nineteenth-century law that imposes a separation and a concerted effort to uproot African-American suffrage. New labor and criminal laws also restrict their freedom.

In an attempt to combat this effort, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. In 1870, Douglass began his latest newspaper, The New National Era, trying to defend his country for his commitment. equality. President Grant sent a commission sponsored by Congress, accompanied by Douglass, on a mission to the West Indies to investigate whether the annexation of Santo Domingo would be good for the United States. The grant believes annexation will help ease the situation of violence in the South that allows African Americans their own country. Douglass and the commission support annexation, however, Congress remains opposed to annexation. Douglass criticizes Senator Charles Sumner, who opposes annexation, stating that if Sumner continues to oppose annexation he would "regard it as the worst enemy of colored race on this continent."

After a part-time election, Grant signed the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Clan Act), and the second and third Act of Enforcement. Grant used their terms vigorously, suspended habeas corpus in South Carolina and sent troops there and to other countries. Under his leadership more than 5,000 arrests were made. Grant's power in disrupting the Clan made him unpopular among many whites, but earned Douglass praise. A colleague of Douglass writes about Grant that African-Americans "will always remember his memory of his name, fame, and exceptional service."

In 1872, Douglass became the first African American to be nominated as Vice President of the United States, as a pair of Victoria Woodhull on Equal Rights Party tickets. He was nominated without his knowledge. Douglass does not campaign for tickets or admits that he has been nominated. That year, he was the general presidential electorate for the State of New York, and took the country's vote to Washington, D.C.

However, during that year his home on South Avenue in Rochester, New York, was on fire; arson suspect. The complete problem of North Star is missing. Douglass then moved to Washington, D.C.

Throughout the Reconstruction era, Douglass continues to speak, and emphasizes the importance of proper work, voting power and exercise of suffrage. Douglass's stellar speech for 25 years after the end of the Civil War emphasized the work to combat racism that was prevalent in unions. In a speech delivered on November 15, 1867, Douglass said: "The rights of a man lie in three boxes, ballot boxes, jury boxes and cartridge boxes, do not allow people to be kept from the ballot box because of their color. sex. "Douglass speaks at many colleges across the country. These included Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in 1873.

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Family life

Douglass and Anna have five children: Rosetta Douglass, Lewis Henry Douglass, Frederick Douglass Jr., Charles Remond Douglass, and Annie Douglass (died at the age of ten). Charles and Rosetta helped produce the newspapers. Anna Douglass remains a loyal supporter of her husband's public work, although Douglass's relationship with Julia Griffiths and Ottilie Assing, the two women professionally involved with him, caused speculation and repetitive scandal.

After Anna died in 1882, in 1884 Douglass remarried, with Helen Pitts, a white suffragist and abolitionist from Honeoye, New York. Pitts is the daughter of Gideon Pitts Jr., a bondage colleague and friend of Douglass. Graduates of Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), Pitts worked on a radical feminist publication named Alpha while living in Washington, DC Marriage provoked a storm of controversy, because Pitts was white and almost 20 years younger than Douglass. Her family stopped talking to her; her children consider the marriage as their mother's rejection. However, Elizabeth Cady Stanton's feminist congratulated the couple. Douglass responded to the criticism by saying that his first marriage was in the color of his mother, and the second to someone who resembled his father.

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The last year in Washington, D.C.

The Freedman Savings Bank went bankrupt on June 29, 1874, just months after Douglass became president at the end of March. During the same economic crisis, his latest paper, New National Era , failed in September. When Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was elected President, Douglass accepted the appointment as the United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, which helped ensure the financial security of his family.

In 1877, Douglass visited Thomas Auld, who was then on his deathbed, and the two men reconciled. Douglass had met with Auld's daughter, Amanda Auld Sears, several years earlier; he had requested a meeting and then attended and encouraged one of Douglass's speeches. Her father praised her for reaching out to Douglass. The visit also seems to have brought the closure to Douglass, although some people criticized his efforts.

That same year, Douglass bought a house that would be the family's last home in Washington D.C., on a hill over the Anacostia River. She and Anna named it Cedar Hill (also spelled CedarHill ). They expand the house from 14 to 21 rooms, and include china cabinets. One year later, Douglass bought adjoining land and expanded the property to 15 hectares (61,000 m²). The house is now preserved as the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

In 1881, Douglass published the final edition of his autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, and received another political appointment, as the Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. However, Anna Murray-Douglass died in 1882, leaving a devastated widow. After a period of mourning, Douglass discovered a new meaning of working with activist Ida B. Wells. He also remarried in 1884, as mentioned above.

Douglass also continued his lectures and journeys, both in the United States and abroad. Together with his new wife, Helen, Douglass traveled to England, Ireland, France, Italy, Egypt and Greece from 1886 to 1887. Douglass is also known for advocating Irish House Rules and supporting Charles Stewart Parnell in Ireland.

At the Republican National Convention of 1888, Douglass became the first African-American to receive a vote for the President of the United States in the voting voices of the party. That year, Douglass spoke at Claflin College, a black college in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and the oldest institution in the state.

Many African-Americans, called the exodus, fled the Clans and racial discrimination laws in the South by moving to the big cities in the north, as well as to places like Kansas where some formed cities that were all black to have a greater degree of freedom and autonomy. Douglass does not like this, or the Back-to-Africa movement, which he says is similar to the American Colonization Society that he fought for in his youth. In 1892, at a conference in Indianapolis hosted by Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, Douglass spoke out against the separatist movement, urging blacks to survive. He made a similar speech as early as 1879, and was criticized both by fellow leaders and some spectators, who even scorned him for this position. Speaking in Baltimore in 1894, Douglass said, "I hope and believe everything will come out in the end, but the future soon looks dark and troubled, I can not close my eyes to the bad facts before me."

President Harrison appointed Douglass to become minister and consul-general of the United States for the Republic of Haiti and ChargÃÆ' Â d'Affaires for Santo Domingo in 1889, but Douglass resigned in July 1891. In 1893, Haiti made Douglass a commissioner of his pavilion at the Columbia World Exposition in Chicago.

In 1892, Douglass built rental housing for blacks, now known as Douglass Place, in the Fells Point area of ​​Baltimore. The complex still exists, and in 2003 it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Death

On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Women's Council in Washington, D.C. During the meeting, he was taken to the platform and received a standing ovation. Not long after he returned home, Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart attack. He's 77 years old.

His funeral was held at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Thousands of people pass through coffins to show their respect. Although Douglass has attended several churches in the nation's capital, he has a bench here and donated two candelabras standing when the church moved to a new building in 1886. He also gave many lectures there, including his last major speech, "Lessons from the clock. "

Douglass's coffin was moved back to Rochester, New York, where he lived for 25 years, longer than anywhere else in his life. She was buried next to Anna in the Douglass family's plot at Mount Hope Cemetery, and Helen joined them in 1903.

Inheritance and honor

Roy Finkenbine berpendapat:

Africa's most influential African American in the nineteenth century, Douglass's career thrilled American conscience. He spoke and wrote on behalf of the causes of reform: women's rights, simplicity, peace, land reform, free general education, and abolition of the death penalty. Yet he devoted most of his time, extraordinary talent, and unlimited energy to end slavery and earned equal rights for African-Americans. This is the focus of his long reform career. Douglass understands that the struggle for emancipation and equality demands strong, persistent, and unyielding agitation. And he admits that African-Americans must play a prominent role in the struggle. Less than a month before his death, when a young black man asked his advice to an African American who had just started in the world, Douglass answered without hesitation: "Agitation! Agitation! Agitation!"

Scholarship:

• Douglass, Frederick (1857). Slavery and freedom: Part I. Life as a slave, Part II. Live as a free person . New York, Auburn: Miller, Orton.
Douglas, Frederick (1892). The life and time of Frederick Douglass, written by himself . Boston, De Wolfe & amp; Fiske Co.
• Chaffin, Tom. Giant's Causeway: Frederick Douglass Irish Odyssey and Making of an American Visionary. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2014.
• Foner, Philip Sheldon. Frederick Douglass: The Choice of His Writing . New York: International Publishers. 1945.
• Foner, Philip Sheldon. Life and Writing from Frederick Douglass . New York: International Publishers, 1950.
• Gates Jr., Henry Louis, ed. Frederick Douglass, Autobiography. American Library, 1994.
• Gregory, James Monroe. Frederick Douglass the Orator: Contains His Life Account; Superior Public Service; His Brilliant Career as an Orator; Selection of Speech and Writing . Willey & amp; Company, 1893.
• Baker Jr., Houston A. "Introduction," The Narrative of Frederick Douglass's Life , New York: Penguin, 1986 edition.
• Finkenbine, Roy E. "Douglass, Frederick"; American National Biography Online February 2000. Access Date: March 16, 2016; short scientific biography.
• Huggins, Nathan Irvin, and Oscar Handlin. Slave and Citizen: The Life of Frederick Douglass. American Biographies Library. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980.
• Lampe, Gregory P. Frederick Douglass: Sound of Freedom. Series of Rhetoric and Public Affairs. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press, 1998.
• Levine, Robert S. Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and Political Identity Representatives. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
• NcFeely, William (2017) [1991]. Frederick Douglass . New York: W.W. Norton.
• McMillen, Sally Gregory. Seneca Falls and the origins of the women's rights movement. Oxford University Press, 2008.
• Oakes, James. Radicals and Republicans: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and Anti-Slavery Political Victory. New York: W. W. Norton, 2007.
• Quarles, Benjamin. Frederick Douglass. Washington: Associated Publishers, 1948.
• Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; edited by Theodore Stanton and Harriot Stanton Blatch. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, As Revealed in Her Letters, Diary, and Memories , Harper & amp; Brother, 1922.
• Vogel, Todd, ed. The Black Press: Literary Essay and New History . New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001.
• Webber, Thomas, Deep Like Rivers: Education in the Slave Quarter Community 1831-1865. New York: W. W. Norton & amp; Company, Inc. (1978).
• Woodson, C. G., Negro Education Before 1861: History of Color Education of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War . New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1915.

For young readers:

• Miller, William. Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery . Illus. by Cedric Lucas. Lee & amp; Low Books, 1995.
• Weidt, Maryann N. Voice of Freedom: The Story of Frederick Douglass. Illus. by Jeni Reeves. Lerner Publications, 2001.

Documentary:

• Frederick Douglass and White Negro [videorecording]/Writer/Director John J Doherty, produced by Camel Productions, Ireland. Irish Film Board/TG4/BCI.; 2008
• Frederick Douglass [videorecording]/produced by Greystone Communications, Inc. for A & amp; E Network; executive producers, Craig Haffner and Donna E. Lusitana.; 1997
• Frederick Douglass: When the Lost Lion History [videorecording]/co-production ROJA Productions and WETA-TV.
• Frederick Douglass, Abolitionist Editor [videorecording]/production Schlessinger Video Productions.
• Race to Freedom [videorecording]: Underground Railroad/an Atlantis story

External links

the source of Douglass online

• Fourth of July Speech, "What should a slave be July 4 ?," July 5, 1852
• Letter to Thomas Auld (3 September 1848)
• The Frederick Douglass Papers Edition : Douglass's Complete Jobs Critical Edition, including speeches, autobiographies, letters, and other writings.
• Works by Frederick Douglass at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Frederick Douglass in the Internet Archive
• Works by Frederick Douglass on LibriVox (public domain audiobook)
• Works by Frederick Douglass on the Online Book Page
• The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave. Written by Himself. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1845.
• Heroic Slaves. From Autographs for Freedom , Ed. Julia Griffiths. Boston: John P. Jewett and Company. Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor, and Worthington. London: Low and Company., 1853.
• My Slavery and My Freedom. Part I. Live as a Slave. Part II. Live as a Freeman. New York: Miller, Orton & amp; Mulligan, 1855.
• Life and Time Frederick Douglass: Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Slavery, and Full History Until Now . Hartford, Conn: Park Publishing Co., 1881.
• Frederick Douglass's Lecture on Haiti - Given on t

  Source of the article : Wikipedia