Historical Figures Codexery

Frederick Douglass

Escaped slavery; became leading abolitionist orator and writer.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland around February 1818.[1] He escaped from slavery in 1838 and became a national leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining fame for his oratory and antislavery writings.[2] Abolitionists of his era pointed to Douglass as living proof that the notion of enslaved people being unable to function as independent citizens due to intellectual incapacity was false.[3]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

At age six, Douglass was moved to the Wye House plantation, and after Aaron Anthony died in 1826, he was sent to serve Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia in Baltimore.[4] Douglass continued secretly teaching himself to read and write, later often saying "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom"[5] Douglass successfully escaped on September 3, 1838, by boarding a northbound train in Baltimore, dressed in a sailor's uniform provided by Anna Murray.[6][7] Douglass wrote three autobiographies, with his first, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), becoming a bestseller.[8]

As an infant, Frederick was taken from his mother and raised by his enslaved grandmother Betsy Bailey and his free grandfather Isaac.[9] Covey stopped attempting to beat Douglass after Douglass bested him in a physical struggle.[10]

What the cited sources add

The National Park Service notes that after escaping, Frederick Douglass first lived at the Nathan and Polly Johnson house in New Bedford, Massachusetts.[11] The same source states that after Frederick Douglass passed away, his second wife Helen preserved Cedar Hill as a historic house museum.[11] Douglass's own autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, describes his religious conversion, where he consulted a man named Charles Lawson and was told to pray and "cast all my care upon God"[12][13]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Douglass, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself", Forgotten Books, 1845; Barker, Amanda. [1996]. "The Search for Frederick Douglass' Birthplace . Choptank River Heritage. Retrieved June 14, 2020. Although Barker's website devoted to ; Barker, Don. February 4, 2014. "The Search for Frederick Douglass's Birthplace ." Choptank River Heritage. Retrieved June 14, 2020.; "Frederick Douglass | Museums and Gardens." Talbot Historic Society. 2016. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. R en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gatewood, Willard B. Jr. 1981. "Frederick Douglass and the Building of a 'Wall of Anti-Slavery Fire,' 1845–1846. An Essay Review." The Florida Historical Quarte (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Stewart, Roderick M. (1999). "The Claims of Frederick Douglass Philosophically Considered." Frederick Douglass: A Critical Reader, B. E. Lawson and F. M. Kirkla (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Frederick Douglass | Museums and Gardens." Talbot Historic Society. 2016. Archived from the original on December 22, 2016. Retrieved December 22, 2016.; McFeely, "Frederick Douglass", W.W. Norton & Co., 1991, p. 12 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Appiah, Kwame Anthony. [2000] 2004. "Introduction." In <nowiki/>'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave' & 'Incidents in the Life of a S (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Today in African-American Transportation History – 1818: Frederick Douglass Begins His Journey into History", Transportation History, February 14, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Keita, "The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia", ABC-CLIO, 2010, p. 124; Yee, "Anna Murray Douglass (c. 1813–1882)", BlackPast.org, February 11, 2007; Martin, "The Mind of Frederick Douglass", University of North Carolina Press, 1984, p. 15 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Trotman, "Frederick Douglass: A Biography", Penguin Books, 2011, p. 118–119 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McFeely, "Frederick Douglass", W. W. Norton & Co., 1991, p. 3–5; Sterngass, Jon. 2009. Frederick Douglass, (Leaders of the Civil War era). Chelsea House Publishers. . p. 16 , 132 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bowers, Jerome. "Frederick Douglass ." Teachinghistory.org. US: Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. 2018. Retrieved June 14, 2020.; Sandefur, "Frederick Douglass's Vision of Manhood", theobjectivestandard.com, February 21, 2018 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  11. National Park Service. facts only, no text reused. nps.gov
  12. Douglass, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself, His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Compete History to the Present Time", Christian Age Office, 1881, p. 63. facts only, no text reused. archive.org
  13. Wikipedia, "Frederick Douglass" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Douglass, "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself, His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Compete History to the Present Time", Christian Age Office, 1881, p. 63; In the Citadel Press facsimile edition (Kensington Publishing Corp., 1983), the quotation is on pp. 82-83. In this version, in the first sentence, the first com (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Frederick Douglass (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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