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Primary Source: My Bondage and My Freedom

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Primary Source: My Bondage and My Freedom

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Book by Frederick Douglas

“To enslave men, successfully and safely, it is necessary to have their minds occupied with thoughts and aspirations short of the liberty of which they are deprived. A certain degree of attainable good must be kept before them.”

“The white slave had taken from him by indirection what the black slave had taken from him directly and without ceremony. Both were plundered, and by the same plunderers. The slave was robbed by his master of all his earnings, above what was required for his bare physical necessities, and the white laboring man was robbed by the slave system, of the just results of his labor, because he was flung into competition with a class of laborers who worked without wages. The slaveholders blinded them to this competition by keeping alive their prejudice against the slaves as men--not against them as slaves.”

“There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so destructive as slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters strangers to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded my father in mystery, and left me without an intelligible beginning in the world.”

“Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these excellent qualities, and her home of its early happiness. Conscience cannot stand much violence.”

“A man who will enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for magnanimity.”

“We were both victims to the same overshadowing evil—she, as mistress, I, as slave.”

- Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom

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Read by Danny Glover

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Voices of a People's History of the United States

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Drunk History Video Clip

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Don Cheadle & Zooey Deschanel Drunk History

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Will Ferrell & Zach Galifianakis Debate Children

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Drunk History Vol. 5 w/ Will Ferrell, Don Cheadle & Zooey Deschanel

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Become a fan on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/funnyordie Watch the story of how the friendship of Abraham Lincoln (Will Ferrell) and Fredrick Douglass (Don Cheadle) overcame the slavery movement and the racism that existed in their day. Mary Todd Lincoln (Zooey Deschanel) also stars in this epic re-telling of a true American story.

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A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

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A Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

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The Newberry

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From Padre Steve's World

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Paving the way for civil rights and equality

Born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland in 1818, Frederick Douglass became one of the most famous influential thinkers of his time. He is essential to American history because of his work as an abolitionist, women's rights advocate, and civil rights leader. Had it not been for Frederick, we would not have had The Emancipation Proclamation, African-American Union soldiers, and his wide-spread speeches and publications who touched the lives of all Americans. Self-taught in reading and writing, he paved the way for black education. Without leaders like Frederick Douglass, slavery would not have ended so quickly, and the progression of civil rights and equality would have been exponentially halted.

Douglass' exact birth date is unknown, but he declared his birth date to be on February 14th since his mother, Harriet Bailey, always referred to him as "my valentine." His father is presumed to be white slave owner, Aaron Anthony. From an early age, he was separated from his mother to go live with his grandmother, as this was thought to keep younger, child-bearing women on the field more productive while the older women raised the children. Frederick's mother was the only known slave in the area who could read and write. Frederick had 12 other brothers and sisters that his grandmother looked over. He suffered cruel treatments on Captain Aaron Anthony's plantation; The Why House or otherwise known as Great House. Things began to look up when he was sent to Baltimore, Maryland to the Auld family plantation.

Young Frederick would walk with Thomas Auld, the slave owner's child to school, and everyday he would hear about what they learned in class that day. Slowly, he began to learn the basics of reading and writing. The wife of Hugh Auld, Sophia, was very kind to Frederick. Mrs. Auld recognized Frederick's early abilities to read and write, so she cultivated this by teaching him more until her husband and her got into an argument one day. Mr. Auld argued that a slave would no longer want to be a slave if he were educated. Sophia stopped teaching him, but this only furthered Frederick's desire to learn and gain wisdom to reach freedom.

Everywhere young Frederick went, he carried his Webster's dictionary. He would ask the neighborhood school children to teach him from the book in exchange for food. He was able to purchase his own journal after discovering The Columbian Orator. He learned about the term "abolition" when he began reading newspaper articles.

One Sunday, Frederick was asked to assist in helping teach scripture to the slaves, he was very excited to do this, but it was quickly broken up by his later owner Thomas Auld and a group of white men. With constant thoughts of freedom, Frederick was deemed as unfit to work on his plantation, so he was sent to a slave breaker.

Edward Covey broke down Frederick both mentally and physically with 6 months of straight beatings. Until one day, Covey got the beating of a lifetime from Frederick, which rejuvenated his will and spirit. He became a force to be reckoned with. He was then sent to the kindest of all the slave owners, William Freeman, here Frederick would hold secret Sabbath School in which he would teach slaves to read and write. It was so popular he would have 40 people attending each week.

After a failed attempt to escape and a severe beating, Frederick was able to gain a bit more independence with an apprentice job, but was still dissatisfied with only this small independence. He began planning another escape. The only way to escape was to obtain free papers. A friend who was a sailor lent Frederick his papers, both a risk for him and the sailor.

September 3rd, 1838, he boarded the ship and was knowledgeable in ships and how sailors spoke. He reached New York in less than 24 hours by going through slave states by train and ship. Once in New York, he met a sailor named Stuart who took him to David Ruggles, the Secretary of the Vigilance Committee of the Underground Railroad. In NY he married Ana Murray and had several children when they settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was now a free man.

The next couple of years as a free man is still made very difficult by racist white northerners. He is only able to find small, temporary jobs to make ends meet. In 1840 he becomes subscribed to The Liberator by abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison and becomes involved in anti-slavery meetings. Eventually, he attended the largest anti-slavery gathering in Nantucket. There he met William Coffin who encouraged him to speak of his first hand experience as a slave; this was the beginning of his many speeches over his lifetime. This first speech launched his career as a public speaker, civil rights leader, and abolitionist. Douglass was offered a job as an agent for the Massachusetts Antislavery Society. His job was to tour the state to secure subscribers to the Liberator and give lectures. He did not stop his abolitionist activities until the day Lincoln declared all slaves free in 1861. After that date his goal was civil rights and equality for all African Americans.

Anti-Slavery sentiments in the north was on a rise. Popular opinion in the north began to shift even more towards freeing black men, mostly to oppose the south.

In 1845, Frederick Douglass published his autobiography, "The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass." One of his most famous works, recalling his life as a slave. Due to this book, he had to flea to England to avoid recapture. In 1847, he gathered enough money to begin his own abolitionist paper, "The North Star." 1848, Frederick attended first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls. He was very vocal in opposing the Fugitive Slaw Law and The Missouri Compromise. Frederick also had a vital role in Harper's Ferry when he aided John Brown with funds, equipment, and ammunition. In 1860,  he sat down with Abraham Lincoln to discuss the role of blacks in the Civil War since military service was important to citizenship and suffrage. Soon after, the 54th and 55th regiments of Massachusetts became the first colored regiments.

Throughout the years, Frederick Douglass helped and supported fugitive slaves escape through the underground railroad. After the Emancipation Proclamation, his employment with the Anti Slavery Society ended. However, Douglass continued to fight for equal rights and full citizenship for African Americans. He helped tremendously for the passage of Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

Frederick Douglass lived the 18 of his life in his Cedar Hill home in Anacostia, Washington D.C. He purchased the house in 1877 and paid $6,700 to the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company. He published his last autobiography of himself to describe how he escaped slavery, who helped him do it, and what he accomplished with the underground railroad in his works "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass."

During his later years, he had many government jobs. Eventually, Ana died and he controversially married again, but with a white woman.

February 20, 1895, after coming home from a meeting of the National Council of Women, he died suddenly of a heart attack. People from each corner of the country came to pay their respects to the man who left a mark on the world. He will always be remembered for his work as an abolitionist, civil rights leader, and public writer and speaker.

Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom. Published 1855. Accessed 28            November 2016.

Finkenbine, Roy E. Frederick Douglass. February 2000. American National
Biography Online. Accessed 26 November 2016. Retrieved from <http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00186.html>.

Frederick Douglass Biography. 27 November 2016. Encyclopedia of World                        Biography. Retrieved from <http://www.notablebiographies.com/De-Du/Douglass-Frederick.html>.

Frederick Douglass Timeline. 28 November 2016. World History Project. Retrieved
from <https://worldhistoryproject.org/topics/frederick-douglass>.

Timeline of the Life of Frederick Douglass. 27 November 2016. Frederick Douglas
Heritage. Retrieved from <http://www.frederick-douglass-              heritage.org/category/timeline/>.