Fredrick douglass Flashcards
Fredrick Douglass bio
Fredrick was born as Fredrick Augustus Washington Bailey in Maryland, to an “unknown” White father and a black mother. He ended up in bondage at the age of 6. He taught himself to read from disguarded newspapers and ended up starting an informal school to educate other slaves, this was broken up.
Douglass escapes from slavery with the free papers of a black seaman he met in Baltimore. He traveled to NY, met his wife and had 5 kids
He ended up lecturing about slavery and its evils and working with White abolition advocate William Lloyd Garrison who owned the liberator. Douglass was well spoken and some of his white allies thought he may lose credibility, because of it. One even said, he needed a little of that “plantation in him” Douglass hoped this 144 page auto biography would put they to rest.
As a fugitive slave, he traveled to Britain after his autobiography due to fear of being captured. Because his book was so popular. His English friends helped him purchase his freedom and he moved back to America.
He ended up having a falling out with Garrison because he got more radical(in terms of advocating violence to end slavery and focused also on voting and women’s rights, where as garrison was purely slavery focused)
Douglass also hid slaves in his Rochester home, to help with the Underground Railroad.
Douglass was involved in planning for John Browns raid and financially contributed to it. He fled to Canada after it failed cuz he was scared he’d get in trouble. He obviously came back to America
Douglass worked with Lincoln to convince him to have blacks fight in the civil war to help prove our patriotism
Douglass was a loyal republican and worked for Benjamin Harrison and Rutherford B Hayes.
The 1870s was a rough decade for Douglass. His wife died, his house burned down(losing much of his stuff) and he managed the Freedman savings bank to help slaves get right financially during reconstruction. However, shortly after he took it over, it went under.
2 years after his wife died, Douglass remarried his white secretary.
after slavery was abolished, he focused on anti-lynching and voting rights.
