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Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass


On an unknown date in 1817, on a slave plantation in Tuckahoe Maryland,
Frederick August Washington Bailey was born. Frederick was raised in a house on
the plantation with all the other slave children. At the age of seven, like
many other slaves, Frederick was put to work in the fields. As a young child he
would wonder why he was a slave, and why everyone can't be equal. His thoughts
frequently came back to him, leaving him with a great hatred for slavery. In
1836, Frederick had finally had enough of his imprisonment, and attempted an
escape with many other slaves. The escape was not successful, Frederick and the
other slaves were sent to work in a shipyard hauling crates. Frederick worked
the shipyard for two years until he had another great escape idea, this one
would work though. The sailing papers of a sailor had been borrowed, and
disguised as a sailor, Frederick Douglass made his escape to New Bedford,
Massachusetts. Upon his arrival, Frederick took up his new assumed last name
Douglass, to escape being captured. In 1841, Frederick attended an anti-slavery
convention in Nantucket Massachusetts. Here, his impromptu speech he gave
showed him to be a great speaker. The opponents of Frederick believed that he
was never a slave, because of his great speaking skills and knowledge. In
response to this, Frederick wrote his life story in his book _Life and Times of
Frederick Douglass_. Frederick made a fatal mistake though, he had used the name
of his old master on the slave plantation. Upon learning of this, his old master
sent slave catchers to New England to bring him back. Fearing a life of slavery
again, Frederick fled to England. Here in England, he gave many lectures on the
abolitionists movement, and earned sufficient funds to buy his freedom in
America. In 1847, Frederick became the "station master" of the Underground
Railroad in Rochester, New York. Here he also began publishing his anti-slavery
newspaper, The North Star....