Today in class, the class was divided up into pro-slavery historic figures, and anti-slavery historic figures. Luckily for me, I was given the anti-slavery historic figure and chose an important man in time that many know, Frederick Douglass.
Frederick Douglass was born in February, 1818, and the exact date is not given because many slaves didn’t get a birthday, but later on in life he chose to celebrate it on February 14th. Douglass made a resolution that he would be free by the end of the year and planned an escape, but unfortunately early in April he was jailed after his plan was discovered. Eventually, Douglass escaped slavery in Maryland, and became a national leader of the abolishment movement in Massachussetts and New York. Not only did Douglass care about black lives he also stood and spoke in favor of women’s suffrage. He said that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man if women could not also claim that right. Douglass looked up to William Lloyd Garrison, who was a white abolitionist leader and became Douglass’ mentor. But Douglass did not always see eye to eye with Garrison, Garrison believed the Declaration of Independence was written against black lives and needed to be rewritten, and Douglass believed that there were only a few things needed to be tweaked and that it wasn’t anti-black. In 1845, in Lynn, Massachusetts, Douglass published his first book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. He then published several more narratives, a few being, My Bondage and My Freedom, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. He then took a two year trip to England and Ireland and gave many lectures in churches and chapels.
After many world impacts Fredrick Douglass was a man that changed the world, he passed away on February, 20, 1895, and the world lost a good man.
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