Frederick+Douglass'+Life



=Frederick Douglass= 1818-1895 Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, later known as Frederick Douglass, was born in Talbot County Maryland in a small shack. Date of birth is unknown but it is believed he was born in February of 1818. Frederick Douglass was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey at birth. She later dies when Douglass is about seven. Douglass then lives with his grandmother Betty Bailey. The identification of Douglass’ father is unknown At age seven Douglass was separated from his grandmother. When he was twelve years old he ended up with Hugh and Sophia Auld. Sophia went against the law and her Husband Hugh when she began to teach Frederick the alphabet. After Douglass learned to read he began he was exposed to new thoughts that began to question slavery. Douglass eventually began teaching other slaves to read, word spread and slaves everywhere began to attempt to try and read. Douglass eventually ended up with Edward Covey, a poor farmer with a mean reputation. Here, Douglass was about sixteen years old and whipped regularly. One day, Douglass fought back to Covey, after winning the confrontation; Douglass was never assaulted by Covey again. After this Douglass attempted to escape slavery several times. He finally succeeded by boarding a train dressed as a sailor. In 1837 Douglass met a free black women named Anna Murray, They married shortly after Douglass; freedom. The two had five children together. They settled down in a 21 room, 15-acre house in Washington D.C. Douglass called it Cedar Hill. In 1882, Anna Murray Douglass died. Frederick later remarried in 1884 to Helen Pitts. Frederick Douglass began Traveled up to Massachusetts where he joined many organizations. He then began speaking at many places such as the American Anti-Slavery Society’s Hundred Conventions project, and the Seneca Falls Convention for women’s rights. Then around the time of the civil war, Douglass was a key factor in the fight for emancipation. Douglass argued that since the war was intended to end slavery, then slaves should be able to fight for their freedom. Douglass fought for equality of his people. Douglass attended the funeral of Abraham Lincoln and to his surprise, was asked to speak. Douglass delivered one of his most famous speeches. That speech wasn’t his most famous work of all though, that is his autobiography //Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas //s, published in 1845. Douglass began to produce a newspaper. Later in life, Douglass became an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1877 Douglass was appointed a United States Marshal. In 1881 Douglass was appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. In 1888, Douglass became the first African American to receive a vote for president. Douglass’ contributions are those of being a role model for many young black slaves during his time period. Also being on of the First African Americans to be published. Douglass was also a great speaker, and most of his speeches will not be forgotten. Frederick Douglass had a lot of criticism. He appealed variously to the political, sociological, and aesthetic interests of successive generations of critics; Douglass has maintained his celebrated reputation as an orator and prose writer. Douglass's critics viewed him primarily as a talented antislavery agitator whose abilities as a speaker and writer refuted the idea of black inferiority. This view persisted until the 1930s, when both Vernon Loggins and J. Saunders Redding called attention to the "intrinsic merit" of Douglass's writing and acknowledged him to be the most important figure in nineteenth-century black American literature. In the 1940s and 1950s, Alain Locke and Benjamin Quarles respectively pointed to the //Life and Times of// //Frederick Douglass // and the //Narrative// as classic works which symbolize the black role of protest and struggle in American life. Critics in recent years have studied douglass work's tone, structure, and placement in American literary history. As G. Thomas Couser has observed, “Douglass was a remarkable man who lived in an exceptionally tumultuous period in American history”.