For my extraordinary parentsBill and Carol Joneswhose energy and creativity inspire me every dayAJP
For my wife, Jessica. I couldnt ask for a better friendor research assistantRS
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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014039149
Ebook ISBN 9780698187245
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Contents
Who Was Frederick Douglass?
Frederick Douglass was born a slave. Just like a horse or a plow, he was the property of a white man. From a young age, Frederick wondered why that was so. Wasnt he as smart, strong, and deserving of liberty as anyone else?
At the time Frederick was born, in 1818, there were 1.5 million black slaves in the southern United States. Most didnt learn to read. This was against the law! But Frederick taught himself to read and write.
Most slaves didnt risk their lives to run away to freedom. This was against the law, too. But Frederick escaped and helped others do the same.
Most escaped slaves did not speak out against slavery. It was very dangerous to do so. But Frederick spoke up anyway.
With words as his weapons, Frederick spent his life fighting for equal rights for all people. He was the father of the civil rights movement
Chapter 1
A Young Slave
The man who became famous as Frederick Douglass was born in a log hut on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1818. His name at birth was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.
Fredericks mother, Harriet, was a slave, which meant Frederick was a slave, too. They were owned by a man named Aaron Anthony. The slaves called him Captain Anthony or Old Master. Who was Fredericks father? It may have been Captain Anthony. Frederick never knew for sure.
Captain Anthony owned three farms and about thirty slaves. He also managed the farms of a very rich man named Edward Lloyd. The Lloyd family owned thirteen farms and more than five hundred slaves. Captain Anthony lived on the Lloyds main farm, Wye House plantation. Some of Captain Anthonys slaves lived there with him. Others, including members of Fredericks family, were spread out across other farms.
Fredericks mother worked long hours in Captain Anthonys fields or in those of a neighbor who rented her. Frederick saw his mother only four or five times in his life. Instead, he lived with his grandparents, Isaac and Betsey Bailey. Isaac was a free black man, but Betsey was a slave. Her job was to care for her many young grandchildren until they were old enough to work.
Fredericks early years were happy ones. For a time, he knew little of slavery. He enjoyed fishing in a nearby stream and watching squirrels scamper about. His grandparents windowless cabin, with its clay floor and dirt-and-straw chimney, was small and rough. But to Frederick, it held the attractions of a palace.
Then one day Betsey brought him to work at Captain Anthonys. Betsey kept the reason for their journey a secret so as not to upset young Frederick. It was a twelve-mile walk, so his strong grandmother had to tote him on her shoulders now and then.
In the heat of the afternoon, they finally arrived at the grandest building Frederick had ever seen. Wye House was white, with stately pillars and a neatly trimmed lawn. The plantation sat on the Wye River and was like its own little village, with barns, stables, kitchens, blacksmiths and shoemakers shops, and more. Captain Anthony lived in a separate house on the property.
SLAVERY IN AMERICA
SLAVERY HAD BEEN PART OF AMERICAN HISTORY SINCE EARLY COLONIAL DAYS. THE FIRST BLACKS WERE KIDNAPPED FROM THEIR HOMELANDS IN WEST AFRICA AND BROUGHT TO VIRGINIA BY SHIP IN 1619. THE SLAVE TRADE CONTINUED FOR ALMOST TWO HUNDRED YEARS, UNTIL IT WAS OUTLAWED IN 1808. NO NEW SLAVES COULD BE BROUGHT INTO THE COUNTRY AFTER THIS TIME, BUT EXISTING SLAVES HAD CHILDREN. BY 1860, THERE WERE FOUR MILLION SLAVES IN THE SOUTHERN STATES, WHERE LARGE WHEAT, COTTON, TOBACCO, SUGAR, AND RICE PLANTATIONS DEPENDED ON SLAVE LABOR. IN THE NORTH, WHERE FARMS WERE SMALLER, SLAVERY WAS NOT AS COMMON OR AS PROFITABLE. FOR THIS AND OTHER REASONS, SLAVERY IN THE NORTH DIED OUT.
Rowdy slave children surrounded Frederick when he arrived at Wye House. Fredericks grandmother introduced him to his brother and two sisters, whom hed never met. Betsey encouraged Frederick to play with the children, and he finally, reluctantly, joined them. Sometime later, one of them ran up and hollered, Fed, Fed! Grandmammy gone! Frederick raced to the kitchen to see for himself. Betsey was indeed gone, for good. Almost heart-broken at the discovery, Frederick later wrote, I fell upon the ground, and wept a boys bitter tears. It was the first time he experienced the cruelty of slavery.
