Anne Schraff - The Life of Frederick Douglass. Speaking Out Against Slavery

Frederick Douglasss Leading Voice

There is no way a nation can call itself free and accept slavery, remarked Frederick Douglass. Despite being a slave, as a young boy Frederick learned to read and write. Then, at age twenty-one, he escaped from slavery and forged a new life for himself as a free man. Intelligent and charismatic, by the 1800s Douglass had become the leading voice against slavery in the United States. Traveling around the country and abroad, he exposed the horrors of slavery, calling for the freedom and equality of all human beings.

In The Life of Frederick Douglass: Speaking Out Against Slavery, author Anne Schraff brings fresh insight to Douglass's story, taking readers on an extraordinary journey from torment to triumph with the famous author and orator.

a fine addition to the biography section.

perfect for the middle readers.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne Schraff is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction for young people. She maintains a keen interest in United States and world history.

Traveling throughout the United States and abroad, Frederick Douglass exposed the horrors of slavery, calling for the freedom and equality of all human beings.

On January 1, 1834, fifteen-year-old Frederick Bailey was, for the first time in his life, a field slave. Born into slavery, he had always served in homes. Now his master had rented him out to Edward Covey, a farmer on Marylands Eastern Shore with a reputation as a slave-breaker. Covey was known as a man who could break the spirit of any rebellious slave.

On this very cold day Frederick was sent into the woods to get a load of wood that he had chopped and stacked the previous day. Frederick was ordered to drive an ox cart, something he had never done before. Covey instructed him briefly, then sent Frederick off. Disaster soon struck the inexperienced young man.

A sudden noise frightened the oxen and they took off, dragging the cart behind them, banging it against trees, and finally overturning it. Frederick struggled frantically to get the team disentangled from the brush. He righted the cart and finally reached the pile of wood. He began loading the logs into the cart, and when it was full he started for home. As he reached the Covey farm, the ox team once again bolted, breaking Coveys gate and almost crushing Frederick against the shattered wood.

When Covey learned of the accident and the long time Frederick had taken to do what Covey considered a minor job, he ordered the boy back into the woods at once. Frederick later recalled the incident in detail. Covey went to a large black gum tree, glared at the boy, and said, Ill teach you how to waste time and break gates.

It was only the beginning of what would be regular, brutal beatings at Coveys hands.

During one hot August day, Frederick and the other slaves were separating wheat from chaff. Frederick was so exhausted by the long days, often working from sunup well into darkness, that he snatched a moment to rest. Covey found him and gave him a hard kick to his side. Frederick still refused to rise on command, so Covey snatched up a hickory slat, striking Frederick a sharp blow to the head.

With blood streaming from the crown of my head to my feet, as Frederick remembered, he ran from the Covey farm to the home of his master. When he told Thomas Auld, his master, of the cruel treatment he had been dealt, Auld was unmoved. He ordered Frederick back to Coveys farm.

The brutal treatment at the hands of Covey continued until one day when Covey tried once more to thrash Frederick. Frederick described how the fighting madness came upon him as he fought back against Covey. Frederick grabbed Coveys throat and flung the man to the ground. When Covey called on nearby slaves to help him subdue Frederick, they pretended not to hear.

The battle between Frederick and Edward Covey raged for two hours. Frederick was not trying to hurt Covey, but he wanted to keep Covey from hurting him. Covey finally gave up the effort, telling Frederick, Now, you scoundrel, go to your work! The humiliated Covey pretended that he had succeeded in humbling Frederick.

The teenaged Frederick was jubilant. He saw this act of defiance as the turning point in my career as a slave. He had reached the point where he was no longer afraid to die, and that gave him courage to stand up to Covey. During the final months that he worked for Covey, Frederick was never whipped again.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in February 1818 near Tuckahoe in Talbot County on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. According to legend, Tuckahoe gained its name when a local farmer took a hoe belonging to another man. Took a hoe became Tuckahoe.

Fredericks mother was Harriet Bailey, daughter of Isaac Bailey, a free black man, and Betsy Bailey, a copper-dark slave. Betsy Bailey had five daughters: Jenny, Esther, Milly, Priscilla, and Harriet. According to law, all Betsys children became slaves like their mother and were the property of their mothers master.

Frederick did not know who his father was, but he always believed that his father was a white man. He was admitted to be such, Frederick later wrote, by all I ever heard speak of my parentage.

Soon after giving birth to Frederick, Harriet Bailey had to return to her work twelve miles away as a field hand. So Frederick was raised by his grandparents. Grandfather Isaac was a carpenter and Grandmother Betsy took care of Frederick and any other grand- children who were in the cabin at the time. Grandmammy was, indeed, at the time, all the world to me, Frederick later wrote. He observed early on how much his grandmother was respected by her neighbors. She was a good nurse and a fine fisher. She made skillful nets for catching shad and herring, and the boys early memories were of watching his grandmother standing waist deep in water for many hours hauling in nets full of fish. Fredericks grandmother was also an outstanding farmer. The sweet potato seedlings she planted did so well that her neighbors asked her to plant their gardens along with her own.

Frederick later remembered a happy childhood in his grandparents cabin. He recalled swinging from the loft where he slept with his cousins, splashing in the nearby sea, and mimicking the sounds of the farm animals. He wrote of a spirited, joyous, uproarious and happy childhood.

The family lived in an old cabin with a rail floor upstairs and a clay floor downstairs. There was a chimney but no windows. A hole in front of the fireplace was used to protect sweet potatoes from the frost. Though Frederick spent happy hours tending the garden and chasing squirrels, he described a shadow that always darkened his world. He knew that somewhere there was a white man who owned him and his grandmother.

Although Frederick said that he saw his mother only four or five times, in his whole life, he wrote vividly of her.

When Fredericks mother came for one of her infrequent visits, she had to walk the twelve miles at night, so she could make the round-trip and be back at her chores in the morning. Because she had to get started for home soon after she arrived, Frederick saw her only briefly and then only in the darkness. He never saw his mothers face in daylight. When she arrived in the cabin, Frederick would be in bed and his mother would lie down with him and comfort him until he fell asleep. They would not speak to each other and when Frederick awoke in the mornings, she was long gone.