Frederick Douglass Biography

1 Frederick Douglass: A Humanistic View of Racism By: John C. McKnight December 2, 2008 As historian Waldo E. Martin, Jr. so adequately put it, “Frederick Douglass was unquestionably the foremost Negro American of the nineteenth century.”1 Douglass’ life is an example of triumph, perseverance, and determination. He was born into slavery, escaped, and became a successful abolitionist, orator, writer, newspaper editor, reformer, and leader of his race. Although Douglass personally witnessed the evils of slavery and prejudices of inequality, he always maintained a humanistic approach to racism. Douglass did not see the color of a person’s skin when judging them. He believed that they should be judged by their morality and intelligence, instead. There are two things that represent Douglass’ humanistic approach to the problem of racism. First, he was positive in his social reform, in that he always believed there was a solution to the problem of racism. Second, he created a racial consciousness among the black community that was positive and was one that he hoped would uplift them to equality. Frederick Douglass was born into the world as a slave in Talbot County, Maryland. In his first autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he states that “the larger part of slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs” and therefore he was not certain about his date of birth.2 By the time he had began to write the third edition of his life he was able to make an estimate of the year he was born. Douglass stated that “I suppose myself to have been born in February, 1817.” 3 Colonel 1

Waldo E. Martin, Jr. The Mind of Frederick Douglass (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1984), ix. 2 Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001) 13. 3 Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (New York: Collier Books, 1892) 27.

2 Lloyd’s (the owner of the plantation that he was born on) records have been recently researched by Dixon Preston and he discovered that Douglass was actually born in February, 1818. Douglass was born into the possession of Colonel Edward Lloyd, one of the wealthiest men of Maryland, and was under the command of his clerk and superintendent, Aaron Anthony. 4 The Maryland rules of slavery caused Douglass to lack a connection to his immediate family during slavery. He was raised by his grandmother, his mother was separated from him when he was too young to remember her, and his father was an unknown white man. Douglass never really knew his mother and he stated that “my only recollections of my own mother are a few hasty visits made in the night on foot, after the daily tasks were over.”5 There were rumors that his father was a white man and that he was even his master, but truly Douglass knew nothing of his father other than he was white. 6 While on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, Douglass was too young to work as a field hand and never received any harsh whippings, but he still witnessed the harsh realities of slavery. He stated in his first autobiography that “I was seldom whipped…and suffered little from anything else than hunger and cold.”7 It was here that Douglass first witnessed the cruelty of a severe whipping. Douglass makes it clear that Captain Anthony was not a humane man and that he consistently whipped his slaves. He explains this by stating in his first autobiography, “I have often been awakened at the dawn of day by the most heart-rending shrieks of an aunt of mine whom he [Anthony] used to tie up to a joist,

4

Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 17. Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 28. 6 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 13. 7 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 27. 5

3 and whip upon her naked back till she was literally covered with blood.”8 Not only did he witness his first severe whipping here, but he also witnessed how the institution of slavery created its own laws. For example, Mr. Gore, one of Douglass’ overseers while he was on Colonel Lloyd’s plantation, was giving a slave by the name of Demby a whipping. During this episode, Demby ran to the nearby creek to ease the pain. Mr. Gore gave him three calls to come back or he would shoot him. After the third call, he did not come and Mr. Gore shot and killed him right there in the creek. The act went unpunished by the law.9 When asked by Colonel Lloyd, why he did this his response was similar to the common saying of the time “that it was worth a half-cent to kill a ‘nigger,’ and only a half cent to bury one.”10 Douglass was then sent to Baltimore to live with Mr. Hugh Auld. Hugh Auld was the brother of Thomas Auld, who was the son-in-law of Captain Anthony.11 While in Baltimore Douglass figured out that the key to his freedom was education. Sophia Auld (Hugh Auld’s wife), who he described as “a white face beaming with the most kindly emotions,” began to teach him the alphabet. She would have continued except for Hugh Auld found out, stopped it, and explained to her that “if you give a ‘nigger’ an inch, he will take an ell. A ‘nigger’ should know nothing but to obey his master − to do as he is told. Learning will spoil the best ‘nigger’ in the world.”12 In learning this, Douglass spent the majority of his time in learning how to read and write. Since, his master and mistress would not allow him this luxury; he had to use mischievous ways to do so without getting caught. These ways consisted of making friends with the white boys in town and 8

Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 15. Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 25-26. 10 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 27. 11 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 28. 12 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 31. 9

4 converting them into teachers, getting a hold of any reading material possible (including the “Columbian Orator” where he first saw the word abolition), watching the shipyard workers writing letters on the timber, and tracing the letters in his master’s son’s school book. In the seven or eight years that he spent in Baltimore, Douglass learned the trade of calking and successfully taught himself, with the help of others, how to read and write. He also experienced his first thoughts of escaping from slavery, when two Irish men advised him to do so, and from that time on resolved to runaway. 13 The death of Captain Anthony and his daughter Lucretia left Douglass in the hands of Thomas Auld, in St. Michaels, Maryland. Hugh and Thomas Auld had a misunderstanding and Thomas took Douglass from Hugh. Thomas Auld did not treat Douglass as well as Hugh Auld had in Baltimore and here in St. Michaels he witnessed one of the first examples of using Christianity to justify slavery. Referring to Thomas Auld, Douglas stated in his first autobiography that “he would quote this passage of Scripture − ‘He that knoweth his master’s will, and doeth not, shall be beaten with many stripes,’” while beating his slaves. Thomas Auld struggled with Douglass’ ability to be a slave and sent Douglass to a man by the name, Edward Covey, who was well-known as a “nigger breaker” for one year. 14 He was attempting to teach the other slaves how to read. Here Douglass worked as a field hand and received a severe whipping for the first time. Douglass describes the first six months by saying, “If at any one time of my life more than another, I was made to drink the bitterest dregs of slavery, that time was during the first six months of my stay with Mr. Covey.” He then goes on to say “Mr. Covey succeeded in breaking me. I was broken in body, mind, and spirit…a man transformed

13 14

Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 33-38. Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 45.

5 into a brute.”15 Douglass one day decided to fight Mr. Covey back and was able to hold his own against him. For the second six months of his stay at Mr. Covey’s he did not receive a single whipping. The rest of Douglass’ experiences as a slave consisted of being hired out to a Mr. William Freeland, who treated him very well compared to his past slaveholders, and living back in Baltimore with Hugh Auld’s family. At Freeland’s farm, Douglass’ makes his first attempt to escape, but he got caught before he was able to make his attempt and Thomas Auld sent him back to Baltimore. Here Hugh Auld hired him out for work and made him bring home his earnings. This continued, until he experienced a vicious beating by the white apprentices in Mr. William Gardner’s shipyard.16 There was nothing done about the incident and eventually Douglass was able to convince his master to allow him to find his own work. Hugh Auld agreed to this as long as he paid his own rent and for the calking tools that he needed to get work.17 Although this was a step towards freedom, it did not satisfy Douglass as he stated, “I have observed this in my experience of slavery, − that whenever my condition was improved, instead of it increasing my contentment, it only increased my desire to be free.”18 So again Douglass decided to make an attempt to escape. He decided that on September 3, 1838, he would make a second attempt to secure his freedom.19 Douglass was successful in escaping slavery this time. In his first autobiography, he fails to give all the details of the account because he feared them to endanger himself and the people involved, but in his third and final autobiography he gives a detailed 15

Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 49. Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 69. 17 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 72-73. 18 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 70. 19 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 73. 16

6 account of how he was able to reach his northern destination. Douglass borrowed a black friend’s sailor’s protection that was similar to free papers and hopped on a train to Philadelphia and then to New York.20 Douglass’ birth name was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, but once he arrived to New York he had changed his name to Frederick Johnson. In New York, he met a man by the name of David Ruggles, who arranged for his marriage to his first wife Anna; then advises him to go to New Bedford, Massachusetts. At New Bedford, Douglass is met by a Mr. Johnson, who takes him in and advises him to change his name again.21 So, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey became Frederick Douglass and life as slave was over for Douglass. Once Douglass was in New Bedford, he subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison’s paper, the Liberator, and began attending Anti-Slavery Society conventions. At a convention on August, 11th 1841, in Nantucket, Douglass himself was moved to speak and at the same time urged to tell his story by William C. Coffin, a local abolitionist that had heard him speak before the convention.22 From then on Douglass became an important agent of the Anti-Slavery Society and followed in the footsteps of William Lloyd Garrison, traveling and spreading the ideas of the abolishment of slavery. When people began to believe his story to be false, Douglass published his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, and fear of being captured led him to leave for England. Douglass spends nearly two years in England, traveling and speaking on American slavery. He finally decides it is time to come home and a couple of English friends decide to purchase his freedom. Once he returned from England, he began to break away from Garrison’s view on Abolition. Instead of just 20

Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 197-98. Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 77. 22 Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 80. 21

7 taking a “moral suasion” approach, he began to see that “political activism” was also needed to achieve abolition. The Douglass and Garrison bond was mainly disrupted by their different views of the United States Constitution. Garrison believed that it was a pro-slavery document and Douglass agreed at first, but he later began to see the need to use the Constitution against slavery. Douglass then moved to Rochester, New York and started his own newspaper, called the North Star, in 1847.23 This paper allowed Douglass to freely express his thoughts and to address the American people with them. He continued to publish his paper until 1851, when he merged his paper with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty Party Papers and created the Frederick Douglass’ Papers. During the Civil War, Douglass was an advisor to Abraham Lincoln, where he pushed for the importance the North’s victory being to end slavery. He also was a recruiter for black soldiers and helped develop the first black regiment, the 54th Massachusetts. After the Civil War, Douglass had achieved his goal of ending slavery. This was not the end for him, and the rest of his life he pursued many other social reforms, including Civil Rights. He continued his reform work with ideas about Reconstruction, woman’s rights, and Civil Rights. Until the day he died in 1898, Douglass continued to push for the idea of total equality. For example, on the day that he died he was in Washington, D.C. (where he lived the majority of his life after the Civil War) giving a speech to the National Council of Woman that was addressing woman’s suffrage and later that night he passed away24

23

Douglass, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 260. Phillip S. Foner ed., Frederick Douglass on Women’s Rights (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1976), 181. 24

8 Frederick Douglass devoted his life to social reform. As historian Wolfgang Mieder stated in his article, “Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You: Frederick Douglass’s Proverbial Struggle for Civil Rights,” “nothing it seems could stop this vigorous crusader from fighting for a better world where people of both genders and all races could live together in harmony.”25 Through out his life, Douglass maintained a positive approach to social reform, especially towards defeating the problem of racism. Douglass maintained this positive approach even though he had to face many obstacles along the way. These obstacles included enduring the evils of slavery, dealing with proscriptions like separate black sections on trains, and attacks from mobs at Anti Slavery Conventions. Even after having to deal with these obstacles, Douglass continued to believe and fight for the equality of all human beings. When Douglass escaped slavery, he was not satisfied with just his freedom. He wanted every slave to be able to claim themselves as free men. So he became an abolitionist and began to fight his cause. In a letter to William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass explains his view of America by expressing how he admires her beauty, but that he will “continue to pray, labor and wait, believing that she [America] cannot always be insensible to the dictates of justice, or deaf to the voice of humanity.”26 In this letter, Douglass explains how he loves his country, but is troubled with how it can continue to deny human beings their rights. This shows how Douglass was not content with the status of his country and wanted to make a change. After slavery had been abolished, Douglass continued to strive for equality, considering that black Americans still had to deal with racism and discrimination. In an 25

Wolfgang Mieder. “Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You : Frederick Douglass’s Proverbial Struggle for Civil Rights,” Journal of American Folklore 114, no. 453 (2001): 331. 26 Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings. Edited by Philip S. Foner. Abridged and adapted by Yuval Taylor. (Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 1999), 18.

9 article from the National New Era, on December 5, 1872, Douglass addressed the issue of inequality among races. The article was called “Give Us the Freedom Intended for Us,” and here Douglass states that “freedom from the auction block and from legal claim as property is of no benefit to the colored man without the protection of his rights.” He later goes on to explain how a black man cannot receive justice in the court of law, cannot send his children to the nearest public school, while he pays the same amount of taxes as a white man, and cannot purchase a first-class railroad ticket and actually sit in firstclass.27 These are examples of some of the civil rights that Douglass fought for after the abolishment of slavery. A statement that Douglass often used in his writings says that, “we have done much, but there is much more to be done.”28 This statement explains the positive approach that Douglass took in trying to create a world without racism. He believed that racism destroyed humanity and that there was always a solution to this problem. In one of his last writings, The Lesson of the Hour, Douglass one final time addresses the issue of racism by stating: Time and strength are not equal to the task before me. But could I be heard by this great nation, I would call to mind the sublime and glorious truths with which, at its birth, it saluted and started a listening world. Its voice, then, was as the trump of an archangel, summoning hoary forms of oppression and time honored tyranny, to judgment. Crowned heads heard it and shrieked. Toiling millions heard it and clapped their hands for joy. It announced the advent of a nation, based upon human

27

Douglass, Selected Speeches and Writings, 613. Douglass, Selected Speeches and Writings, 118.

28

10 brotherhood and the self-evident truths of liberty and equality. Its mission was the redemption of the world from the bondages of ages. Apply these sublime and glorious truths to the situation now before you. Put away your race prejudice. Banish the idea the one class must rule another.29 Even though, Douglass was nearing his death he was still believed that humanity could still rid itself of the evils of racism. Throughout his life, Douglass tried to create a race consciousness among blacks. Douglass believed this consciousness would help people see equality between blacks and whites. Scott C. Williamson in his book, The Narrative Life: The Moral and Religious Thought of Frederick Douglass, argues that Douglass believed that the character of a black man was crucial for society to acknowledge him as equal.30 Throughout his career, Douglass wrote many articles addressing race consciousness. Many of these were labeled, “ An Address to the Colored People of United States.” In these he would write things like, “we shall yet stand on a common platform with our fellow countrymen, in respect to political and social rights,” “it is not so much our purpose to cheer you by the progress we have already made, as it is to stimulate you to still higher attainments”, “independence is an essential condition of respectability,” and “never refuse to act with a white society because it is white, or a black one, because it is black.” All of these types of statements are used by Douglass to try to create a sense of pride in the black race and a desire for them to better their selves. He also, as Williamson states, “emphasized his own experience as a black man, one who suffered their oppression and dreamed their dreams, demonstrating all the while that blacks were capable of success, even when competing 29

Douglass, Selected Speeches and Writings, 776. Scott C. Williamson. The Narrative Life: The Moral and Religious Thought of Frederick Douglass (Macon: Mercer University, 2002), 112. 30

11 with whites.”31 Douglass believed that in order for racism to end and equality to triumph, that blacks and whites both had to do their part. The whites, as explained in the Lesson of the Hour article by Douglass, had to take the truths from the Constitution and believe them. The blacks, on the other hand, had to do their part by bettering themselves, through becoming independent and educated.32 Frederick Douglass became a very prominent figure during the nineteenth century, especially for the black community. Through his humanistic view of racism, he created the idea that universal equality was achievable. In hoping to reach this in America, Douglass maintained a positive attitude towards social reform and created a racial consciousness for blacks, which he hope would eventually lead to equality among all people in American society.

31 32

Williamson, 107. Douglass, Selected Speeches and Writings, 773-776.