Frederick Douglass
to New Bedford, Massachusetts. There
he settled, marrying Murray and
changing his name to Douglass.
While Douglass was impressed with
New Bedford, he was aware of the
segregation in the churches. White
employers refused to hire him and he
was forced to take menial jobs. He
became a preacher at the local Zion
Methodist Church and a subscriber
to the abolitionist newspaper, The
Liberator, published by William Lloyd
Garrison, founder of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. “The paper
became my meat and drink. My soul
was set all on fire.” Joining the local
chapter of the Anti-Slavery Society,
Douglass published his first writings
denouncing colonization, a campaign
encouraging blacks to move to Liberia.
He argued that the United States, and
not Africa, was the rightful home of
black Americans. He also gave a
speech at the society’s convention
and was hired as a traveling lecturer
by Garrison.A career is launched
From 1841 to 1851, Douglass worked
with the abolitionists allied with Garrison.
These men sought to end slavery by
peaceful means, through the education
and moral persuasion of slaveholders.
Douglass rejected violence and, like
Garrison, thought the existing political
parties corrupt and the Constitution a
pro-slavery document. In 1843, he toured
the West giving speeches, and his skill as
an orator improved rapidly. He became
so eloquent, one white abolitionist
advised him to keep “a little of the
plantation manner” in his speech.
Douglass, however, refused to conform
to the public’s expectations.T
he son of a slave woman and an
unknown white man, Douglass
was born Frederick Augustus
Washington Bailey in Maryland. He
rarely saw his mother and lived in slave
quarters until he was eight. In 1826, he
was sent by his owner to serve Hugh
Auld in Baltimore. Auld’s wife taught
him to read but her husband halted the
lessons, claiming that education gave
slaves dangerous ideas. Frederick,
however, continued to read in secret.
At 15, he was sent to the country to
work for Edward Covey. Frequently
beaten by this infamous “slave-breaker,”
he fought back, risking death. In January
1836 he made his first escape attempt,
but ended up in jail. Two years later,
while working in a Baltimore
shipyard, he succeeded. With money
loaned from his fiancée Anna
Murray, a free black woman from
the city, he traveled northwardANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGNER Born 1818 Died 1895
AN IMPERFECT UNION
“It rekindled the few
expiring embers of
freedom, and revived
within me a sense
of my own manhood.”
FREDERICK DOUGLASS, ON FIGHTING BACK AGAINST FARMER EDWARD COVEY, 1834An imposing character
This portrait of the young Douglass by
an unknown artist was probably based
on the image in his 1845 Narrative
(opposite), and captures his
unswerving sense of purpose.