More than two centuries after the birth of Frederick Douglass , few men or women have come tight to reach his accomplishment as both an orator and an agentive role of change . " Why we should remember him is because of what he represents to us even today . His ability to not only to verbalize trueness to power but do so in such an silver mode that he would take exception anyone who stands against him , " say Pellom McDaniels , III , curator of African American Collections at Emory University ’s Rose Library . The power of Douglass ' voice contribute greatly to theend of slavery , enlargement of the right wing to vote and the cosmopolitan push toward adequate right for all that continues still .
So , where did Douglass get that power?Born in 1818as Frederick Bailey , he was a slave on the coast of Maryland . He recognized the time value of literacy from an former age , and so he instruct himself to read and compose . He was hired out from age 8 to 15 as a body servant , and rebelled when his owner send him to work in the field . After a fail escape effort , he was sent back to Baltimore where he connected with Anna Murray , a free black woman . She helped him coordinate his escape and funded his train ticket , and as a result , he was able to make a break for New York City dressed as a sailor , where he was " detached , " but a fugitive from justice , notwithstanding .
Frederick wed Anna , and the pair took the last name Douglass , in an effort to keep from being captured . They relocated to Bedford , Massachusetts , and eventually had five children .
Making a Legend
Stephen Arnold Douglas ' hungriness for freedom did n’t end with his own . He began attend emancipationist meetings where he promptly clear a reputation as a talented speaker and writer and toured on behalf of the Massachusetts Anti - Slavery Society . Ironicallysome of these same abolitioniststhought him too well - versed and educated to have been upgrade a slave . By being so train they felt he was , " push back against the myth of blackness , " McDaniels says . " To argue his case and corroborate his case they felt that he had to be not on equal terms [ with Edward White ] . "
To prove his legitimacy , in 1845 he release the first of three tomes , " Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass . " The ensuing publicity made him a butt , however , and he had to drop time in Europe to prevent being re - enslaved . His exemption was eventuallybought on his behalfby kind abolitionists , and he travel with his family to Rochester , New York , to enjoy life history as a free smutty man .
Civil Rights and Women’s Rights
Douglass continued verbalize on behalf of the abolition of thrall but also took an interest inwomen ’s right . " He believed that there should be equality across the board , " McDaniels sound out , add that despite his bread and butter of women ’s suffrage , he want it to get along in metre . " One of the things he argued against was women getting the right to vote first [ before fatal man ] . By excluding black men from this equation , it put black men and cleaning lady in great risk . "
While some abolitionists decried the United States Constitution as pro - slaveholding , Douglasseventually decidedthat the document was not , and had been conveniently misinterpret by people who stood to benefit . In hismost famous speech"What to the striver is 4th of July ? " he order , " What have I , or those I present , to do with your national independency ? Are the great principles of political freedom and of born justice , personify in that Declaration of Independence , extended to us ? "
" He saw there was more to the Constitution than was harvest , " McDaniels explains . " He also saw the elements of it that allow for individuals in the country to be free and pursue the possibilities . "
He argued that the estimate of universal human brotherhood , that all were make equal , wasrooted in Christianity and the Bible . He also maintained that blacks are children of God , and therefore not " subhuman " as debate by many detractors , themselves often devout Christians .
Although Douglass discord with the militant ideals of fellow abolitionist John Brown , he eventually came to see that federal military interference ( actualize in the form of the devastating Civil War ) wouldbe necessaryto eradicate slavery .
He aggressively worked to act upon the Republican Party , which featured a particularly famous member in PresidentAbraham Lincoln , to prevent slavery ’s paste into new territories , to lash out laws that protect slaveholders and to generally encourage abolitionism . He eventuallycalled Lincoln a acquaintance , and was integral in the procedure of authorize the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution , which get rid of slavery once and for all . The fourteenth and 15th Amendments eventually conform to , which respectively granted national patrimony citizenship and established balloting rights regardless of subspecies , previous servitude and peel color .
Final Years and Legacy
In 1872 , Douglass and his married woman Anna moved to Washington D.C. to be nearer several of their youngster , and to continue his activism . He went on to harbour a act ofprestigious federal positionsunder five different chair ; continued his public speaking engagements , and published his third and last memoir , " The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass . " It was particularly resonant because it know the continuing inequalities in America , despite abolishment and Reconstruction .
In 1882 , Anna expire and in 1884 , Douglass remarried Helen Pitts , a suffragist who was 20 year his junior and bloodless . The marriage was not looked upon favorably by many , but the twosome remained marry until his last from a heart attack in 1895 at age 77 .
More than a hundred years after his release , Douglass and his employment are regularly keep and he pave the way for hundreds of other civil rights militant .
McDaniels says that Douglass was the most photographed American ( of any race ) of the nineteenth century and his was an image of masculinity and African American possibility . " That was one of the challenge of his time , to find ways to represent the mankind of masses who aspired to be free and came from the same setting , " he say . " If he ’s criticized for anything it ’s that he presents [ in his speeches ] as sensational and romantic . But even as we reflect on his aliveness we ask to understand that he was essentially an ambassador for a humble nation within a body politic . "
