Frederick douglass mini biography template

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, who was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, in 1818, became one of the most famous intellectuals of his time. His journey from an enslaved child, separated at birth from his mother, to one of the most articulate orators of the 19th century, was nothing short of extraordinary. In defiance of a state law banning slaves from being educated, Frederick, as a young boy, was taught the alphabet and a few simple words by Sophia Auld, the wife of Baltimore slaveholder Hugh Auld. Frederick’s lessons ended abruptly one day when he heard Auld scold his wife, telling her that if a slave knew how to read and write it would make him unfit to be a slave. From that moment on, Frederick knew that education would be his pathway to freedom.

“I didn’t know I was a slave until I found out I couldn’t do the things I wanted. ”Frederick Douglass

At the age of 20, after several failed attempts, he escaped from slavery and arrived in New York City on Sept. 4, 1838. Frederick Bailey, who changed his last name to Douglass soon after his arrival, would later write in his autobiography, “A new world has opened upon me. Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted, but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.”

After settling in the northeast with his wife, Anna, the man who would be forever known to the world as “Frederick Douglass” dedicated his life to the abolitionist movement and the equality of all people. In doing so, Douglass went on to become a great writer, orator, publisher, civil rights leader and government official. Douglass authored three autobiographies, with his first and best-known, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845. It became an immediate bestseller, and within three years was reprinted nine times, translated into French and Dutch, and circulated across the United States and Europe. The

Written by: Bill of Rights Institute

Frederick Douglass grew up enslaved in Maryland, where his individual human dignity was stripped away by a system of owning other human beings. He barely knew his mother, who had had to walk several miles from another plantation to visit him when he was a little boy. He also did not know who his father was, though he guessed it was one of the white men on the plantation. He did not even know his birthday.

When Douglass was seven years old, his grandmother carried him to another plantation where he witnessed the horrors of slavery. He watched as his aunt was stripped to the waist and brutally whipped, causing blood to run down her back. “It was the first of a long series of such outrages . . . It struck me with awful force.” Douglass never became reconciled to such an unjust system.

Douglass’s owner sent the boy to live in Baltimore, Maryland, with Hugh and Sophia Auld. Sophia taught Douglass to read the Bible, which outraged her husband. Hugh argued it would ruin Douglass for slavery because he would reject his servitude; he forbade the lessons. The brilliant young boy immediately recognized there was something unnatural about slavery. He caught on to its immorality and the importance of reading to recover his humanity. “From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom . . . The argument which he so warmly urged, against my learning to read, only served to inspire me with a desire and determination to learn,” Douglass later wrote.

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