Frederick+Douglas

=__**Frederick Douglas February 1818-February 1895. **__=

= = Frederick Douglass was born in a slave cabin, in February, 1818, near the town of Easton, on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Separated from his mother when only a few weeks old he was raised by his grandparents. At about the age of six, his grandmother took him to the plantation of his master and left him there. Not being told by her that she was going to leave him, Douglass never recovered from the betrayal of the abandonment. When he was about eight he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy with Hugh and Sophia Auld, relatives of his master. At approximately the age of fifteen, Douglass became a field hand, and experienced most of the horrifying conditions that plagued slaves during the 270 years of legalized slavery in America. But it was during this time that he had an encounter with the slavebreaker Edward Covey. After an aborted escape attempt when he was about eighteen, he was sent back to Baltimore to live with the Auld family, and in early September, 1838, at the age of twenty, Douglass succeeded in escaping from slavery by impersonating a sailor.

He went first to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he and his new wife Anna Murray began to raise a family. Whenever he could he attended abolitionist meetings, and, in October, 1841, after attending an anti-slavery convention on Nantucket Island, Douglass became a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and a colleague of William Lloyd Garrison. This work led him into public speaking and writing.

He published his own newspaper, The North Star, participated in the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, in 1848, and wrote three autobiographies. He was internationally recognized as an uncompromising abolitionist, indefatigable worker for justice and equal opportunity, and an unyielding defender of women's rights. He became a trusted advisor to Abraham Lincoln, United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, Recorder of Deeds for Washington, D.C., and Minister-General to the Republic of Haiti.

=Fun facts: = -Frederick Douglass was 6 ft. 4 in.--as tall as Abraham Lincoln.  - After publishing his autobiography, Douglass had to flee the United States because he was a runaway slave and therefore a refugee from the law. He spent two years abroad in Ireland and called them some of the best years of his life. In Ireland, he felt free from all prejudice--a freedom he never fully felt in the US.  - Frederick Douglass' first wife helped him escape from slavery. After she passed away, he remarried a white women 20 years his junior.  - Douglass amassed a large personal fortune public speaking. - Frederick Douglass was a huge supporter of the women's rights movement. His home has portraits of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.  - Douglass' favorite author's were Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.  - Douglass was very physically active and could be seen working out in front of his house every day with hand weights--even on the day he died.

Bibliography: "Frederick Douglass Biography - Featured Black History Bios on Biography.com." Biography.com. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. .

"Frederick Douglass Biography." Biography.com. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. <http://www.biography.com/articles/Frederick-Douglass-9278324>.

<span style="background-color: #008080; font-family: 'Lucida Console',Monaco,monospace;">"Frederick Douglass." Western New York Suffragists -Winning the Vote. Web. 06 Mar. 2011. <http://www.winningthevote.org/F-FDouglass.html>.

= By: Meghan Doyle :) =

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