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Hello All:<br>
<br>
Today the spotlight continues to be on pioneers for freedom and
excellence. <b>Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) </b>is the most
important African-American leader of the 19th century; abolitionist;
journalist; diplomat. He is often called the "father of the civil
rights movement." Born a slave, Frederick Douglass never knew his
father. Nor did he know the exact date of his birth. He picked
February 14 as his birthday because his mother, who died when he was
seven, use to refer to him as her "little valentine." When Douglass
was eight, his master, Thomas Auld, lent him out to work for a family
in Baltimore. There he learned to read and write and was relatively
well treated. In 1833, Douglass was returned to Auld. When he resisted
Auld's cruel treatment, he was hired out to a "Negro-breaker" named
Covey, who whipped Douglass repeatedly and forced him to labor in the
fields 12 to 14 hours a day. Later Douglass was hired out to another
farmer, William Freeland, but after an attempted escape, he was sent
back to Baltimore. There he was hired out to work in the shipyards,
where he was attacked and almost blinded in one eye.<br>
<br>
With the help of Anna Murray, a freeborn African-American woman who he
later married, Douglass escaped to New York. From there, he made his
way to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he dropped the name he has
carried since birth - Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey - and took
the name Frederick Douglass. He became a lecturer for the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and was so effective a speaker that
some people questioned whether he had ever really been a slave. In
response, Douglass wrote his autobiography, in which he provided so
much detailed information that he jeopardized his own safety and was
forced to flee to England. There he continued to speak out against
slavery and to argue in favor of Irish freedom, women's rights, and
world peace. His growing fame made it impossible for him to return to
the United States while still a fugitive, so a group of supporters
arranged to purchase his freedom.<br>
<br>
Arriving back in the United States in 1847, Douglass settled in
Rochester, New York, where he began publication of the North Star
Newspaper. Financially, it was an extremely risky venture, but Douglass
believed he could not continue to filter his thoughts through the white
abolitionist press. The difficulty he had anticipated proved correct.
Within six months, he was forced to mortgage his home to keep the
paper going. He continued to lecture against slavery and suffered a
broken arm after being attacked by a proslavery mob in Indiana. He
also arranged for his printing shop to be used as a station on the
Underground Railroad. Over the course of 10 years, more than 400
escaped slaves found help there.<br>
<br>
In 1848, Douglass met with JOhn Brown, who later led the unsuccessful
raid on Harpers Ferry. In fact, Brown spent three weeks at Douglass'
house shortly before the 1859 raid. Douglass thought Brown's plan
suicidal but could not convince him to change it. Even though Douglass
did not join the attempted uprising, he was forced to flee to Canada
when the governor of Virginia swore out a warrant for his arrest as an
accomplice. He returned to the United States in 1860.<br>
<br>
When the Civil War broke out, Douglass pressed President Lincoln to
free all slaves immediately and to allow African Americans to enlist in
the Union forces. It was not until 1863, however, that Lincoln issued
the Emancipation Proclamation freeing slaves in Confederate territory
and allowing blacks to enlist. Douglass moved immediately to recruit
black soldiers. His own two sons were among the first to enlist, but
the outrageous treatment of black Union soldiers caused Douglass to
halt his recruitment efforts. The unequal pay, inferior equipment,
segregated units, and lack of black officers was infuriating enough.
Even worse were the reports of Confederate atrocities against
African-American soldiers. He met with Lincoln concerning these
matters but was unable to get a satisfactory response.<br>
<br>
Douglass feared that the North might agree to end the war should the
Southern states offer to return to the UNion provided they could keep
their slaves. People were tired of fighting, dismayed by the
ever-lengthening lists of dead and wounded, and apprehensive of the
mounting financial cost. To block any attempt to end the war by
selling out African-American rights, he embarked on a speaking tour.
Again and again, Douglass repeated his four main points: that the aim
of the war should be the abolition of slavery; that there could be no
peace that did not include an end to slavery; that everyone was
entitled to the same rights; and that black men should have the vote.<br>
<br>
Once the war was over, Douglass began pressing for black voting and
economic rights. Ironically, this forced a serious break between him
and group who cause he had always championed - women. The fifteenth
Amendment gave the vote to black men. It said nothing about women,
and, as a result, it was opposed by leaders in the women's movement.
Douglass had always been a strong supporter of women's suffrage, but he
was not willing to jeopardize the black male vote for it. The break
with the women's movement was painful for Douglass, but he saw no
alternative.<br>
<br>
Douglass also became entangled in an unsuccessful effort to save the
Freedman's Savings and Trust Co., a bank started in 1865 for newly
freed slaves. Knowing that the bank's collapse would cost thousands of
former slaves their life savings, Douglass took over the presidency of
the institution and even invested his own money in it. However, in
1874, the Freedman's Bank was forced to close, and many depositors lost
all or most of their money.<br>
<br>
In 1877, President Hayes appointed Douglass marshall of the District of
Columbia. Four years later, President Garfield made him recorder of
deeds, a post Douglass held for five years. In 1889, President
Benjamin Harrison named him minister-resident and consul-general to
Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In each of these posts, Douglass
served with distinction.<br>
<br>
On February 20, 1895, Frederick Douglass died of a heart attack. "Save
the Negro and you save the Nation," he said. "Destroy the Negro and
you destroy the Nation, and to save both you must have but one great
law of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity for all Americans without
respect to color.....What I ask for the negro is not benevolence, not
pity, not sympathy, but simple justice."<br>
<br>
We encourage you to read more and increase your knowledge base. There
are contributions by African-Americans that have impacted our world,
our lives, as we know them today. <br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Levenia, Marilynn, Brenton, NAACP-Psycho Club<br>
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