March 5, 2008
Frederick Douglass was a slave who escaped from a Maryland plantation in 1838. He didn't know how old he was, but, learned to read and write as a house servant. In 1845, he published, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This publication helped the Abolition Movement of the middle 19th century. He became a lecturer in the circuit of abolitionists. Douglass edited an abolitionist newspaper and even became an advisor to John Brown, before the famous John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, which arguably ignited the Civil War. He had discussions with President Abraham Lincoln.
Return to Delbridge.net
Updated March 5, 2008
Please send me mail.
He published My Bondage My Freedom in 1855. After the Civil War and Emancipation, he published yet another autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881.
It is easy to ask "What if..?" But, to ponder what if Douglass didn't escape and become famous in the abolotionist cause, or if William Lloyd Garrison didn't work so hard in the same movement editing his Liberator newspaper, takes a little more effort. Had John Brown not tried to overtake the Federal Arsenal in Haper's Ferry (then Virginia) and stood on the main stage of a nation in 1859, would war have started just two years later? Had Lincoln not won the presidency as a Radical Republican in 1860, would the institution of slavery continued for another generation, or two? Douglass is to be admired for risking everything to spread his beliefs and become a main speaker for the Abolitionist Movement of the mid-19th century.
Return to Pondered Thoughts Home Page
