From Slavery to Abolitionist LeaderĪfter their marriage, the young couple moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they met Nathan and Mary Johnson, a married couple who were born “free persons of color.” It was the Johnsons who inspired the couple to take the surname Douglass, after the character in the Sir Walter Scott poem, “The Lady of the Lake.” She joined him, and the two were married in September 1838. Once settled in New York, he sent for Anna Murray, a free Black woman from Baltimore he met while in captivity with the Aulds. From there he traveled through Delaware, another slave state, before arriving in New York and the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles. Roughly 16 at this time, Douglass was regularly whipped by Covey.Īfter several failed attempts at escape, Douglass finally left Covey’s farm in 1838, first boarding a train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. By the time he was hired out to work under William Freeland, he was teaching other enslaved people to read using the Bible.Īs word spread of his efforts to educate fellow enslaved people, Thomas Auld took him back and transferred him to Edward Covey, a farmer who was known for his brutal treatment of the enslaved people in his charge. With that foundation, Douglass then taught himself to read and write.
Douglass credits Hugh’s wife Sophia with first teaching him the alphabet.
However, at the age of six, he was moved away from her to live and work on the Wye House plantation in Maryland.įrom there, Douglass was “given” to Lucretia Auld, whose husband, Thomas, sent him to work with his brother Hugh in Baltimore. His full name at birth was “Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.”Īfter he was separated from his mother as an infant, Douglass lived for a time with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. He was actually born Frederick Bailey (his mother’s name), and took the name Douglass only after he escaped.
His mother was an enslaved Black women and his father was white and of European descent. Douglass himself was never sure of his exact birth date. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in or around 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland.
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