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Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Frederick Douglass (c.1818 - February 20, 1895)
Born into slavery on a plantation in Talbot County, Maryland, Douglas was the son of Harriet Bailey, a slave. She gave him the name, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. His owners wife, Sophia Auld, started teaching him to read and write, but had to stop under her husband's orders. He managed to continue learning to read and write on his own. He escaped with the aid of a free black woman, Anna Murray in 1838, whom he later married. The couple settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts where he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The couple adopted the surname Douglass as their married name. Douglass became an ordained minister in 1839. He became well known for his oratory as he began traveling to abolitionist meetings. The American Anti-Slavery Society invited him to participate in their "Hundred Conventions" project. He accepted the invitation.
American Anti-Slavery Society
Founded in 1833 by abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan, the Society became one of the leading anti-slavery organizations. Frederick Douglass became one of its leaders. The Society was controversial because of its views. Because slavery had become so enmeshed in the nation's economy, abolishing it would have major economic repercussions. Thus, their efforts to abolish it were often met with violence.
"100 conventions"
The six month tour included speaking engagements throughout the Midwest and New England states. During this tour violence broke out frequently, as was the case at Pendleton, Indiana, where rioters almost killed Douglass.
Fall Creek Friends
The first Quakers, or Friends as they refer to themselves, migrated into the Pendleton area in 1833 when Jonathan Thomas visited the area. He went on to found the Fall Creek Friends. The society built the Fall Creek Meeting House in 1836. The Fall Creek Friends became active in the abolishion movement.
The Riot
The meeting was too large for the Meeting House to host, so the Friends had advertised to rent a building. None were offered, so the Friends elected to hold the event in a grove in an orchard near the falls of Falls Creek. Workers erected a platform and the crowd gathered. Not all were there to hear the speakers talk. During one of the speeches, violence broke out from a mob of about sixty men that had gathered. The mob attacked the speakers and Frederick Douglas landed on the ground. One attacker raised an iron bar to strike him on the head, but one of the Friends managed to shove Douglass to safety. The mob began throwing rocks as Douglass and the others ran. As they jumped over a rail fence, one rock struck Douglass, knocking him unconscious. A number of Friends grabbed him and helped him escape to a nearby farm house, where they cared for him. He suffered cuts to the face and head and a badly broken hand. the hand never healed properly, leaving him with an injury that would plague him the rest of his life.
Author
In the following years Douglass authored three books, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass published in 1892.
Travels to Europe
Douglass traveled to Europe in 1845 at the insistence of friends that feared his owners, attracted to his fame, would attempt to gain their property back. Douglass voyaged to England where he would stay for two years. During that time he traveled extensively in Ireland and England giving speeches. A fundraising effort by his supporters there raised enough money for them to purchase his freedom.
Abolitionist and Women's Suffrage
In 1847 he returned to the United States to reside in Rochester, New York. He started an abolitionist newsletter called the North Star with funds donated by his Irish and English supporters. He entered the arena of women's rights in 1848 when the attended the first women's rights convention, the Seneca Falls Convention.
Douglass would continue to deliver eloquent speeches and write in favor of emancipation for blacks and women's rights in the years before and after the Civil War. In 1874 he moved to Washington DC where he would live in a home overlooking the Anacostia River he would call Cedar Hill. Douglass passed away while attending a National Council of Women meeting on February 20, 1895. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery, near Rochester, New York.
Visitors to the site can experience educational seminars, see Douglass artifacts, photographs and documents.
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Mailing Address:
1411 W Street SE
Washington, DC 20020
(202) 426-5961
https://www.nps.gov/frdo/index.htm
