Slave, Unbroken

His face is stern and strong, not quite angry, but close. Determined is a better word, and you can see it in the line of his lips and the way his eyes fearlessly meet the camera. The pictures are very old now, but it’s easy to see the drive, the passion in his soul. He looks like he was a man of consequence, a man who changed things, and he did.

Frederick Douglass was born a slave around 1818. Separated from his mother when very young, he only saw her a few times before she died. He was 7 years old. His father was a white man, probably his owner.

While still young, Frederick heard a white preacher speak about the sinful nature of man, and sought out an older black man for guidance and wisdom. This man led Frederick to Christ, and in Him the youngster found peace – and purpose.  Frederick was able to keep Christ and Christians separate in his heart.

Frederick was bought, sold, inherited, and lent to numerous people as a piece of property. The wife of one of his owners began teaching him to read and write along with her own son. When the master found out he stopped his wife, explaining to her in Frederick’s presence that it wasn’t good for a slave to know too much. If he knew how to read, he might want to be free. Frederick later said that that was his first anti-slavery lecture. He realized at that moment that if his master thought he ought not know how to read for such reasons, it was in his best interest to learn how to read! This was his first step toward freedom.

After being sold yet again, Frederick began holding Sunday school for his fellow slaves, teaching them to read and write. His own master didn’t care, but as more slaves began to attend the other owners in the area assaulted the meeting one Sunday with clubs and sticks, putting an end to the gatherings.

Frederick was sent to several other places, including a plantation where he worked under a “negro breaker,” and a shipyard to learn ship building. After managing to find an additional job at which he was able to keep his earnings, he was finally able to escape. He married Anna Murray a free black woman, and they settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. They eventually had five children together.

Frederick Douglass could never forget his experiences in bondage, and was soon heavily involved in the anti-slavery movement. He spoke to audiences about his former life as a slave. Frederick went on to write and publish a book about his life before and after his escape, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. It eventually became a bestseller and added credibility to his story. He also became involved in the suffragist movement, and attended the first women’s rights conference in the country in 1848, in New York State. He never advocated violence in the struggle for freedom, even counseling John Brown to follow the path of peace.

Partially for their own safety, Frederick and his wife moved to Ireland for a time early in their marriage. Upon his return, he commented on how well-received he was. He faced no scorn or prejudice for his ethnicity, and said of it in a later book,  “I employ a cab—I am seated beside white people—I reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown into the same parlour—I dine at the same table—and no one is offended.”

Douglass continued to speak out for emancipation before the Civil War, and after the war, for public integration and for black suffrage and women’s suffrage. He also served for a time in Haiti as US minister resident and consul general. He wrote multiple autobiographies, went on printing newspapers with the help of this children, and continued his public speaking until just days before his death of a heart attack at the approximate age of 77.

Frederick Douglass understood the power of photography, having many portraits taken over the years. He didn’t smile in any of them, however. He didn’t want to give the false impression that the life of a slave was somehow pleasant or tolerable.

It is a great honor for me to live in Douglassville, a Pennsylvania town named after this towering and courageous figure of American history. We in this town, and in this country, owe Frederick Douglass a great debt. He played a vital role in helping to correct a hideous wrong in America. There is still work to be done, but his strength and eloquent words helped to galvanize and electrify the struggle to make all men truly free.

Tags: abolition, anti-slavery, Christ, douglass, frederick Douglass, freedom, slavery, speaker

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This post was written by Grace Fabian