Douglass, Frederick

Born: 1818; Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland.  Death: February 20, 1895; Washington D.C..  Frederick Douglass was born a slave, but after his escape he became a civil rights leader in the abolition movement, advocating that the great emancipator is education.  He is the first African-American to hold a high U.S. government rank.  He was taught the alphabet as a child, then asked poor white neighbor children to teach him to read in exchange for bread.  He practiced using a Webster’s Spelling book which he carried everywhere he went.  He learned about freedom from a Columbian Orator he purchased at the age of 12 with money he earned polishing boots.  He learned the meaning of “abolition” by reading the Baltimore American.  He joined the abolitionist movement in New England, giving speeches.  His sons were the first two black recruits to join the 54th Massachusetts Infantry during the War Between the States.  Douglass met Abraham Lincoln three times, and was a registered Republican.  Douglass was the author of “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845”; “My Bondage and My Freedom”, and “Life and Times of Frederick Douglass in 1881”.