Later Renamed Frederick Douglass Paper example essay topic
368 words
Frederick Douglass, who was born a slave in Maryland about February 1817, became the most famous of all black abolitionists as well as one of the greatest American orators of his day. As a young man he was sent to Baltimore, where he learned ship caulking. Already schooled in the alphabet by his master's wife, he taught himself to write by tracing the letters on the prows of ships. In 1838, with seaman's papers supplied by a free black, he escaped to New Bedford, Mass. Five months later he came into contact with William Lloyd Garrison's antislavery weekly, the Liberator, and in 1841 he was enlisted as an agent by the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, which had been impressed by his oratorical skill. Douglass's speeches evolved from reminiscences of slave life to a denunciation of slavery and a call for immediate abolition. As his speeches became more polished, fewer people believed that he actually had been a slave. To dispel such doubts, Douglass published (1845) his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (later titled Life and Times of Frederick Douglass), although this meant risking re enslavement. After Douglass had spent two years speaking against slavery throughout the British Isles, his legal freedom was purchased (1847) by British friends for lb 150. He then left London to resume the battle against bondage in the United States. He settled in Rochester, N.Y., where he founded his newspaper, the North Star, later renamed Frederick Douglass' Paper. When the Civil War came, Douglass fought for the enlistment of black men in the Union army and assisted in recruiting the 54th and 55th Massachusetts Colored Regiments, which later won distinction in battle.
As the war progressed, President Lincoln conferred with Douglass as a representative of his people. During his last years Douglass served as assistant secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission (1871), marshal (1877 D 81) and recorder of deeds (1881 D 86) of the District of Columbia, and U.S. minister to Haiti (1889 D 91). Douglass remained an active reformer literally until the day he died, Feb. 20, 1895, when he collapsed after attending a women's suffrage meeting..
