Here's Where It Gets Interesting - Frederick Douglass: The Powerhouse Abolitionist

Episode Date: December 16, 2022

Today on here’s Where It Gets Interesting, we’re going to talk about a person who, by the mid-1800s, was shaping some of the biggest social reform movements to come out of the nation’s Antebellum era. A person who was born with no access and no rights. A person who was born into enslavement, fought his way to freedom, and then worked for a lifetime to ensure that access and equality was given to others. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Ladies, there have been some general similarities, right? Many of our early White House hostesses and their presidential counterparts came from well-connected, wealthy families with European ancestry. What they all had in common was access. Access to education, to new ideas, to land, to money, access to each other, and the freedom to make decisions about the trajectory of their lives. So let's put this particular formula for how to be a political influencer in 18th and 19th century America on the shelf. Instead, we're going to talk about a person who, by the mid-1800s, was shaping some of the biggest social reform movements to come out of the nation's antebellum era.

A person who was born with no access and no rights. A person who was born into enslavement. I'm Sharon McMahon, and here's where it gets interesting. I know I've used the term antebellum a few times over the past few episodes, but we haven't really discussed it in greater detail. So let's set the stage. The antebellum era is a time period in American history that historians generally sandwich between two wars,

the War of 1812 and the Civil War. It's a time that was defined by the widening polarization of the country. The North's industrialization began to expand while the South grew their economy through land cultivation, producing crops like grain, cotton, tobacco, sugar, and rice. And politics grew more divisive as many Southerners doubled down on states' rights while Northerners supported a strong central government. It was also a time of westward expansion and manifest destiny, which followed the guiding principles that the American people and their institutions were shown favor by

God and destined to spread democracy and capitalism from the east coast of North America all the way to the west. And most related to our episode today, the antebellum era was greatly influenced by the rise of the abolitionist movement. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into enslavement on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Likely, he was born in his grandparents' cabin near his enslaver's plantation. When he wrote his first autobiography as a young man, Frederick wrote, I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic recording containing it. Later in his life, he was able to speak with one of his former enslavers. Frederick said of the conversation, I told him I had always been curious to know how old I was

and that it had been a serious trouble to me to not know my birthday. He said he couldn't tell me that, but he thought I was born in February of 1818. So Frederick claimed February 14th, Valentine's Day, as his surrogate birthday because he remembered a heart-shaped cake that his mother Harriet once made for him when he was a small child. He had very little time with his mother and was often separated from her because she was enslaved as a field hand on a different plantation. She died when he was somewhere between the ages of seven and ten, and he was mainly raised by his grandmother, Betsy, and never knew his father, who was likely a white man. Frederick would later say that his mother, Harriet, could read and write, which would have been an extremely rare skill for a field worker to have. We do know that even at an early age, Frederick understood that there was a

connection between literacy and freedom. When he was around eight years old, Frederick's enslaver hired him out to work as a personal servant for the Auld family in Baltimore. As an enslaved boy in a wealthy urban household, Frederick was given access to creature comforts that he didn't have on a plantation, regular meals, for example, clothes that were suitable to be seen in, and a bed with a mattress and linens. His mistress, Sophia Auld, began to teach him the basics of literacy, starting with the alphabet alongside her own son. But her husband, Hugh, pontificated about the dangers of letting an enslaved boy learn to read. So Sophia quickly discontinued the lessons. But for Frederick, it forever impressed upon him that

education and access to knowledge were the greatest tools of freedom. Not one to give up, Frederick utilized his resources. He was in a city and surrounded by all sorts of useful people. Frederick understood class dynamics. He knew that if he made connections with poor white children, he could trade what little he had, usually bits of food or small amounts of pocket change, for reading and writing lessons. But by 1833, when Frederick was around 15, he was hired out to a farmer by the name of Edward Covey.

Covey had a reputation for being a, quote, slave breaker, a type of white overseer who used violence as his power over the enslaved people he forced into labor. Frederick remembered being nearly broken, both body and spirit, by the frequent whippings by Covey. It wasn't long before he fought back. Frederick recalled later that he felt like a man who transformed into a brute. He won the altercation, and it was a significantly impactful moment for Frederick, who, when he later wrote about it, began by saying, Frederick, who when he later wrote about it, began by saying, you have seen how a man was made a slave.

You shall see how a slave was made a man. For Frederick, freedom was the goal. He was sent back to Baltimore where he was hired out to labor on the docks. This put him in the path of a young laundress, a Black woman named Anna Murray, who had been born to parents a month after their freedom was restored. So Anna grew up free, and as her relationship with Frederick grew, she agreed to help him escape his enslavement. On September 3rd, 1838, Frederick disguised himself as a sailor with clothes Anna gathered from her laundry bundles, and he boarded a northbound train with forged identification papers. Anna gave him the money for his ticket. 24 hours later, after several train connections, enslaved states, and a steamboat ride, Frederick stepped off a platform in New York City.

He was free. Or more technically, he was able to live freely. He was still a fugitive who, if caught, would be punished and returned to enslavement. Anna joined Frederick in New York, and they married in September of 1838. Together, they settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey changed his name, settling on Frederick Douglass. He dropped his two middle names and chose Douglass as his surname as an homage to characters from one of his favorite poems. The Lady of the Lake is a narrative poem written by the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott about the plight of the Douglas clan who are banished from the king's realm. While many of us

would struggle to get through the six cantos of the poem today. It was an exciting read in the early 1800s, and it broke all sorts of poetry sales records. Over 25,000 copies were sold across Europe and the United States. Eight years later, Frederick Douglass would find himself in Sir Walter's homeland of Scotland, a surreal time for him, no doubt, during which he toured the country under a surname that he made even more well-known than his fictional namesake. Almost as soon as he found his way to freedom and knew Bedford, Frederick began to attend abolitionist meetings. Massachusetts harbored a number of leaders who led the national conversation about abolishing the practice of enslavement. Frederick connected with two very important ones, Sojourner Truth and William Lloyd Garrison.

The latter, William Lloyd Garrison, became one of his closest allies and confidants, at least during Frederick's early years as an abolitionist. one of his closest allies and confidants, at least during Frederick's early years as an abolitionist. The friends would go on to experience a rift brought on by abolition philosophy differences later in their lives. But in September of 1838, Frederick was a regular reader of The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison's premier anti-slavery newspaper, and said of its publisher, Garrison's premier anti-slavery newspaper, and said of its publisher, his words were full of holy fire and straight to the point. For the next few years, he attended Garrison's many speeches around the state of Massachusetts, and at one of them, Frederick was invited to share his story with the audience. Afterward, Garrison approached Frederick. Garrison knew talent when he saw it, and Frederick had just proved himself to be a gifted orator even at the young age of 23. Garrison encouraged Frederick to travel to Nantucket with him, and Frederick spoke at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention.

His story was well-received, as Garrison knew it would be. His story was well-received, as Garrison knew it would be. He convinced Frederick to join a group of speakers from the American Anti-Slavery Society and join their Hundred Conventions Project. Their goal was to go on a six-month tour of the eastern and midwestern states, giving a hundred speeches in meeting halls along the way. The more Frederick traveled, the more his fame as a passionate abolitionist orator increased. But while we think of the northern states in the mid-1800s as having been a safe zone for Black people in America, the American Anti-Slavery

Society speakers encountered countless opposition from slavery supporters. At a lecture in Indiana, an anti-abolition mob chased down Frederick and began to beat him. A Quaker family stepped in to chase off the violent men, but the damage had been done. The men had broken Frederick's hand in the attack, and it was an injury that would bring him pain for the rest of his life. In a moment of doubt, Frederick told Garrison, I have no country. What country have I? The institutions of this country do not know me, do not recognize me as a man. But Frederick, working around the pain in his hand, began to write. I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We are best friends. And together we have the podcast

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the free Odyssey app and wherever you get your podcasts. In 1845, Frederick Douglass published his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This is a book you might be familiar with. Maybe you read it in a middle school or high school history class. Its 11 chapters describe Frederick's early life in detail, both his enslavement and his desire to become a free man. It's still considered to be one of the most influential abolitionist books of all time. William Lloyd Garrison provided the book with its preface in an effort to prove the legitimacy of the story and its author's ability to write it himself. Skeptics didn't think that a Black man could write as eloquently as Frederick did in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.

On the whole, however, the book got positive reviews and became an immediate sensation, selling over 5,000 copies in the first four months of its publication. Within three years, it had been reprinted nine times and had 11,000 copies circulating in the United States. It was translated into French and Dutch and published in Europe, where it also became popular. The book's popularity came with its downsides. It thrust Frederick into the national spotlight. He was still a fugitive, and the worry was that his former enslaver, Hugh Auld, would learn of it and would try to recapture and re-enslave Frederick. To avoid this, Frederick Douglass traveled to Europe. For almost two years, he gave speeches and sold copies of his book in England, Ireland, and Scotland.

There he became so popular that his lectures were often reported as crowded to suffocation. That's how many people wanted to hear him speak. During his well-attended London reception speech in May of 1846, Frederick said that in England he was treated not as a color, but as a man. He wrote to William Lloyd Garrison describing his feelings when he reached Ireland, saying, instead of the bright blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft gray fog of the Emerald Isle. I breathe, and lo, the slave becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab. I'm seated beside white people.

I reach a hotel. I enter the same door. I'm shown into the same parlor. I dine at the same table. And no one is offended. I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. who was called the Liberator, was 70 to Frederick's 27, and had spent his lifetime advocating for the rights of the Irish Catholic minority to have representation in Parliament. In the mid-1800s, the people of Ireland faced extreme poverty, and O'Connell

vocally advocated for their religious equality and political independence. In fact, his lectures were called monster meetings because thousands of people would attend them to hear him speak. And even though O'Connell was a pacifist, the meetings were soon banned because the police worried they would lead to a rebellion. O'Connell's work taught Frederick that it was not enough to be a single-issue abolitionist. Instead, oppression had to be fought wherever it existed. Frederick said of his time in Ireland, I see much here to remind me of my former condition. I confess I should be ashamed to lift up my voice against American slavery, but that I know the cause of humanity is one the world over.

By 1846, an English Quaker abolitionist, Anna Richardson, and her sister-in-law, Ellen, began to hit up the pockets of their abolitionist friends. their abolitionist friends. They raised the money Frederick needed to buy his freedom, and his enslavement contract was voided after Hugh Auld, who once forbade him to learn to read, received their payment, which in today's money was a sum of around $18,000. Free to go home, he ignored the pleas of his European abolitionist friends to stay in England, and he left for Massachusetts, reuniting with Anna and his young children. The Douglas family moved to Rochester, New York in 1847, and with more funds raised by his English abolitionist friends, he took activism in new directions. In Rochester, Frederick embraced the emerging women's rights movement, and even though he didn't have the right to vote, he vocalized his support of the Republican Party's pro-abolition politicians. He bought a printing

press and ran his own newspaper, which he called the North Star. The newspaper's motto was, Right is of no sex, truth is of no color, God is the father of us all, and we are all brethren. And it challenged the popular, mostly white abolitionist theory that free Black people should be sent back to Africa. Many who were free of enslavement in the mid-1800s didn't want to leave the United States for the country of their ancestors' origins. They wanted to fight for freedom in the country of their birth. During a 4th of July speech in Rochester, Frederick Douglass addressed an audience of both black and white listeners. He said, this 4th of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn.

What to the American slave is your 4th of July? A day that reveals to him more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham, your shouts of liberty and equality, a thin veil to cover up your crimes. But Frederick didn't just speak and write about abolition in the abstract sense. He and Anna also dove in and helped people who were being moved through the Underground Railroad. They provided over 400 people who escaped their enslavement with lodging in their home and connections and resources in New York and other free states. and other free states. By the 1850s, the views of William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass began to diverge. Garrison's views tended to align with a more radical version of abolition.

He denounced all political parties and even dissuaded fellow white abolitionists from voting because he felt it was morally wrong to participate in a government corrupted by the tolerance and support of slavery. He believed that the Union itself should be dissolved and rebuilt, and that the U.S. Constitution, as it was written, was a pro-slavery document. He even publicly burned a copy of the Constitution in 1854, later telling readers of the Liberator that it was a covenant with death, an agreement with hell. That's what he said of the Constitution. But like all successful movements, the abolitionist movement needed all types. It needed vocal radicals like William Lloyd Garrison, and it needed people who recognized the value of slow and steady momentum.

Affected by his time in Europe and his work with the North Star, Frederick's own views began to evolve. He became more pragmatic. In 1851, Frederick held a meeting in Syracuse, New York, and told the crowd that, unlike Garrison, he did not consider the Constitution to be a pro-slavery document. He had read a document published by a Unitarian essayist, Lysander Spooner, called The Unconstitutionality of Slavery, and the piece thoroughly outlined how the Constitution could be interpreted as an anti-slavery document. Frederick found value in the idea of fighting

the institution of slavery from within the constitutional framework. This led to a bitter rift between the two former friends, one that would last well into the years of the Civil War. In 1861, as the North and South prepared to go to war, Frederick Douglass was one of the most famous Black men in the U.S. and Europe. He published a second autobiography and continued to speak out in favor of both abolition and women's rights. During the war, he advocated that Black men should be allowed to fight for the Union. Three of his own sons enlisted, and the two oldest served in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the first all-Black Union unit. But Black troops quickly realized that they were not receiving equal pay.

They earned $3 less per month than White Union soldiers. Frederick Douglass stepped in as an advocate. On August 10, 1863, Frederick showed up, uninvited, at the White House. He later wrote that he elbowed his way up the stairs past all the angry white office seekers who were waiting in the president's receiving line. President Lincoln granted him an audience. Remember, Frederick Douglass was a world-famous political figure at this point. And although Lincoln heard Frederick's concerns, he didn't make any changes and told Frederick that the compensation of Black soldiers was a necessary concession for letting men of color serve the Union. Frederick wasn't exactly happy with that response, but he later confided in a friend that he left the meeting feeling more confident that slavery would not survive the war

and that the country would survive both slavery and the war. This meeting of the two powerhouse abolitionists was the first of three White House conversations Frederick Douglass and President Lincoln would have before the war ended. When President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation took effect on January 1st, 1863, Frederick was in Boston and he wrote about the mood of the crowd around him saying, we were waiting and listening, we were watching by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day. We were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries. After emancipation, Frederick shifted his ideology again and began to fight for the

equal citizenship of Black people. He stressed that freedom from enslavement would be empty if the newly freed were not given the same rights that protected white citizens. He wanted more for Black people than just freedom. He wanted equality. Douglass spent the latter half of his life agitating for both racial equality and women's suffrage. His notoriety and influence catapulted him to several high-ranking federal appointments. But he also continued to tour the country and give speeches. He made connections, he met with people, he told his story, and he listened to the stories of others. At the end of his life, Frederick wrote a third autobiography titled Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

In it, he writes, For no man who lives at all lives unto himself. He either helps or hinders all who are in any ways connected to him. Frederick, catapulted to fame by his ideas and his authenticity, Frederick catapulted to fame by his ideas and his authenticity, made it his life's work to create the kind of change that rippled outward and brought freedom and agency to millions of enslaved and marginalized Americans. And there is so much more I could tell you about the life and work of Frederick Douglass, And I will. I will. This is not the last time you have heard about him. I can promise you that. But for now,

we'll say goodbye. And I'll see you again soon. Thank you so much for listening to Here's Where It Gets Interesting. If you enjoyed this episode, would you consider sharing it on social media or leaving us a rating or review on your favorite podcast platform. All those things help podcasters out so much. The show is written and researched by executive producer Heather Jackson, Valerie Hoback, and Sharon McMahon. Our audio engineer is Jenny Snyder, and it's hosted by me, Sharon McMahon. We'll see you again soon. you