Douglas, Frederick

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Frederick (1817-1895), a noted lecturer and writer. He was born at Tuckahoe, Maryland, and died at Washington, D. C. His father was a white man, his mother a negro slave. As a child he had a great thirst for learning. While employed in a shipyard near Baltimore he picked up the letters of the alphabet and a number of words from the chalk marks on the various timbers. Later a white lady taught him to read. Among the interesting incidents related in his story of My Bondage and Freedom, is that of his experience with a noted trainer, named Covey, to whom he was hired out in order that his spirit might be broken into obedience. He overcame Covey in a hand to hand conflict in the barnyard. His life was saved by the fact that Covey was afraid to let the facts be known, lest his reputation as a disciplinarian might be destroyed. Douglass finally escaped to the North. He was received by the antislavery leaders, and soon developed ability as a writer of anti-slavery articles and as an effective lecturer on the antislavery platform. He visited England and Canada, stirring up sentiment against the enslavement of his people. In 1870 he started a paper called the New National Era. From time to time he held several positions under the national government. His features were intelligent. His associations were chiefly with white people. He can hardly be regarded as a worker among his own people of the Booker T. Washington type. See Negro Statue of Frederick the Great, Berlin