Frederick Douglass American abolitionist, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, was born the son of an unknown slave woman and a white man. He was born into slavery in the year of 1818. The exact date of Douglass’s birth is unknown, but he chose to celebrate it on February 14. He was born and raised in Talbot County, Maryland, but at the age of 12, he was transported to the Baltimore home of Hugh Auld. Ignoring the ban on teaching slaves, Auld’s wife taught Douglass the alphabet. Eventually Auld found out and forbade his wife’s lessons, but Douglass still continued to learn from the white children of the neighborhood. “These skills would soon vault him to become the national abolitionist speaker we know today.” (A&E Television Networks) At …show more content…
When he arrived, Ruggles sent Douglass to meet Murray in New York. Later, Douglass married Murray on September 15, 1838. They adopted the name Johnson to disguise Douglass’s identity. Anna and Frederick decided to live in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where the majority of the population of the free community was black. This is where they soon adopted Douglass as their married name. “Overcoming his upbringing, he went on to become a world-renowned anti-slavery activist.” (A&E Television Networks) Him and his wife began attending a black church, which held abolitionist meetings daily. Douglass was asked to tell his stories at these meetings. A journalist named William Lloyd Garrison, who also attended these meetings, was impressed by his story and decided to write about Douglass in his weekly journal. About a week after the story was published, Douglass delivered his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s annual convention in Nantucket. He couldn’t satisfy everyone he met though. While participating in an 1843 lecture tour through the Midwest Douglass was chased down and beaten by a mob. Shortly after he was rescued by a local family. Because of how popular his stories became through Garrison’s articles, Douglass became inspired to follow in his same line of