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Frederick Douglass (c. February,1817- February 20,1895), the son of a black mother, who was a slave, and a white father, was originally named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (Merrill III 47; Frost 414). He was born in Talbot County, Maryland, and was self-taught. He escaped from slavery September 3, 1838, and chose his new name from Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake (Frost 414).

He then settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, married, worked for a time as a day laborer (Ruchames IV 11), and became interested in the antislavery movement through reading Garrison's Liberator (Merrill III 47). In August, 1841, he addressed the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's convention in Nantucket, and a week later spoke in Millbury, Massachusetts, at the quarterly meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. He was such a success that he was at once signed on as an agent of the Massachusetts Society (Sterling 135, 136). Almost immediately he proved to be one of the most effective and most powerful speakers for abolition (Merrill III 47). In 1845 while speaking in New York before the American Anti-Slavery Society, he revealed the name of his former owner, a very dangerous thing to do while he was still a fugitive (Sterling 211-212). He was sent to Europe as the society's representative, lecturing for about two years in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales (Ruchames IV 11). While Douglass was in England in 1846, English friends paid for his freedom, giving the required £150 to Douglass' former owner, Thomas Auld. Many abolitionists in the United States objected to this payment, saying Douglass was a more effective speaker as a slave in constant danger of capture. Some even asserted that if Douglass were captured and returned to the South, it would provide valuable publicity for the abolitionist movement. Garrison, angered and shocked by such a suggestion, asked who would like to have this happen to himself and suggested that if Abby Kelley Foster were kidnaped and taken to the South, that also would doubtless do more to overthrow slavery than all the great work she had done for the cause. But if she were so captured, would anyone object to paying such a small sum to save her (Kraditor 220,221)?

In 1845 he published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. an American Slave. This book and lectures by Douglass and other fugitives made the plight of the enslaved concrete and real for Northerners, who had been led to believe that slaves were treated kindly and were contented with their lot (Bailyn 559).

Douglass' wife, Anna, bound shoes to help with his support (Sterling 190).

In the 1840s followers of Garrison, led by John A. Collins and Frederick Douglass, held meetings in towns in New York (the state), Ohio, Indiana, and western Pennsylvania, Garrison remaining in the East. These meetings had been planned by the New England Anti-Slavery Convention in 1843 with the intention of holding one hundred conventions west of the Hudson (Merrill III 465).

In 1847 Garrison too became directly involved in the antislavery movements in Pennsylvania and Ohio. He accompanied Frederick Douglass to Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, New Brighton, and various Ohio towns beginning with Youngstown (465).

By the time of Garrison's trip to New Brighton, Douglass, Stephen S. Foster, Abby Kelley Foster, and other abolitionist speakers had already given a number of lectures there (510).

In August of 1847 Garrison and Douglass arrived in New Brighton accompanied by J.B. Vashon, Dr. George B. Peck, Dr. Delaney, and some others from Pittsburgh. Writing to his wife Helen from Youngstown, Ohio, on August 16, 1847, Garrison told of their reception and of the lectures. He stated that they went by steamer on the Ohio River to Beaver and then took an omnibus to New Brighton, where they were cordially welcomed by Milo A. Townsend, his wife and parents, Dr. Weaver, Timothy White and others (510).

[For information on J.B. Vashon, Dr. Peck, Dr. Delaney, Dr. Weaver, and Timothy White, see chapter 12 on William Lloyd Garrison.]

Douglass, Garrison, and Dr. Delaney addressed the meetings in New Brighton at considerable length. Douglass was by this time very worn down by the arduous journey and the number of lectures he had given (511).

On Saturday afternoon Douglass, Garrison, and Dr. Peck set out by canal boat on the forty-mile journey to Youngstown, Ohio.

Even on a canal boat black passengers were not usually permitted to eat at the table during regular meals, so some trouble was expected. The captain came to them at supper time to say that he had no objection to Douglass' eating at the table, but he was not sure of the passengers' attitude. Fortunately all went well (512), as the following letter from Douglass to Milo makes clear.

Letter 44

from Frederick Douglass

My Dear Milo,

Dr. Peck thought you would like to know how we have been treated on this Boat. I therefore hasten to inform you that both Captain and crew have treated us with the utmost kindness --- and politeness. We were all seated at the table together and took tea without the slightest objection from any one of the passengers.

The steward was exceedingly kind and obliging. In haste.

Yours sincerely,

With best regards to all the Dear New Brighton friends

Canal Boat "Ocean," Aug. 15, 1847 Frederick Douglass

When they arrived in Youngstown, Douglass was completely exhausted and had lost his voice. However, he and Garrison continued to follow their schedule until Garrison became seriously ill in Cleveland. Douglass then went on alone (526-528).

In 1847 Douglass founded and edited the North Star, later called Frederick Douglass's Paper . It addition to its antislavery stance, the paper supported women's suffrage (Webster 294; Frost 414).

On July 19, 20, 1848, Douglass spoke at the first women's rights convention, which was held in the Wesleyan Methodist church in Seneca Falls, New York. He was strongly in favor of women's rights, as were Garrison and Stephen Foster (Sterling 185-186). However, he felt that women's rights should in no way interfere with the antislavery movement (Sterling 275). In 1869, when ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution permitting black men to vote was at issue, Douglass contended that while women should also have the vote, this was not a matter of such urgency as it was for the black men in fifteen states, where suffrage was a matter of life and death (354).

Douglass gradually turned from Garrison's nonviolent and anti-political stance to support political action (274). On the other hand, he objected to the violence practiced in John Brown's raid of 1859.

When the Civil War began, Douglass recruited black regiments and in the Reconstruction period worked for the welfare of his people. He was consulted by Lincoln during the war. From 1877-81 he was U.S. marshal for the District of Columbia, from 1881-86 he was recorder of deeds in the same place, and from 1889-91 he was U.S. minister to Haiti (Webster 294).

Excerpts from a letter that Milo A. Townsend wrote to Frederick Douglass follow.

Dear Friend Douglass:-

I am sojourning in this "Iiron"-- (I was going to say Iron Hearted "City") for the present. Perhaps the latter adjective would be the most appropriate, as well as the most significant, for the mass of the people here are as iron-hearted as the iron they manufacture, so far as any sympathy for humanity or reform is concerned. Indeed it cannot be wondered, and perhaps they ought not to be blamed that such is the case -- for life to them is but a battle for money and bread. The rattle of drays, the wagons, -- the uproar and tumult -- the hurrying to and fro which are to be seen and heard on all sides, are but so many discordant notes of music to this ceaseless war of trade and traffic.

Tis true there are a few good spirits here -- a few whose souls are sadly out of place, and out of harmony in the mighty struggle. They feel that whatever may be the professions of a people thus grasping, thus engaged and absorbed -- their practices are "of the earth earthly"-- that to them Truth, Goodness, Righteousness and Freedom are matters of incidental importance, and mere abstractions, which are very pretty to talk about, but impossible to practice.

There has occasionally been a momentary interest excited here in behalf of the great question of Freedom -- an interest which manifests considerable earnestness for a time -- but soon the subject is forgotten, and the cry of perishing myriads is drowned by the uproar and clatter of money-getting. So long as society is now organized, perhaps it will be necessary to make accumulation the paramount object -- the "chief end of man." It is truly demeaning to make this the highest object of life-- to cultivate that faculty, so much to the neglect of the higher and nobler attributes of the soul; but the people must have bread, and while the few infernal grabocrats and monopolists have all the bread and money, of course the many must work, and suffer and toil, or surrender and die. Few are disposed to do the latter, and therefore submit to the crushing, blinding, stultifying, influences that surround them....

Milo A. Townsend

Pittsburgh, Pa., Oct. 9th, 1849 (Scrapbook IV 13)