Born enslaved in 1818, by the time of the Civil War Frederick Douglass was famous around the United States and Europe for his work in the abolition movement. So how did this famous orator learn his trade, having never been to school? How did he escape enslavement? And how did his ideals change as war was brewing?Sidney Morrison introduces us to Frederick Douglass in this first of two episodes. Sidney is the author of 'Frederick Douglass: A Novel'.Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.
Chapter 1: Who is Frederick Douglass?
Hey, it's American History Hit. I'm Don Wildman. Greetings and thanks for listening. In February 1818, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, a boy named Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born enslaved. Such was the system across the American South in those days. If you were born to a mother enslaved, then most likely you were and for all your living days to come enslaved as well.
So waren die unvergesslichen Regeln der Schlafslaverie in Amerika, die sich über den Laufe ihres Kindesleben als Wettbewerb zwischen den Norden und den Süden der Staaten ledigte. But somehow, against all odds, this boy's life and destiny would prove to be astonishingly different. His name would be changed as well, to Frederick Douglass.
And in this episode today, we'll discuss the remarkable biography of this legendary figure, who broke free from his bondage to become one of the most admired and accomplished Americans of his day and ours.
having dedicated his work as a skilled writer, celebrated orator, journalist and publisher to the abolition of slavery, to racial and gender equality, to the courageous advocacy of social justice ideals. And to understand how he did this, we are joined now by author Sidney Morrison, whose 2024 work Frederick Douglass, a novel, imagines the personal side of this man's very public life.
Sydney has worked as a history teacher and high school principal in the Los Angeles area, and it's very nice to have you on the show. Hello, Sydney Morrison.
Hello. What a pleasure it is for me to be with you today, Don, and to talk about a man I've admired, respected, and marveled at his extraordinary life that you've captured so well.
His is a very long life, Frederick Douglass. I'm curious how and why you chose to explore it in a narrative form, as a novel.
I chose the novel as an act of liberation. Because Frederick Douglass, as you indicated, led a very public life. And the documents show whatever he was doing as a speaker was noted down by reporters from the moment he emerged as a public speaker until he died. We now know where he was almost every day, where he was lecturing, where he was speaking. However,
He was very reticent in talking about his personal life. And in his books, and he wrote three of them, he rarely talked about his wife or his children and his relationships with women who were very important in his life.
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Chapter 2: How did Frederick Douglass learn to read and write?
Owners or masters, if you will, of enslaved people raping, essentially, the women that were their possessions. Das ist sehr wahrscheinlich die Situation in Frederick Douglass' Fall. Es ist sehr indelikat. Es ist ein schwieriges Thema zu sprechen, aber das war die Wahrheit. Einer der versteckten Kriminellen der Slaverie war wirklich dieser Aspekt davon.
Und dann redest du darüber, wie viel Bewegung dieser junge Junge durch seine frühen Jahre von einem Ort zum anderen gemacht hat. Und das ist schwierig zu behalten. But that was the other aspect of enslavement in those days. You were a product. You were a service that was leased out or purchased or any number of ways that you would have found yourself away. Family connection didn't matter.
Chapter 3: What was Frederick Douglass's early life like?
They broke up families. They utilized young boys especially as a very important product. Oh, you know, I could get a lot of money for that. That informed his entire childhood until he finally, as you say, ends up in Baltimore in a whole different kind of experience, which is this urban enslavement.
Eines der Dinge, zu denen du, John, zu erwähnen gehörst, das sehr wichtig ist, ist, dass Verwaltete Privilegien und Möglichkeiten hatten, die in manchen Fällen sehr zerstörerisch waren, weil Aaron Anthony eine Familie besitzt hat, die Bailey-Familie. Die Familie war so, dass er besitzt hatte, oder wie wir sagen, Verwaltete, Betsy Bailey,
von denen er die Freiheit erlaubt hat, einigermaßen unabhängig zu leben. Das war Fredericks Großmutter. Und Betsy hatte fünf Töchter. Und Aaron Anthony's Relationships with these daughters, one of whom was Fredericks Mutter, was quite sexual and exploitative. And from these relationships, there were several children.
But what was really interesting is, Frederick Douglass says in his first book, my father was a white man. He says that unequivocally. So the question was, who was this white man?
And for me the answer, it must have been Aaron Anthony, because throughout this young boy's life, the interventions of Aaron Anthony and his daughter and his daughter's husband play out in such ways that it makes it at least appear to me that there was a significant connection. And even later,
When Douglas could have been sent away for doing things that slaves were not supposed to do, like teaching other slaves how to read or learning how to read and write himself because of the intervention of one of the members of this family, he could have been separated and sent away to the Deep South to work on distant plantations. But that never happened.
He was sent to Baltimore three times by this family. And that to me Es zeigte eine besondere Beziehung, aber es zeigte auch, dass seine Erfahrungen in Baltimore ihn immer verändert haben, weil er eine Vision von Freiheit hatte, die er nicht hätte gehabt, wenn er auf der Ostseeschere geblieben wäre.
His great achievements are many, but one of them is to be such a writer and publisher. And it is in Baltimore at the age of eight that he's at first taught to read, or at least given the rudimentary instruction on how to read by Sophia Auld, the wife of the man who has taken possession of him. This begins this career of his, this literate career.
How difficult was it for a boy like him to learn to read and write? That was not done, was it?
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Chapter 4: Why was Frederick Douglass sent to Edward Covey?
Ich habe immer das gleiche gemacht, Wörter sammeln, besonders Wörter, die sehr resonant und mächtig klingen. Und dann, als er Studenten in Reden sah, fragte er sie, was diese Reden waren. Where were these speeches from? And they told him about a book that they were studying because they had to recite in class. And he found out where this book could be purchased.
And he saved up his little money that he earned from doing certain things. Because he was allowed to do that in, again, urban slavery created more allowances for children to do things like that. And he went to the store, to this bookstore and bought this book. Und es hat alles verändert, weil er Patrick Henry und andere Founder über Freiheit und Gerechtigkeit lesen konnte.
Und es hat ihn inspiriert. Und er hat das Buch sein ganzes Leben gehalten.
Wow.
Ressourceful ist kaum das Wort für diesen Jungen. Ja. Nicht nur resourceful, sondern ermutigt, um die Bedeutung dieser Worte zu realisieren. Genau.
By the time he's 16, he's been in Baltimore for about eight years at that point, right? He's sent back, as happens, rented out to a farmer named Edward Covey. And this man was, you know, right out of the book, the textbook slave breaker type. And there, Douglas is, not yet Douglas, Bailey, is beaten several times and actually fights back. This is a curious incident to me.
It's mentioned every time, I suppose, it's part of his autobiography. He actually strikes back at the man and beats him at the fight. This changes their relationship forever. I always wondered how would he have managed to do that and not get into a lot of trouble.
That encounter, that fight, that experience was transformational. And in fact, Frederick Douglass in his book says that it changed him forever, that he became a man. A man who was committed to freedom after that fight. He was sent back to the eastern shore because of the dispute between two brothers.
And as a punishment to the brother who did not do what his legal owner wanted, he said, send them back. So he was sent back. And by now, having been in Baltimore for so long, he was not a plantation slave. And therefore he was very presumptuous. He was considered to be Troublesome.
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Chapter 5: How did Frederick Douglass escape from enslavement?
Wenn du älter bist, Papa, was machst du dann eigentlich?
An später denken ist so wichtig. Deshalb machen wir Altersvorsorge so einfach. Schon ab 25 Euro im Monat. Infos auf ergo.de oder bei ihrem Ergo-Berater vor Ort. Einfach, weil's wichtig ist.
Ergo.
How does he escape? What is the actual means with which he gets to the north?
When Anna Murray, whom he met in Baltimore at an improvement society, she proposes to help him escape because she could tell that he had a future and that she wanted to be a part of that future. So he had to figure out how to escape without endangering her or the lives of his friends who knew that he had a future elsewhere, that he was not going to stay.
Und Baltimore war so nahe an der Pennsylvania-Border, dass es viele Schlachter gab, die warteten, um Menschen zu versuchen, auszulaufen und Geld davon zu verdienen. Und es gab sogar auch Schwarze, die Möglichkeiten für finanzielle Erweiterung sahen, indem sie Menschen, die versucht haben, auszulaufen, schlugen.
Anna Murray, die du sprichst, ist in Baltimore und sie ist eigentlich eine freigeborene Frau. Das ist richtig. Sie ist eine freigeborene Frau. Sie ist nicht verheiratet. Sie ist also in der Lage, das zu funktionieren und sie kann ihm Papier holen. Das ist richtig. Und auch ein Seilers-Outfit, glaube ich. Das ist richtig. Und er steuert eigentlich auf einem Boot.
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Chapter 6: What role did Anna Murray play in Douglass's escape?
Eigentlich kommt er zuerst auf den Train. Und er beschreibt diese Szene, wo er auf dem Flugzeug weiß, dass er Kondukteure treffen wird. Denn im 19. Jahrhundert würden Kondukteure durch den Flugzeug laufen und Menschen bitten, ihre Bücher zu zeigen. Aber was Frederick Douglass darauf geachtet hat, war der Respekt, der den Seelern gegeben wurde.
Annapolis ist das Haus der Naval Academy und Seelern wurden sehr respektiert. So he had papers that had a general description, but anyone who looked at them in detail would see they didn't match. But he was counting on just the impression. You know, he was a big guy. He had this impressive sailor suit.
Als der Kondukteur ihn anruftete, war der Kondukteur sehr anstrengend und sagte, woher du gehst, ich sehe, du bist ein Flieger, danke, dass du dienst. Und das ist es, was ihn durchbrach. Es war nur ein Akt. Und so hat er es geschafft, über die Linie zu kommen und dann auf ein Boot zu kommen und in Philadelphia zu erreichen. Und, weißt du, Schritte auf dem Boden der Freiheit für das erste Mal.
Aber das war alles möglich, weil Anna Murray's Unterstützung und Unterstützung mit ihm. Und am Ende, als er nach New York kam, war das, wo er ging. Er kam nach New York und sie kamen dort, folgte ihm und sie verabredeten sich.
And they will stay married for 44 years, which is amazing.
44 years.
We need to skip through a few things and touch down briefly here. His travels, his escape plan, takes him through Philadelphia onto New York, which was actually not a very safe place. There was a lot of the same thing was going on on the borders as in New York, because of course it's a hub. Und so musste er aus dieser Stadt raus.
Aber das ist, wo er zuerst seinen Namen von Bailey zu Johnson verändert hat, was auch eine temporäre Veränderung war. Aber er ist im Grunde auf dem Weg nach New Bedford in Massachusetts, was in diesen Tagen bereits als ein abolitionistisches Zentrum bekannt gewesen wäre, oder?
Richtig, das ist korrekt. Seine Intention war, New Yorker zu sein. Und für mich als New Yorker fand ich das ziemlich ironisch. Aber weil es ein Ursprungszentrum war und viele, viele Jobs versprochen hat. Aber er lernte sehr schnell, dass es viele Leute gab, die für Leute wie ihn warten, um für Jobs auf dem Wasserfront von New York zu arbeiten.
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