History of America Essay

Submitted By Giannichang1
Words: 933
Pages: 4

In the late 1800s this man’s dream is to stop slavery. He gave speeches to the blacks as well as the other people that believed slavery was wrong. In 1852 he was asked to speak in the Independence Day celebration. This man had stopped slavery in 1865 and for filled his dream. This famous man is Frederick Douglass. Frederick Douglass was born in February 1818. He was a slave when he was born. He was also separated from his family members. The place they took him too was a better place because there was a black grandma there with her own house to look after them, but they were still under control by the Master. When Frederick was six the grandma took him on a hike to go live with his brother Perry and sisters Sarah and Eliza, then the grandma left without Frederick noticing. The Master’s wife Sophia Auld taught Frederick how to read, and when she told her husband he got mad because if a black person has knowledge they will escape. One day Frederick was bad and his Master sent him to a different slave Master that like whipping people. Frederick got sick and tired from getting whipped so he fought Master Covey for 2 hours and won and after that fight he dreamed or freedom. When Frederick was thirteen, he bought a book called “The Columbian Orator.” The speeches in the book were about freedom, and he read that people who want slavery to end were called abolitionists. That influenced him to keep trying and made him dream about freedom even more. When Frederick was fifteen he was moved to Master Thomas Auld’s plantation. It was horrible there, he had to fight for food and starved, even though life was that hard he stilled dreamed of freedom. Frederick had attempted his first escape with 5 other slaves, but they failed because Master had eavesdropped and heard them. Frederick got thrown to jail and got questioned but they didn’t trust him so they sent him back to Hugh Auld’s place back in Baltimore. Throughout all his traveling almost each place all the black kids had a secret school for black people, but the Master would find out and cancel it. So he had to learn it by reading books and teaching himself. One day Frederick was twenty-years old met a black girl named Anna that helped him escape, he went on a train that she had paid for. He was nervous and terrified thinking if he might get caught. When the train arrived to the town he got off and took a boat. On September 4, 1838, Fredrick Douglass had reached New York City and started his brand new free life. In New York slave catchers offered people money for any information about run away slaves, so Frederick got scared so he went on a boat and sailed off. When he was there he met Anna and got married and moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Frederick’s real last name was Bailey but he was scared that slave catchers would find him so he changed it to Douglass so it was more complicated for slave catchers. Then Frederick and Anna had a baby girl named Rosetta and baby boy named Lewis. In 1841 they went to a meeting in Nantucket and an abolitionist told Frederick to tell everyone about his life as a slave. That’s when he started to travel and talk about his life as a slave and gave amazing speeches. People didn’t believe that he was a slave because he’s smart, so he proved it by writing