Whittier Book of the Week
2.14.2021
Book of the Week - Maybe Something Beautiful with Mrs. Lewis
February is Black and African American History Month
Frederick Douglass
“...The son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, "Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey" was born in February of 1818 on Maryland's eastern shore. He spent his early years with his grandparents. During this time he was exposed to the degradations of slavery, witnessing firsthand brutal whippings and spending much time cold and hungry. When he was eight he was sent to Baltimore to live with a ship carpenter named Hugh Auld. There he learned to read and first heard the words abolition and abolitionists. "Going to live at Baltimore," Douglass would later say, "laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity."
Douglass spent seven... years in Baltimore before being sent back to the country, where he was hired out to a farm run by a notoriously brutal "slavebreaker" named Edward Covey. And the treatment he received was indeed brutal. Whipped daily and barely fed, Douglass was "broken in body, soul, and spirit." ‘
Douglass vowed to escape and though his early attempts failed, on September 3, 1838 he was successful. Travelling by train, then steamboat, then train, he arrived in New York City the following day. Settling in New Bedford, Massachusetts, a few weeks later.
Always striving to educate himself, Douglass continued his reading. He joined various organizations in New Bedford, including a black church. He attended Abolitionists' meetings eventually joining the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass was asked to become a lecturer for the Society for three years. It was the launch of a career that would continue throughout his long life.
In 1845 Douglass published his autobiography: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written By Himself. Douglass was a prolific writer and committed activist for abolition and the rights of blacks. When the Civil War began Douglass continued his active involvement to better the lives of African Americans. He conferred with Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and recruited northern blacks for the Union Army. After the War he fought for the rights of women and African Americans alike. It was just after returning from a women’s suffrage rally that Frederick Douglass died of a heart attack on February 20, 1895 at his hilltop home, Cedar Hill, in Anacostia, Washington, DC.
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Missed Previous Books of the Week? See below...
Whittier Elementary School - Believe, Achieve, Succeed
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