Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) African American Reformer, Orator and Statesmen.
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Everything about Frederick Douglass seems impossibly eloquent. He was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. He was taught to read by the wife of one of his masters. His escape from slavery was bolstered by falling in love with a free black woman, Anna Murray. She gave him some of her savings and the uniform of a sailor.
He wrote of his roots in a way that should bring home the reality of isolation and marginalization occurring even for free black men and women.
The reader must not expect me to say much of my family. Genealogical trees did not flourish among slaves. A person of some consequence in civilized society, sometimes designated as father, was, literally unknown to slave law and to slave practice. I never met with a slave in that part of the country who could tell me with any certainty how old he was. Few at that time knew anything of the months of the year or of the days of the month. They measured the ages of their children by spring-time, winter-time, harvest-time, plantingtime, and the like. Masters allowed no questions concerning their ages to be put to them by slaves. Such questions were regarded by the masters as evidence of an impudent curiosity. From certain events, however, the dates of which I have since learned, I suppose myself to have been born in February, 1817.
From his Autobiography: Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
Anna and Frederick settled in Masschustes where he joined the abolitionist movement and became a leader well known for his dazzling oratory. I’m sure the mustache didn’t hurt to much much either.
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