Showing posts with label Frederick Douglass. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Frederick Douglass. Show all posts

February 20 - Frederick Douglass Day

Posted on February 20, 2021

This is an update of my post published on February 20, 2010:


We often celebrate historical people on the anniversary of their birth (AKA, their birthday!), but Frederick Douglass never knew what day he was born. It wasn't even certain exactly what year he was born. His best guess for his birth year was 1818.

Why didn't he know his birthday? He was born a slave (in Maryland in the U.S.) with the last name Bailey. He never knew his father, and he was separated from his mother when he was just a baby.

Douglass ran away from slavery when he was around 20 years old. He changed his name and settled in Massachusetts, where he made it his life's work to work for the abolition of slavery. He worked for human rights of all sorts, including women's right to vote, and equality for Native Americans and recent immigrants as well as for black folks. Douglass spoke and wrote about his ideas and informed white audiences of the horrible realities of slavery.


Frederick Douglass's words:
"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.”

“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

(When asked to describe what it felt like when, as a runaway slave, he reached the North and freedom):
“Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.”
– Thanks to Brainy Quote and Wikipedia!

 




What happened to Frederick Douglass after the Civil War?

The Good:
  • Douglass's speech honoring the slain Abraham Lincoln was so moving to the president's widow, apparently, that she gave Douglass Lincoln's favorite walking stick.
  • Douglass worked as president of a freedman's bank, a U.S. Marshall, and a diplomat; he also continued on the lecture circuit, speaking at universities and emphasizing voting rights and other civil rights.

The Bad:
  • Douglass's house in Rochester, New York, was burned down in 1872, possibly because of arson. The family moved to Washington, D.C.

  • Douglass's wife died in 1882, which made him quite depressed; later, when he married a woman who was working for women's rights, the new couple met up with a lot of hatred and anger because she was white.

The Odd:
  • In 1872, Douglass became the first black person to be nominated as Vice President of the U.S. This would be in the “good” list, except for the fact that nobody consulted Frederick Douglass before nominating him! He was on the ticket, along with Victoria Woodhull as the presidential candidate, for the Equal Rights Party, and not only did Douglass not campaign, he never even acknowledged the nomination.

Read the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
This book is short and easy to understand, but be forewarned: Douglass's account of the horrors of slavery is pretty vivid.




Watch some videos.
Try this one or this one.

There is a coloring page about Douglass on Super Coloring.

 

Also on this date:







 Anniversary of Frederick Douglass's death
 (original post)

















World Pangolin Day

(Third Saturday of February)



 (Third Saturday in February)




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February 14 - Frederick Douglass Day

Posted on February 14, 2019



In modern society, we tend to shove a lot of special holidays around so that we have long weekends. In the U.S., that means celebrating Martin Luther King's birthday on the third Monday of January, close to his actual birthday, January 15. And we celebrate Presidents Day on the third Monday in February, which always falls between and the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (February 12) and George Washington (February 22).

But in the case of Frederick Douglass, we don't know the actual birthday! Various libraries and schools and historic sites might hold Frederick Douglass Day on some convenient day in February, and some places opted for the known date of his death, February 20 (back in 2010, when I first wrote about Frederick Douglass Day, it was February 20).

It turns out that Douglass himself chose a date to celebrate his birthday - and that date was February 14.

One place that celebrates Frederick Douglass every February is the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site in Washington, D.C. Last fall was the first time I'd ever visited this historic site; I discovered that this house, which he named Cedar Hill, is where he lived the last 17 years of his life, after accepting a position as a United States Marshall from President Rutherford B. Hayes.

Before that, Douglass had lived in several other places. He'd been born into slavery in Maryland; he'd managed to run away by traveling through Delaware (a slave state) into Pennsylvania (a free state) and then to New York City (NY was also a free state).  His girlfriend, who had been born free even though she lived in Maryland, traveled to NYC to marry him.


At that point, Douglass wasn't named "Douglass." His mother named him Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey; he called this name "grand" and may have thought it was TOO grand, and so he gave up the two middle names. Once he ran away, it was dangerous to keep his name, so he changed from Bailey to Stanley to Johnson. The latter was the name he had when he got married.

The Johnsons moved to Massachusetts, but they found that the name "Johnson" was way too common. So they changed their last name again, this time to the more unusual Douglass. 

Douglass became a preacher, but he also became an abolitionist lecturer and writer, and as an abolitionist he traveled all through the North and even to Europe (Ireland and Great Britain). He began publishing an abolitionist newspaper, began to speak up for women's suffrage, began to talk about ending segregation in schools and transportation (even getting himself thrown off of a Massachusetts train because he refused to sit in the segregated coach assigned to black riders).

As he continued to work - mostly through speaking and writing - for equality for black people and for women, Frederick Douglass continued to travel and at some point moved to Rochester, New York. Like I said before, he ended his life living in D.C. 

Douglass was one of the most famous and respected Black people in America during his lifetime. Check out some of his words of wisdom:






I remember hearing that Douglass, a few
weeks before his death, was asked what
advice he would give a young black American.
The quote below is what he answered: 



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February 20, 2010

Frederick Douglass Day

We often celebrate historical people on the anniversary of their birth (AKA, their birthday!), but Frederick Douglass never knew what day he was born. It wasn't even certain exactly what year he was born. His best guess for his birth year was 1818.

Why didn't he know his birthday? He was born a slave (in Maryland in the U.S.) with the last name Bailey. He never knew his father, and he was separated from his mother when he was just a baby.

Douglass ran away from slavery when he was around 20 years old. He changed his name and settled in Massachusetts, where he made it his life's work to work for the abolition of slavery. He worked for human rights of all sorts, including women's right to vote, and equality for Native Americans and recent immigrants as well as for blacks. Douglass spoke and wrote about his ideas and informed white audiences of the horrible realities of slavery.

Frederick Douglass's words:
"I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed.”

“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.”

(When asked to describe what it felt like when, as a runaway slave, he reached the North and freedom):
“Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.”
– Thanks to Brainy Quote and Wikipedia!
What happened to Frederick Douglass after the Civil War?

The Good:
  • Douglass's speech honoring the slain Abraham Lincoln was so moving to the president's widow, apparently, that she gave Douglass Lincoln's favorite walking stick.
  • Douglass worked as president of a freedman's bank, a U.S. Marshall and a diplomat; he also continued on the lecture circuit, speaking at universities and emphasizing voting rights and other civil rights.
The Bad:
  • Douglass's house in Rochester, New York, was burned down in 1872, possibly because of arson. The family moved to Washington, D.C.
  • Douglass's wife died in 1882, which made him quite depressed; later, when he married a woman who was working for women's rights, the new couple met up with a lot of hatred and anger because she was white.
The Odd:
  • In 1872, Douglass became the first black person to be nominated as Vice President of the U.S. This would be in the “good” list, except for the fact that nobody consulted Frederick Douglass before nominating him! He was on the ticket, along with Victoria Woodhull as the presidential candidate, for the Equal Rights Party, and not only did Douglass not campaign, he never even acknowledged the nomination.

Read the book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.
This book is short and easy to understand, but be forewarned: Douglass's account of the horrors of slavery is pretty vivid.

Watch some videos.
Each short video about Frederick Douglass (available on the Bio Classroom Video site) tells about a portion of his life.

There is a coloring page about Douglass on the Apples for the Teacher website.
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