Frederick August Washington Bailey Research Paper

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Frederick August Washington Bailey was born into slavery around 1818 in Talbot County Maryland. He did not know the real year or the date of his birthday, but decided to celebrate it on February 14th. At a budding age he was chosen to live inside the residence of the plantation owners in which one of the owners may have been his father. His infrequent mother died when he was only ten years old. In one’s opinion, he did not grow up in a good environment. He did not have parents or a proper learning experience, but he took that and made it something larger than life. With a life such as his who would have guessed that Frederick would grow up to be the greatest abolitionist to ever live? Now individuals may argue that Frederick was not the only slave to overcome such treacherous ordeals but no other person, in my opinion has accomplished goals in a way such as Frederick did. Frederick was not your ordinary slave. Most slaves could not read and write, but Frederick was different. He was sent to the Auld home at the age of twelve where Sophia Auld began teaching him the alphabet. Her husband soon found out about it and demanded her to stop immediately, being that it was prohibited to teach a slave to read and write. They thought that if a slave began learning that they would become dissatisfied with their condition and would desire freedom. They were right. Instead of giving up, he sought out to finish learning from the Caucasian children and neighbors in the area. To me it seems as if he was determined to get an education one way or another. It appears as if though he was already so sharp at a young age. He began reading newspapers, political writing, and literature as often as he could. He moved back and forth for some time between the many Auld households before being sent to work with Edward Covey A.K.A. “The Slave Breaker”. Before arriving at Covey’s plantation Douglass had never worked in the field, but that was about to change. Covey consistently abused Frederick when he was 16 and nearly demolished him mentally. Frederick walked 7 miles to ask his old master for help who sided with Covey and praised him for being a good master. There was no possible way that Frederick could have walked seven miles back that night so his old master let him stay overnight which was a horrible idea. When he finally returned home, Covey snuck up on him and attempted to tie up his legs, but this time Frederick fights back. Covey calls for two of his white servants, but neither want to help. Frederick and Covey ultimately fought for two hours before Covey gives up and leaves. Promptly after the fight Frederick gains back something that he lost long ago, his spirit. Covey never beat him again. To be a great leader you have to possess power and strength and these are key characters that Frederick displayed especially during his teen years. Frederick tried to escape slavery twice before he finally succeeded. …show more content…
He escaped with the help of a an African American woman named Anna Murray, who lived in Baltimore. She gave him money, a sailor’s uniform, and identification papers provided by a free black seaman. Frederick made it to New York a free man. He married Anna Murray and they both changed their last names to Douglass. He then moved to Massachusetts to a radiant, free black community where he would faithfully attend abolitionists meetings at a local church. After some time passed, Frederick was asked to share his story at an abolitionists meeting in which he soon became a regular anti-slavery lecturer. This would be the beginning of a whole new world for him. A man named Lloyd Garrison was so captured by Frederick that he wrote about him in “The Liberator”. Soon after Douglass gave his very first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery convention. Like every great abolitionist there were people who did not like Frederick. He was actually chased and beaten by an upset crowd before being saved by a local family. When you stand up for what you believe in there are always going to be people who disagree and I think that Frederick understood that, but he did not give

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