By 1843 he had joined other speakers with the 'American Anti-Slavery Society' on a tour of the eastern and mid-western United States. It was a popular stop on the Underground Railroad and started his National reach. In 1840 he traveled to Elmira, New York, to speak. In 1839 Douglass became a licensed preacher, which built his oratory skills. The couple settled in Massachusetts and took the surname of Douglass, inspired by the poem The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott. Murray traveled up to New York to meet him, and on September 15th, 1838, they were married. From the train, he took a steamboat to a safe house in New York City, and in less than a full day, he made it to freedom. On September 3rd, 1838, he jumped a train North and escaped slavery, disguising himself as a free black sailor with a uniform and papers secured by Murray. She encouraged and aided Douglass in his quest for freedom. In 1837 he fell in love with Anna Murray, a free black woman in Baltimore. According to Douglass, the beatings broke him into a personal transformation - he fought back and 'was made a man.' His disapproval proved to Douglass that 'Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.'Īt 16, Douglass was hired out to a poor farmer who was reputed to be a 'slave-breaker.' The man, Edward Covey, beat Douglass so much his wounds had no time to heal. At 12, his owner's wife began to teach him the alphabet, although his owner highly disapproved.

At the age of 6, he was separated from her as well. As an infant, he was separated from his mother and raised by his grandmother. His given name, which he later changed, was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. From plantation records in Maryland, Historians have pieced together that Douglass was probably born in 1818.

Frederick Douglass is an American who was born into slavery, escaped, and became an orator, a leading abolitionist, and a voice for social change before and after the American Civil War.īorn into slavery, with no accurate record of his birth but remembering his mother called him her 'Little Valentine,' Frederick Douglas picked February 14th as his birthdate.

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