Frederick Douglass & The Abolitionists
Frederick Douglass Reading Schedule Chaps intro-6: 9/12 Chaps 7-10: 9/19 Chaps 11-App: 9/24 Assessment: We will complete three Close Reads of excerpts, one of which will culminate in an individual rhetorical analysis essay and you will take a MC Reading Comp exam.
Context: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave born into slavery in Maryland as Frederick Bailey circa 1818 a slave on farms on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and in Baltimore throughout his youth first learned how to read and began making contacts with educated free blacks eventually escaped north to New York at the age of about twenty reunited with and married his fiancée, a free black woman from Baltimore named Anna Murray the two settled further north in New Bedford, Massachusetts changed his last name to Douglass. Douglass worked for the next three years as a laborer and continued his self‑education he began reading the Liberator, the abolitionist newspaper edited by William Lloyd Garrison In 1841, Douglass attended an abolitionist meeting where he met Garrison Douglass told the crowd about his experiences of slavery Garrison offered to employ him as an abolitionist speaker for the American Anti‑Slavery Society. From 1841 to 1845, he traveled the Northern states, speaking on slavery’s injustice and brutality encountered hostile opposition and, most often, the charge that he was lying Many did not believe that such an eloquent and intelligent Negro had so recently been a slave 1845-writes his autobiography
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William Lloyd Garrison Garrison was a prominent abolitionist who worked with Douglass to end slavery Garrison created the abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator-1 January 1831 1st editorial Defends his staunch opposition to slavery and his use of strong language to support the cause
Frederick Douglass William Lloyd Garrison died May 24, 1879 Chronic kidney disease Speech given at the Garrison Memorial Meeting on June 2, 1879 Douglass memorializes Garrison by discussing his dedication to the abolitionist movement and all that he sacrificed for it.
Angelina Grimke Prominent female abolitionist spoke to the members of the Massachusetts Legislature in February 1838 the first woman in U.S. history to address the members of an American legislative body Her subject was the demand for the immediate end of the slave trade in Washington, D.C.
John Brown Advocated for the end of slavery by any means necessary including a violent slave uprising seized the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in October, 1859, for the purpose of arming slaves for an insurrection. Speech given November 2, 1859 during his trial He was executed December 2, 1859
David Walker born free in 1796 in North Carolina, and moved to Boston Wrote a 26 page pamphlet warning of a bloody insurrection if slaveholders did not liberate slaves December, 1828 he delivered an address before the Massachusetts General Colored Association, an organization founded two years earlier in Boston to oppose slavery and discrimination against free blacks The speech, which called for organization and united action among African Americans
Harriet Beecher Stowe Best known for writing Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1853, an abolitionist novel Met with Douglass and was convinced of his convictions Letter to William lloyd Garrison Hoped to help reconcile the rift that had grown between Garrison and Douglass
T. Thomas Fortune Born as a slave in Florida in 1856 Became a newspaper owner and publisher in NY Speech given April 20, 1886 before the Brooklyn, New York Literary Union argues that class conflict rather than racial strife was at the center of the struggles of African Americans in post-Civil War era
Frances Harper free-born native of Baltimore, Maryland gave her first anti-slavery lecture in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1854 books of poetry enhanced her prominence in 1859 wrote an open letter to the condemned John Brown, which was read by tens of thousands of Americans May 1866 Harper addressed the Eleventh National Women's Rights Convention in New York