ALLISON VILCHINSKY AND KATELYN GAFFNEY FREDERICK DOUGLASS

BIOGRAPHY Frederick Douglass was born a slave in February 1818 on Holmes Hill Farm, near Maryland’s eastern shore. Douglass lived with his master after he was separated from both his grandmother and his mother, Harriet Bailey; he knew little about his father except that he was a white man. At the age of eight Frederick was sent to Baltimore to work in the household of Hugh Auld There he learned to read and write, which he believed would be his pathway to freedom.

BIOGRAPHY At the age 15 Frederick returned to working as a field hand for Edward Covey, where he was brutally beaten. Whipped daily and barely fed, Douglass became "broken in body, soul, and spirit." On January 1, 1836, Douglass made a resolution that he would be free by the end of the year. He planned an escape. But early in April he was jailed after his plan was discovered. Two years later, while living in Baltimore and working at a shipyard, Douglass fled to New York City and then went on to New Bedford.

FROM A SLAVE TO AN ABOLITIONIST While living in New Bedford Massachusetts, Frederick began to attend Abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, the Liberator and in 1841, he saw Garrison speak at the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society's annual meeting. Douglass immediately became caught up in the Liberator's attacks on southern slaveholders. "The paper became my meat and drink," wrote Douglass. "My soul was set all on fire."

A VOICE TO BE HEARD A few days later, Douglass spoke before the crowd attending the annual meeting of the Massachusetts branch of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison immediately recognized Douglass's potential as a speaker, and hired him to be an agent for the society. For most of the next 10 years, Douglass was associated with Garrison’s school of the antislavery movement. He became a traveling speaker for the abolitionist movement to fight against slavery. In doing this he told his life as a slave and risk the threat of being recaptured.

THE NORTH STAR After finishing the tour in the fall of 1847, he again began drawing up plans for a new abolitionist paper. The goal of his paper would be to proclaim the abolitionist cause and fight for black equality. Around 1847 Douglass published The North Star, a newspaper about equality for all skin colors and genders. Douglass continued to fight for women’s rights along with Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. In 1848 Attends first women's rights convention

DEATH Feb. 20Frederick Douglass dropped dead in the hallway of his residence on Anacostia Heights at 7o'clock.