On This Day in History: September 3

Frederick Douglass escapes slavery

The man who freed the enslaved, President Abraham Lincoln, had 126 photos taken of him. A Black man who freed himself and became a powerful voice for the abolition of slavery, Frederick Douglass, had at least 160 photos taken of him, making him the most photographed man of the 19th century.

--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: September 3, 1838--

Born into slavery in 1818 on a plantation near Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, Douglass’s birth name was Frederick Washington Augustus Bailey, and historians proclaim his father was “almost certainly white.” Douglass later wrote it “was whispered my master was my father.” That’s a nice way of saying he was a child produced by an enslaver raping his enslaved person.

It was a large plantation and Frederick was separated from his mother as an infant, only seeing her on rare occasions prior to her dying when he was seven. He was first raised by his maternal grandparents, then separated from them at age six, and two years later was given to the Auld family in Baltimore.

Douglass wrote of how Sophia Auld treated him “as she supposed one human being ought to treat another,” teaching him to read. Sophia’s husband Hugh disapproved, worrying literacy led to yearning for freedom. Sophia adopted her husband’s fears and stopped teaching him, hiding all written material. Frederick continued his education on his own in secret.

Hugh Auld was right, as Douglass later often said, “knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom.” His self-education caused him to condemn slavery and teach other enslaved to read. Once these lessons were uncovered, they were broken up by enslavers via clubs and stones.

In 1833, at the age of 15, Douglass was sent to a “slave-breaker” named Edward Covey who whipped the young man so often he would beat Douglass when the previous lashing’s wounds had not yet healed. At 16, Douglass fought back, beating Covey savagely. Covey never whipped him again; Frederick said it was transforming, writing “a slave was made a man.”

In 1837 Douglass met and fell in love with a free Black woman named Anna Murray, who encouraged and aided him in his quest to be free. On September 3, 1838, he wore a seaman’s clothing provided to him by Anna to disguise his enslaved status and boarded a northbound train. By various trains and steamboats, he arrived in New York 24 hours later, a free man.

Anna followed, and they were married 12 days after his flight. Frederick would later drop his middle names and take the last name Douglass, becoming known internationally as an abolitionist, author, and preacher. He also supported the women’s rights movement. He and Anna remained married 44 years, until her death in 1882. While married he carried on a 28-year-long affair with a white woman.

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