Nidhi+A.


 * __Frederick Douglass __**

Frederick Douglass was born in 1818. He was separated from his mother when he was only a few weeks old, and was raised by his grandparents. He then was taken to the plantation by his grandmother when he was six years old and was left there. For a very long time after that, he worked for multiple slave masters. Around the year 1826, one of his mistresses taught him the alphabet and a few simple words, until her husband found out and forbid it. Ever since then, Douglass would try learning secretly as many chances as he could get. Douglass had a rough life working as a slave. In 1834 he was sent to work for a “slave breaker”, who would beat any slave who rested for a little while. It was here where he learnt an important truth, "Men are whipped oftenist who are whipped easiest.", when he got into a fight with the slave breaker. In 1838, Frederick Douglass finally escaped and became a free man. After he became a free man, he changed his name to Frederick Douglass from the book //The Lady of the Lake// to make it more difficult for slave catchers to find him. After moving up north, Douglass became more involved with abolitionist movements after getting introduced to a newspaper which criticized slaveholders. In 1833 he became involved in the American Anti-Slavery Society. He became a prominent leader in the local black community. Soon Douglass started growing his skills as a speaker and started giving lectures about anti-slavery. When he really received his world acclaim was in 1845, when he published //Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,// his auto-biography, which became a best seller. Along with slavery, Frederick was against many other things as well. One of these was the consumption of alcohol. In 1846, he gave his most controversial speeches yet, criticizing slave owners giving slaves alcohol in order to pacify them. In 1847 Douglass started publishing a newspaper called North Star, an antislavery newspaper. In 1848 he participated in the first women right conventions at Seneca Falls. Fredrick Douglass’s views are very important for Americans during this time period. With his brilliant speaking skills, he was able to gain much awareness to such a tremendous issue. What makes this all the more impressive was that he was able to gain so much attention and accomplish so much as an ex-slave. He has proved to be a powerful voice during this era and his contributions to racial injustice are still well renowned. A few people who could be of help with this would be William Lloyd Garrison, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Ways that the federal government could help advance the goals of this movement would be to provide more funding for it, or to help pass legislations abolishing slavery nationwide. Work cited
 * "Biography of Frederick Douglass-Champion of Civil and Women's Rights." //Frederick Douglass Speeches-Seminars on Race Relations and Gender Equity//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. .

"The Rochester Years." //Rochester History Resources//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2012. <http://www.history.rochester.edu/class/