Frederick Douglass was born into slavery and self educated, learning to read and write despite the barriers against slave education. As a fugitive slave, Frederick was able to compose the best-known slave narrative in the history of world slavery while on the lam. Fugitive slave laws forbade the aiding and abetting of a runaway, and these laws were strictly enforced. His writings became a most powerful tool to be used in the fight against the institution of slavery in the U.S., as well as throughout the rest of the world.
He described the brutality of the practice of human bondage, describing his childhood separation from his mother, the brutal beatings he witnessed and received, and his determination to be free, while expressing his own humanity and the inhumanity of the system that kept him and his brothers and sisters as slaves.
Douglass willed himself into becoming more than an object of exploitation. He developed into a great African American hero and leader. He played a leading role in 19th century reform as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln, and in other areas of government. Slavery played such a dominating role in American politics, succumbing into the nation’s only civil war, which eventually ended the system of slavery. Douglass was a leader for all Americans. Steadfast in the struggle for women’s rights and African American suffrage, he spent his life working toward integration and civil rights. His autobiography was an international bestseller. On a world speaking tour, he was able to exemplify the best in the human spirit, and the ability to transcend any manmade boundary.
His special gift to America lives on in the works of African American literature during and after the “New Negro” Harlem Renaissance; and in the passage of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution which together gave black people the right to vote. The struggle to overcome the evil of the slave system has created many stars and heroes in American democracy, even as the inequalities continue to evade justice. Douglass is the standard-bearer for liberty and the pursuit of happiness in this, the most free of lands. We applaud and celebrate this symbol of the “North Star”. To freedom, we march on!
