"At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed."
Frederick Douglass, a former slave and prominent leader in the abolitionist movement, fought for equality and to end slavery in America during the Civil War. Douglass was born in February of 1818, and although there is no official record of the exact date, February 14 is when we recognize his birthday. As an infant, Douglass was separated from his mother and, for a brief time, was raised by his maternal grandmother, before being sent to Maryland and “given” to the Auld family. There, he was passed between brothers, until ending up in Baltimore in the home of Hugh Auld. Although it was against the law for slaves to know how to read or write, Auld’s wife, Sophia, taught him the alphabet. These lessons were a catalyst for Douglass to continue to learn and to share that knowledge with others. As a result, he taught himself to read and write and then taught other enslaved people to read in secret.1 When the Auld family discovered this, Douglass was transferred to the ruthless Edward Covey, notoriously known as the “slave-breaker”. While under his ownership, he was often whipped and tortured. In 1838, at the age of 20, Douglass managed to escape, traveling from Maryland, through Delaware, and into New York, where he landed at a safe house owned by fellow abolitionist, David Ruggles. Despite having limited access to education, as a free man, Douglass wrote five autobiographies, including Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which detailed his time as a slave in Maryland.2 After the end of the war and the Emancipation Proclamation of 1862, Douglass continued to push for equality, human rights, and women’s right to vote until his death in 1895 at the age of 77. His tireless work and advocacy made him a large inspiration for the eventual Civil Rights movement in the 1970s .3