1 00:00:02,440 --> 00:00:07,120 Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. This past week. We briefly mentioned Frederick Douglass 2 00:00:07,200 --> 00:00:10,440 Speaker 1: in our episode on Lucy Stone, and something we spent 3 00:00:10,720 --> 00:00:13,600 Speaker 1: just a little more time on is an open letter 4 00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:17,680 Speaker 1: that Stone's husband, Henry Blackwell, wrote to be published in 5 00:00:17,720 --> 00:00:22,560 Speaker 1: the South, arguing that granting voting rights to white women 6 00:00:22,760 --> 00:00:27,720 Speaker 1: could offset the effects of suffrage for black men. Something 7 00:00:27,880 --> 00:00:32,160 Speaker 1: I had totally forgotten even though I wrote our episode 8 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:36,000 Speaker 1: on Frederick Douglas, is that Blackwell's argument is mentioned in 9 00:00:36,040 --> 00:00:39,760 Speaker 1: our episode on him too. So thanks to all of 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:44,199 Speaker 1: those connections, Frederick Douglas is Today's Saturday Classic. This episode 11 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:49,680 Speaker 1: originally came out on July thirty first, twenty seventeen. Enjoy 12 00:00:51,280 --> 00:00:54,240 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 13 00:00:54,360 --> 00:01:04,560 Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. 14 00:01:04,720 --> 00:01:09,600 Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Frye. We are just back from 15 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:13,280 Speaker 1: Seneca Falls. Yeah, they were so kind to invite us 16 00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:18,520 Speaker 1: to Convention Days. Yes, at the Women's Rights National Historical Park. 17 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:22,080 Speaker 1: We had a live show there on Sunday this past 18 00:01:22,160 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 1: Sunday it is now Tuesday. We did, Unfortunately, though we 19 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:30,480 Speaker 1: had a little bit of an issue with the recording. Yeah, well, 20 00:01:30,520 --> 00:01:33,600 Speaker 1: it's a there's a combination of factors. We had the 21 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:38,080 Speaker 1: just immense honor of doing our live show in Wesleyan Chapel, 22 00:01:38,760 --> 00:01:43,119 Speaker 1: which is where the Seneca Falls Convention was held. As 23 00:01:43,160 --> 00:01:47,440 Speaker 1: you might imagine from a chapel dating back to that area, 24 00:01:47,520 --> 00:01:51,680 Speaker 1: it is essentially a big empty space. It's a big 25 00:01:51,720 --> 00:01:56,240 Speaker 1: box adjacent to the road. So like for a number 26 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,400 Speaker 1: of reasons, it just we were not able to get 27 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: clear audio of the live show that we did that day. 28 00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:06,440 Speaker 1: So we are still going to talk about Frederick Douglas. Yeah, 29 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:09,760 Speaker 1: well just do your version, Yes, a studio version of 30 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:12,760 Speaker 1: that show. We do definitely, though, want to thank the 31 00:02:12,840 --> 00:02:17,040 Speaker 1: folks of the National Park Service and Ashley Nottingham, who 32 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:19,800 Speaker 1: was a person who did all of the arranging or 33 00:02:19,840 --> 00:02:22,200 Speaker 1: a lot of the arranging with us specifically for this, like, 34 00:02:22,280 --> 00:02:25,440 Speaker 1: thank everyone for having us out because we had a 35 00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:29,919 Speaker 1: wonderful time. Yeah, we had. I was so delighted by 36 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:33,240 Speaker 1: just how fun and kind and welcoming and warm everyone was. 37 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:36,799 Speaker 1: It was really lovely. Yes, And it is also a 38 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:41,040 Speaker 1: better service to Frederick Douglas to have a nice, clean 39 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 1: recording of him rather than the somewhat noisier one from 40 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,160 Speaker 1: on the day. So today, as we just said, we 41 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: are going to talk about the life and work of orator, writer, statesmen, 42 00:02:52,800 --> 00:02:56,640 Speaker 1: and social reformer Frederick Douglas. Frederick Douglas's work was just 43 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:59,399 Speaker 1: tireless and prolific, and we could literally fill a whole 44 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: episode of our show just listing off the titles of 45 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 1: all his writings and all the positions that he held, 46 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:06,960 Speaker 1: and all the laws that he influenced, and all the 47 00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,480 Speaker 1: speeches that he made, and all the peoples whose rights 48 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:14,000 Speaker 1: he championed during his lifetime. He was even nominated for 49 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:16,520 Speaker 1: Vice President of the United States on the ticket with 50 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 1: Victoria Woodhull in eighteen seventy two, just as an example 51 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:22,840 Speaker 1: of a thing that happened that we're not even going 52 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:26,240 Speaker 1: to talk about in detail today. So our focus is 53 00:03:26,320 --> 00:03:29,640 Speaker 1: really going to be on how his early life shaped 54 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:34,200 Speaker 1: the truly remarkable advocate that he became, and his work 55 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:37,320 Speaker 1: with the two primary causes that he campaigned the most for. 56 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: He campaigned for a lot of stuff that would all 57 00:03:40,320 --> 00:03:43,840 Speaker 1: fall under the umbrella of humanitarianism and human rights in 58 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: some way, but the two biggest parts were the abolition 59 00:03:47,640 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: of slavery and women's suffrage. Frederick Douglas was born Frederick 60 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 1: Augustus Washington Bailey around February of eighteen eighteen in a 61 00:03:56,520 --> 00:04:00,520 Speaker 1: region of Maryland's eastern shore known as Tuckahoe. He was 62 00:04:00,680 --> 00:04:03,520 Speaker 1: enslaved from birth, and his exact birth date and place 63 00:04:03,560 --> 00:04:06,800 Speaker 1: of birth are not known. His father was white, and 64 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:09,320 Speaker 1: although there was speculation that he may have been the 65 00:04:09,360 --> 00:04:13,680 Speaker 1: owner or overseer of Douglas's mother, Harriet, his identity remains 66 00:04:13,760 --> 00:04:17,640 Speaker 1: unknown as well. Douglas was separated from his mother while 67 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:20,279 Speaker 1: still a baby and sent to live with her parents, 68 00:04:20,320 --> 00:04:25,239 Speaker 1: Betsy and Isaac Bailey. Betsy was enslaved and Isaac was free, 69 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:27,520 Speaker 1: and Betsy was known for her skills as a nurse 70 00:04:27,839 --> 00:04:30,799 Speaker 1: and her knack for making and using fishing nets, along 71 00:04:30,800 --> 00:04:34,400 Speaker 1: with being particularly good at growing sweet potatoes. People from 72 00:04:34,400 --> 00:04:38,159 Speaker 1: all around would come to Frederick Douglas's grandmother to be like, 73 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:40,039 Speaker 1: can you help me out with my sweet potatoes because 74 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:42,200 Speaker 1: you are the best at growing them. That's a good 75 00:04:42,240 --> 00:04:45,720 Speaker 1: life skill to have, ma'am. But Betsy's primary duty was 76 00:04:45,760 --> 00:04:49,800 Speaker 1: actually caring for children, in particular her five daughters. Children. 77 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:53,360 Speaker 1: Enslaved women were typically sent right back to work as 78 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:55,440 Speaker 1: soon as possible after giving birth, and they were not 79 00:04:55,520 --> 00:04:58,760 Speaker 1: allowed to raise their own children, so Frederick had very 80 00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,640 Speaker 1: little memory of his mother until the age of about seven. 81 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:05,159 Speaker 1: Those years with his grandmother were an odd mix of 82 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:09,880 Speaker 1: relative freedom and a growing comprehension that he was not free. 83 00:05:10,520 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: The children had few physical comforts they just they didn't 84 00:05:13,640 --> 00:05:17,039 Speaker 1: have really playthings or much to eat, but they also 85 00:05:17,240 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 1: had few worries or constraints. In My Bondage and My Freedom, 86 00:05:21,680 --> 00:05:25,440 Speaker 1: which was one of Douglas's autobiographies, he described the early 87 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:29,000 Speaker 1: years of a young enslaved boy as quote in a word, 88 00:05:29,080 --> 00:05:31,200 Speaker 1: he is, for the most part of his first eight 89 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:35,920 Speaker 1: years of life, a spirited, joyous, uproarious, and happy boy 90 00:05:36,440 --> 00:05:40,360 Speaker 1: upon whom troubles fall only like water on a duck's back. 91 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:44,440 Speaker 1: But as he got older, Douglas gradually came to perceive 92 00:05:44,520 --> 00:05:46,400 Speaker 1: that the cabin that they were living in was not 93 00:05:46,520 --> 00:05:51,080 Speaker 1: his grandmother's. It and his grandmother, all of the other children, 94 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:54,200 Speaker 1: and he himself were in fact the property of someone 95 00:05:54,279 --> 00:05:57,720 Speaker 1: they knew as old Master, and that was Captain Aaron Anthony, 96 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: and Douglas faced a dawn understanding that he would at 97 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:04,679 Speaker 1: some point be forced to leave his grandmother to begin 98 00:06:04,800 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: a life of enslaved labor. That happened when Douglas was 99 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:10,280 Speaker 1: seven or eight, and he was sent to the plantation 100 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:13,599 Speaker 1: of Colonel Edward Lloyd, who had previously been governor of 101 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:17,080 Speaker 1: Maryland and a United States Senator, and there a woman 102 00:06:17,160 --> 00:06:20,360 Speaker 1: known as Aunt Katie was the one responsible for the children, 103 00:06:20,640 --> 00:06:22,680 Speaker 1: including some of her own, so she was sort of 104 00:06:22,720 --> 00:06:25,719 Speaker 1: an exception to the typical behavior that women were not 105 00:06:25,800 --> 00:06:29,479 Speaker 1: allowed to raise their own children. Aunt Katie's treatment of 106 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:33,760 Speaker 1: the children was incredibly cruel, and Douglas often went hungry 107 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:36,120 Speaker 1: when she would give his share of food to her 108 00:06:36,160 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 1: own children instead, and it was on Lloyd's plantation that 109 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 1: Douglas got to see just a little more of his mother, 110 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:46,880 Speaker 1: who was a field hand on another plantation. Even then, however, 111 00:06:46,920 --> 00:06:49,000 Speaker 1: he didn't see her very often at all, and she 112 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,599 Speaker 1: died when he was not yet ten years old. After 113 00:06:52,640 --> 00:06:56,119 Speaker 1: her death, Douglas learned that, quite unusually for a field hand, 114 00:06:56,520 --> 00:06:59,359 Speaker 1: she had actually known how to read, and in later years, 115 00:06:59,400 --> 00:07:03,440 Speaker 1: when Race's commentators suggested that his skill with language probably 116 00:07:03,440 --> 00:07:06,080 Speaker 1: came from his white father, he would insist that the 117 00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:10,000 Speaker 1: credit should instead go to his mother. He still wasn't 118 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: at this point in his life big enough to do 119 00:07:12,400 --> 00:07:16,280 Speaker 1: field work, so while on Lloyd's plantation, Douglas did chores 120 00:07:16,320 --> 00:07:20,360 Speaker 1: and errands, mainly for Lucretia Ald, who was Captain Anthony's 121 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:23,760 Speaker 1: married daughter. When Douglas was about eight, he was then 122 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:26,720 Speaker 1: hired out to another one of the Alds, Hugh Auld, 123 00:07:26,920 --> 00:07:30,040 Speaker 1: Lucretia's brother in law, who worked as a ship carpenter 124 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:34,160 Speaker 1: in Baltimore. Douglas would later describe this as quote one 125 00:07:34,160 --> 00:07:37,160 Speaker 1: of the most interesting and fortunate events of my life. 126 00:07:37,920 --> 00:07:40,840 Speaker 1: Not only was he removed from the cruelty and brutality 127 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:44,800 Speaker 1: of the plantation, but he was also introduced to Hugh's wife, Sophia. 128 00:07:45,560 --> 00:07:49,240 Speaker 1: Apparently unaware that it was illegal, or that its illegality 129 00:07:49,400 --> 00:07:53,600 Speaker 1: was a technique for controlling enslaved people, Sophia taught Frederick 130 00:07:53,680 --> 00:07:57,280 Speaker 1: to read. Hugh Auld put a stop to these reading 131 00:07:57,360 --> 00:08:00,840 Speaker 1: lessons as soon as he found out about them, but 132 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:03,480 Speaker 1: it was at this point too late to stop Douglas 133 00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:06,880 Speaker 1: from learning how to read, and Frederick Douglass had already 134 00:08:06,920 --> 00:08:10,320 Speaker 1: realized that literacy would be a key to finding his 135 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:15,160 Speaker 1: way to freedom. So when Sophia's reading lessons stopped, Douglas 136 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:18,200 Speaker 1: started trading his bread to white children that he would 137 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:20,640 Speaker 1: run into when he was out on the Aulds errands, 138 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:23,520 Speaker 1: and he would do this in exchange for their teaching 139 00:08:23,600 --> 00:08:26,640 Speaker 1: him a few words out of a Webster's spelling book. 140 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:30,440 Speaker 1: He also gradually saved enough money to buy another book, 141 00:08:30,520 --> 00:08:33,600 Speaker 1: The Colombian Orator, and this was a collection of speeches 142 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:36,320 Speaker 1: and essays and poems that had come into use as 143 00:08:36,360 --> 00:08:40,000 Speaker 1: a school book. It began with general instructions for speaking, 144 00:08:40,160 --> 00:08:42,760 Speaker 1: and it included the work of men like George Washington, 145 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:47,200 Speaker 1: John Milton, Socrates, and Cisco. And this he read and 146 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,679 Speaker 1: re read, finding a piece called Dialogue between a Master 147 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:54,520 Speaker 1: and Slave particularly compelling. And in that piece of writing, 148 00:08:54,600 --> 00:08:58,120 Speaker 1: a master chastises his recaptured slave for having run away, 149 00:08:58,720 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: and the slave, eloquequ dissecting the inhumanity and injustice of slavery, 150 00:09:03,559 --> 00:09:06,680 Speaker 1: convinces the master to free him. This is to me 151 00:09:06,720 --> 00:09:09,360 Speaker 1: one of the most amazing things about Frederick Douglas. He 152 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:13,760 Speaker 1: was not just teaching himself to read by practicing. He 153 00:09:13,920 --> 00:09:16,920 Speaker 1: was teaching himself rhetoric and how to make an argument 154 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:21,040 Speaker 1: an eloquence by studying this work. And the whole time 155 00:09:21,080 --> 00:09:24,400 Speaker 1: that he was living in Baltimore, he continued teaching himself, 156 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:28,600 Speaker 1: eventually also using old copy books and school books belonging 157 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:30,960 Speaker 1: to the Aulds' son in order to teach himself how 158 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:34,160 Speaker 1: to write, and as he got older, he started teaching 159 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 1: other enslaved children he met to read as well. Baltimore 160 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,320 Speaker 1: was formative in other ways too. Douglas first heard the 161 00:09:42,320 --> 00:09:45,080 Speaker 1: word abolition while he was there, and he began to 162 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:48,120 Speaker 1: piece together that there was an abolitionist movement working to 163 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:52,520 Speaker 1: end slavery. He also became religious, worshiping in an African 164 00:09:52,600 --> 00:09:56,920 Speaker 1: Methodist Episcopal church, while simultaneously coming to understand that the 165 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:00,600 Speaker 1: scriptures were being used to both justify slavery and to 166 00:10:00,679 --> 00:10:04,200 Speaker 1: convince enslaved people that they should submit to it. He 167 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:08,200 Speaker 1: became increasingly aware of the hypocrisy of Christian slave owners 168 00:10:08,440 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: who applied Christ's teachings only to white men while treating 169 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:16,319 Speaker 1: their enslaved workforce with severe cruelty. Frederick Douglas remained in 170 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:20,520 Speaker 1: Baltimore for about seven years. At this point, there was 171 00:10:20,559 --> 00:10:25,199 Speaker 1: a series of deaths within his owner's family, as well 172 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:29,440 Speaker 1: as some inner family drama, and Thomas auld demanded that 173 00:10:29,480 --> 00:10:34,199 Speaker 1: he be returned to the plantation. Douglas only worked directly 174 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:37,720 Speaker 1: for Thomas Auld for about nine months, though he had become, 175 00:10:37,920 --> 00:10:41,560 Speaker 1: in the eyes of his enslavers, a troublemaker. He tried 176 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:44,760 Speaker 1: to start a Sabbath school to teach other enslaved people, 177 00:10:44,800 --> 00:10:47,560 Speaker 1: and he started standing up for himself and other people. 178 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:51,720 Speaker 1: So from Thomas Ald's point of view, Douglas had been ruined. 179 00:10:52,679 --> 00:10:55,520 Speaker 1: So Thomas Ald hired Douglas out to a man named 180 00:10:55,600 --> 00:10:59,400 Speaker 1: Edward Covey, who was a notorious slave breaker. So this 181 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:01,800 Speaker 1: is a man to whom slave owners would hire out 182 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,520 Speaker 1: their troublesome enslaved people for free so that he could 183 00:11:05,559 --> 00:11:09,439 Speaker 1: train them. And, in Douglas's words quote, mister Covey could 184 00:11:09,480 --> 00:11:12,160 Speaker 1: have under him the most fiery bloods of the neighborhood 185 00:11:12,440 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: for the simple reward of returning them to their owners 186 00:11:15,440 --> 00:11:19,240 Speaker 1: well broken. For the next six months, Covey beat Douglas 187 00:11:19,240 --> 00:11:22,040 Speaker 1: on a nearly daily basis, and he also engaged in 188 00:11:22,080 --> 00:11:24,520 Speaker 1: a sort of psychological warfare which was meant to make 189 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:28,480 Speaker 1: him feel as though he was constantly watched and constantly threatened. 190 00:11:28,960 --> 00:11:31,800 Speaker 1: In eighteen thirty five, after his time with Covey was up, 191 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:35,400 Speaker 1: Douglas was hired out as a field hand to William Freeland, 192 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:38,760 Speaker 1: who was not nearly as cruel as Thomas Auld or 193 00:11:38,920 --> 00:11:42,560 Speaker 1: Edward Covey had been. Douglas once again tried to start 194 00:11:42,600 --> 00:11:46,080 Speaker 1: a Sabbath school to teach and educate other enslaved people. 195 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:51,000 Speaker 1: On January first, eighteen thirty six, Douglas resolved that he 196 00:11:51,040 --> 00:11:53,400 Speaker 1: would be free by the end of the year, and 197 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:56,280 Speaker 1: he planned to liberate several of the other men enslaved 198 00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:59,480 Speaker 1: with him as well. He forged passes for the group 199 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:02,560 Speaker 1: which said they had permission to go to Baltimore, but 200 00:12:02,640 --> 00:12:05,280 Speaker 1: unfortunately their plan was discovered and all of the men 201 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:09,319 Speaker 1: were captured and taken to jail. After this escape attempt, 202 00:12:09,440 --> 00:12:12,240 Speaker 1: Thomas Ald decided it would be best to send Frederick 203 00:12:12,280 --> 00:12:16,160 Speaker 1: Douglass away, especially because of the Sabbath school and the 204 00:12:16,280 --> 00:12:19,000 Speaker 1: influence that he was having among the enslaved people in 205 00:12:19,040 --> 00:12:23,000 Speaker 1: the neighborhood. It wasn't just that Thomas Auld was finding 206 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,680 Speaker 1: Douglas's behavior to be unacceptable, it was also that he 207 00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:30,600 Speaker 1: was drawing the ire of other slave owners in the area. 208 00:12:31,480 --> 00:12:34,200 Speaker 1: Thomas Auld was afraid that some harm was going to 209 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:38,400 Speaker 1: come to his property, so Douglas was sent back to Baltimore, 210 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:41,520 Speaker 1: and it was from there that he ultimately would escape 211 00:12:41,559 --> 00:12:43,920 Speaker 1: and We will get to that after a quick sponsor break. 212 00:12:52,559 --> 00:12:56,240 Speaker 1: So back in Baltimore with Hugh and Sophie Auld, Frederick 213 00:12:56,280 --> 00:13:00,880 Speaker 1: Douglas was first hired out to a shipyard being attacked 214 00:13:00,920 --> 00:13:03,560 Speaker 1: by a group of white laborers, which is something the 215 00:13:03,640 --> 00:13:07,640 Speaker 1: authorities refused to investigate because no white witness would attest 216 00:13:07,679 --> 00:13:10,600 Speaker 1: to it. He was allowed to seek out his own work. 217 00:13:10,760 --> 00:13:13,719 Speaker 1: He would basically go and solicit work in places that 218 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:17,720 Speaker 1: he felt more safe working, and then he would turn 219 00:13:17,840 --> 00:13:20,199 Speaker 1: over all of the pay that he earned to hew 220 00:13:20,320 --> 00:13:23,880 Speaker 1: Ald at the end of each week. And eventually Douglas 221 00:13:23,960 --> 00:13:27,560 Speaker 1: asked for permission to hire himself out during his off hours, 222 00:13:28,080 --> 00:13:30,240 Speaker 1: and this would allow him to keep the pay above 223 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:32,360 Speaker 1: and beyond what was due back to the Alds, and 224 00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:36,240 Speaker 1: it was viewed as a huge privilege. He secretly planned 225 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 1: to save this pay in order to fund his escape, 226 00:13:39,440 --> 00:13:42,439 Speaker 1: but his permission to hire his time was revoked after 227 00:13:42,480 --> 00:13:45,520 Speaker 1: he attended a camp meeting one Saturday night instead of 228 00:13:45,559 --> 00:13:49,199 Speaker 1: delivering his pay to Hugh Auld on schedule. This pushed 229 00:13:49,280 --> 00:13:52,959 Speaker 1: Douglas's plans to escape into high gear. He was basically 230 00:13:53,040 --> 00:13:55,120 Speaker 1: afraid that if he made any kind of wrong move, 231 00:13:55,280 --> 00:13:58,280 Speaker 1: it was going to become even harder for him to escape, 232 00:13:58,320 --> 00:14:01,640 Speaker 1: they would be keeping an even close on him. At 233 00:14:01,640 --> 00:14:03,960 Speaker 1: this point, he had met and fallen in love with 234 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:08,080 Speaker 1: a free black woman named Anna Murray. She secured a 235 00:14:08,160 --> 00:14:10,719 Speaker 1: sailor's uniform for him and gave him some of her 236 00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:13,880 Speaker 1: savings to fund the way, and then he traveled using 237 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:17,320 Speaker 1: identification papers that had been borrowed from a free black man. 238 00:14:17,920 --> 00:14:21,280 Speaker 1: He traveled by train and then steamboat and left Baltimore 239 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:24,520 Speaker 1: and traveled to New York City on September third, eighteen 240 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:27,440 Speaker 1: thirty eight. For a long time, he would not tell 241 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:30,240 Speaker 1: anyone exactly how he had done this, because he was 242 00:14:30,320 --> 00:14:35,280 Speaker 1: afraid that if he did, that escape route from Baltimore 243 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:38,400 Speaker 1: would get shut down. And once he arrived at a 244 00:14:38,440 --> 00:14:41,960 Speaker 1: safe house belonging to abolitionist David Ruggles, he sent for 245 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:45,440 Speaker 1: Anna and they were married on September fifteenth. The pair 246 00:14:45,440 --> 00:14:49,960 Speaker 1: would eventually have five children together, Rosetta, Lewis, Frederick, Charles, 247 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:54,760 Speaker 1: and Annie. Knowing that Douglas had worked calking ships in Baltimore, 248 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:58,920 Speaker 1: Ruggles suggested that he'd go to New Bedford, Massachusetts, which 249 00:14:58,920 --> 00:15:02,560 Speaker 1: had a large whale in shipping industry, as well as 250 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:07,160 Speaker 1: a sizeable free black community Douglas had traveled under several 251 00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:10,840 Speaker 1: names while making his way to New Bedford, eventually landing 252 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:13,320 Speaker 1: on Johnson, but once he got there, there were so 253 00:15:13,400 --> 00:15:16,240 Speaker 1: many other Johnson's in New Bedford that he thought it 254 00:15:16,280 --> 00:15:19,080 Speaker 1: would be confusing to have yet another one, so he 255 00:15:19,200 --> 00:15:23,080 Speaker 1: and Anna took the last name of Douglas. At first, 256 00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:26,080 Speaker 1: the Douglas's life in New Bedford was dedicated to just 257 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:28,120 Speaker 1: trying to make ends meet and to find a home 258 00:15:28,160 --> 00:15:31,880 Speaker 1: in their new community, and Douglas also resumed going to church. 259 00:15:32,640 --> 00:15:36,800 Speaker 1: After encountering segregation and racism at New Bedford's Methodist church, 260 00:15:36,920 --> 00:15:40,840 Speaker 1: he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zionist Church and eventually 261 00:15:40,880 --> 00:15:44,200 Speaker 1: he became a lay minister there. A few months after 262 00:15:44,200 --> 00:15:47,120 Speaker 1: settling in New Bedford, Douglas got a copy of William 263 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:52,040 Speaker 1: Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. This was his entry 264 00:15:52,200 --> 00:15:55,240 Speaker 1: into the anti slavery movement that he had first heard 265 00:15:55,280 --> 00:15:59,600 Speaker 1: about back in Baltimore. Soon he was attending abolitionist meetings, 266 00:15:59,680 --> 00:16:02,760 Speaker 1: and an eighteen forty one he attended and spoke at 267 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:06,480 Speaker 1: an anti slavery convention in Nantucket. This is his first 268 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,800 Speaker 1: time really speaking in public, and he didn't think he 269 00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:14,080 Speaker 1: did a particularly great job. But afterward John A. Collins 270 00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 1: of the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society asked Frederick Douglas to 271 00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,720 Speaker 1: come and work for them as a speaker. He began 272 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:24,520 Speaker 1: to travel around the North and Midwest speaking against slavery. 273 00:16:25,200 --> 00:16:28,400 Speaker 1: And although Douglas had a remarkable ability to draw from 274 00:16:28,400 --> 00:16:32,320 Speaker 1: his own experience to change hearts and minds, his opposition 275 00:16:32,400 --> 00:16:36,240 Speaker 1: to slavery was not about his own enslavement. His focus 276 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:39,800 Speaker 1: was on humanity as a whole in the inherent brutality 277 00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:43,760 Speaker 1: and destructiveness of the institution of slavery. But by writing 278 00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:47,600 Speaker 1: about his own experience, he was giving potential abolitionists, particularly 279 00:16:47,640 --> 00:16:50,440 Speaker 1: in the North, something many had lacked, and that was 280 00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:53,560 Speaker 1: a window into the reality so the institution of slavery. 281 00:16:54,120 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 1: This was incredibly important to the success of the movement 282 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:03,080 Speaker 1: for abolition, especially in the North. Slavery affected people's lives, 283 00:17:03,160 --> 00:17:06,479 Speaker 1: particularly white people's lives, in really dramatic ways that they 284 00:17:06,480 --> 00:17:11,400 Speaker 1: weren't necessarily even consciously aware of. Many wealthy and prominent 285 00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:15,040 Speaker 1: families had earned their fortunes either directly through the slave 286 00:17:15,119 --> 00:17:19,199 Speaker 1: trade or through industries that relied on enslaved labor. So 287 00:17:19,359 --> 00:17:23,560 Speaker 1: even if no one in a community was currently enslaving anyone. 288 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,880 Speaker 1: It was incredibly likely that its wealthiest and most influential 289 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 1: families were living on inherited wealth that came at least 290 00:17:32,880 --> 00:17:36,600 Speaker 1: in part from slavery. And people were also traveling on 291 00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:40,119 Speaker 1: roads and railroads, and attending schools and working in buildings 292 00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:43,680 Speaker 1: that had been built by enslaved people, including the US 293 00:17:43,760 --> 00:17:46,960 Speaker 1: Capitol building. So people were living in a nation that 294 00:17:47,040 --> 00:17:49,920 Speaker 1: had been built on and financed through slavery, but they 295 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:52,679 Speaker 1: often didn't have a conscious connection to what any of 296 00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 1: that actually meant. That changed as Douglas spoke and wrote 297 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:01,239 Speaker 1: about fighting off dogs for crumbs of food, sleeping on 298 00:18:01,359 --> 00:18:05,399 Speaker 1: bare floors with little protection from the cold, brutal beatings, 299 00:18:05,920 --> 00:18:08,719 Speaker 1: the murder of an enslaved man named Denby at the 300 00:18:08,720 --> 00:18:13,280 Speaker 1: hands of an overseer, the willful destruction and separation of 301 00:18:13,400 --> 00:18:18,399 Speaker 1: enslaved families, and the constant exhausting work that continued well 302 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:21,920 Speaker 1: after the workday was over, as enslaved people then had 303 00:18:21,960 --> 00:18:25,040 Speaker 1: to care for their own food, care for their quarters, 304 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:29,160 Speaker 1: mend their clothes, and on and on. But it wasn't 305 00:18:29,240 --> 00:18:33,399 Speaker 1: simply Douglas's documentation of the daily conditions and degradations of 306 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:38,000 Speaker 1: enslavement that influenced the abolition movement. He also wrote extensively 307 00:18:38,119 --> 00:18:41,600 Speaker 1: on how the institution of slavery impacted the enslavers as 308 00:18:41,640 --> 00:18:45,199 Speaker 1: well as the enslaved. By making enslaved people into a 309 00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:49,400 Speaker 1: class that was supposedly less than human, enslavers were also 310 00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:53,680 Speaker 1: corrupting their own humanity. These were all things that Douglas 311 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:57,280 Speaker 1: had experienced and learned and thought about during his years 312 00:18:57,280 --> 00:19:00,880 Speaker 1: of enslavement, and he was particularly adept putting them into 313 00:19:00,920 --> 00:19:04,480 Speaker 1: words in a way that motivated readers and listeners to act. 314 00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,160 Speaker 1: We should make clear he wasn't the only previously enslave 315 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:11,359 Speaker 1: person that was writing and speaking about their own experience, 316 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:15,720 Speaker 1: but he did become particularly famous. In eighteen forty five, 317 00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 1: he published the first of three autobiographies, Narrative of the 318 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:23,199 Speaker 1: Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in part to 319 00:19:23,400 --> 00:19:26,720 Speaker 1: debunk critics claims that he was too eloquent to have 320 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:30,440 Speaker 1: ever really been a slave, and in it he detailed 321 00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:33,120 Speaker 1: the experiences that we talked about in the first part 322 00:19:33,160 --> 00:19:37,400 Speaker 1: of our episode today, including naming who his owners had been, 323 00:19:37,920 --> 00:19:42,040 Speaker 1: and that was a colossal risk. Under fugitive slave laws, 324 00:19:42,080 --> 00:19:45,240 Speaker 1: he could be captured and returned to Maryland, and as 325 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 1: his book became a bestseller, he left the country, sailing 326 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:52,639 Speaker 1: for Liverpool on August sixteenth of eighteen forty five. He 327 00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:55,280 Speaker 1: arrived in Britain just before the start of the Great 328 00:19:55,320 --> 00:19:58,960 Speaker 1: Famine in Ireland. As a side note, this was not 329 00:19:59,080 --> 00:20:01,680 Speaker 1: the only time that Frederick Douglass would have to flee 330 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:04,640 Speaker 1: the country. He did again in eighteen fifty nine after 331 00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:08,879 Speaker 1: John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, after investigators found a 332 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:11,760 Speaker 1: letter that Douglas had written that could have led to 333 00:20:11,800 --> 00:20:14,960 Speaker 1: his being named as a co conspirator. Douglas at that 334 00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:17,920 Speaker 1: point didn't return home until eighteen sixty as the nation 335 00:20:18,119 --> 00:20:21,560 Speaker 1: was careening towards Civil war, after learning that his daughter 336 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:24,959 Speaker 1: Annie had died at the age of eleven, so jumping 337 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:29,240 Speaker 1: back to eighteen forty five. For nearly two years, Douglas 338 00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:32,479 Speaker 1: traveled around the British Isles and spoke against slavery and 339 00:20:32,560 --> 00:20:35,919 Speaker 1: four civil rights, and while he was there, British supporters 340 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:39,800 Speaker 1: raised the funds to purchase his freedom. Thomas Auld first 341 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:41,719 Speaker 1: sold him to Hugh Auld for the sum of one 342 00:20:41,840 --> 00:20:45,919 Speaker 1: hundred dollars, and Hugh released him from slavery on December fifth, 343 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:49,560 Speaker 1: eighteen forty six. Douglas returned to the United States the 344 00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,520 Speaker 1: following year, and he and his family moved to Rochester, 345 00:20:52,640 --> 00:20:57,119 Speaker 1: New York. Douglas received some criticism for allowing himself to 346 00:20:57,119 --> 00:21:01,119 Speaker 1: be purchased, since to some it legitimized the institution that 347 00:21:01,160 --> 00:21:03,880 Speaker 1: he was fighting against. They basically thought he was being 348 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:07,000 Speaker 1: complicit in the very thing that he was advocating to 349 00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:10,640 Speaker 1: have abolished. But from Douglas's point of view, he had 350 00:21:10,640 --> 00:21:13,560 Speaker 1: a calling and a duty to return to the United 351 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:17,200 Speaker 1: States and continue to fight slavery, something he would best 352 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,560 Speaker 1: be able to do if he was not simultaneously trying 353 00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:24,920 Speaker 1: to evade capture or captured and returned South. Of course, 354 00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:27,960 Speaker 1: the Civil War started in eighteen sixty one, and by 355 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: that point Frederick Douglass was one of the most famous 356 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,879 Speaker 1: black men in the United States. Although the South was 357 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,720 Speaker 1: fighting the war in large part to protect and expand 358 00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:40,359 Speaker 1: the institution of slavery, at first, the North was fighting 359 00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:44,960 Speaker 1: primarily to preserve the Union. Douglas became an outspoken advocate 360 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:47,720 Speaker 1: for making the abolition of slavery one of the Union's 361 00:21:47,720 --> 00:21:50,800 Speaker 1: goals as well, and he also recruited for the Union 362 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,240 Speaker 1: Army and two of his sons served in the fifty 363 00:21:53,280 --> 00:21:58,360 Speaker 1: fourth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. In eighteen sixty three, Douglas met 364 00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:01,679 Speaker 1: with Abraham Lincoln about the treetment of black soldiers fighting 365 00:22:01,720 --> 00:22:05,160 Speaker 1: for the Union and advocated for their receiving equal pay. 366 00:22:05,680 --> 00:22:09,320 Speaker 1: Of course, the abolition of slavery did ultimately get folded 367 00:22:09,480 --> 00:22:12,200 Speaker 1: into the Union's goals in the Civil War, and when 368 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:16,520 Speaker 1: the war was over, slavery was indeed abolished. Douglas then 369 00:22:16,560 --> 00:22:19,600 Speaker 1: turned his attention to protecting the lives and civil rights 370 00:22:19,600 --> 00:22:23,480 Speaker 1: of African Americans, including campaigning for the right to vote. 371 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:28,119 Speaker 1: He also encouraged abolitionist organizations to turn their attention to 372 00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:32,399 Speaker 1: Native Americans, whose condition he called quote the sadust chapter 373 00:22:32,920 --> 00:22:38,480 Speaker 1: in our history. Frederick Douglas never looked at an accomplishment 374 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:43,840 Speaker 1: and then said, Okay, we're done now. If the thing 375 00:22:43,920 --> 00:22:47,720 Speaker 1: he had been campaigning for was successful, he would then 376 00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:51,480 Speaker 1: find the next thing. Yeah. And after the war, he 377 00:22:51,520 --> 00:22:55,080 Speaker 1: also held a number of social and political positions, including 378 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:58,879 Speaker 1: Charge da Fair for the Dominican Republic, Minister Resident and 379 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,080 Speaker 1: Consul General to him, and the Recorder of Deeds of 380 00:23:02,080 --> 00:23:05,280 Speaker 1: the District of Columbia. He served as president of the 381 00:23:05,280 --> 00:23:07,720 Speaker 1: Freedman Savings Bank, and he was on the board at 382 00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,720 Speaker 1: Howard University. The list of accomplishments and appointments that he 383 00:23:11,840 --> 00:23:14,520 Speaker 1: had goes on and on and on. It is quite lengthy. 384 00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:18,400 Speaker 1: And even before the Civil War, Frederick Douglass had become 385 00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:21,600 Speaker 1: a supporter of women's rights. And especially because we were 386 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:26,560 Speaker 1: originally giving this episode as a live show at Convention 387 00:23:26,760 --> 00:23:31,680 Speaker 1: Days in celebration of the anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention, 388 00:23:32,200 --> 00:23:33,720 Speaker 1: made a lot of sense to spend a little more 389 00:23:33,760 --> 00:23:35,840 Speaker 1: time on that which we are going to do after 390 00:23:35,880 --> 00:23:47,080 Speaker 1: another quick sponsor break. Frederick Douglas first met Susan B. 391 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:50,800 Speaker 1: Anthony in eighteen forty five, but his direct involvement with 392 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:54,120 Speaker 1: the movement for women's suffrage really started after he moved 393 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:58,439 Speaker 1: to Rochester with his family in eighteen forty seven. That December, 394 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:01,879 Speaker 1: he published his first issue of his newspaper, The North Star, 395 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:05,359 Speaker 1: which was one of several newspapers he would create and 396 00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:08,760 Speaker 1: run during his lifetime. The north Star was printed with 397 00:24:08,840 --> 00:24:12,520 Speaker 1: the motto right is of no sex, Truth is of 398 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,960 Speaker 1: no color. God is the father of us all, and 399 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,240 Speaker 1: we are all brethren. And the Seneca Falls Convention began 400 00:24:20,280 --> 00:24:23,600 Speaker 1: on July nineteenth of eighteen forty eight, and Douglas was 401 00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:25,800 Speaker 1: one of only thirty two men out of about three 402 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:29,520 Speaker 1: hundred attendees. Of these men, he was the only one 403 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:33,159 Speaker 1: who supported Elizabeth Katy Stanton's resolution that women be allowed 404 00:24:33,160 --> 00:24:35,960 Speaker 1: to vote, and he seconded her motion that the right 405 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:39,040 Speaker 1: to vote be one of their resolutions. He was one 406 00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:43,240 Speaker 1: of the signers of the Declaration of Sentiments. Another woman's 407 00:24:43,320 --> 00:24:47,560 Speaker 1: rights convention was held almost immediately in Rochester on August 408 00:24:47,680 --> 00:24:50,400 Speaker 1: second of eighteen forty eight, and Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth 409 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:54,200 Speaker 1: Katy Stanton recommended that Douglas be made its chair, although 410 00:24:54,240 --> 00:24:57,239 Speaker 1: he ultimately wasn't, he did attend and speak at this 411 00:24:57,280 --> 00:25:02,240 Speaker 1: convention as well, and both inventions were covered in the 412 00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:06,080 Speaker 1: newspaper of the North Star. This was really like Frederick 413 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:08,680 Speaker 1: Douglass was already under a huge amount of scrutiny because 414 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,040 Speaker 1: he was a black man living in America, and becoming 415 00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:14,359 Speaker 1: involved in the women's rights movement brought on a whole 416 00:25:14,359 --> 00:25:17,399 Speaker 1: other layer of scrutiny because men who were involved in 417 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:21,440 Speaker 1: the movement were viewed with extreme suspicion and derision. There 418 00:25:21,480 --> 00:25:23,760 Speaker 1: was a lot of undertone of like something must be 419 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,200 Speaker 1: wrong with you for you to be into this. Yeah, 420 00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:30,040 Speaker 1: So there's definitely a lot of bravery in that move 421 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:33,240 Speaker 1: And in addition to being actively involved in the movement 422 00:25:33,280 --> 00:25:36,840 Speaker 1: for women's rights and suffrage, Douglas took those ideas back 423 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:40,720 Speaker 1: with him to the movement for abolition. In eighteen forty eight, 424 00:25:40,800 --> 00:25:44,639 Speaker 1: Douglas presided at the National Convention of Colored Freedmen in Cleveland, 425 00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:48,440 Speaker 1: and under his leadership, the convention passed a resolution affirming 426 00:25:48,520 --> 00:25:53,000 Speaker 1: equality between the sexes, and women were actively invited to participate. 427 00:25:53,640 --> 00:25:58,040 Speaker 1: Douglas presided over and introduced similar affirmations at other abolitionist 428 00:25:58,080 --> 00:26:02,320 Speaker 1: meetings as well. Although so obviously there were also black 429 00:26:02,359 --> 00:26:06,000 Speaker 1: suffragists such as Ia b Wells Barnett and Anna Julia Cooper, 430 00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:10,439 Speaker 1: the suffrage movement as a whole was largely focused on 431 00:26:10,480 --> 00:26:14,520 Speaker 1: the needs and wants of relatively affluent white women, Like 432 00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,080 Speaker 1: if you read the Declaration of Sentiments, there are parts 433 00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:20,200 Speaker 1: in it about things like your property becoming your husband's 434 00:26:20,200 --> 00:26:23,720 Speaker 1: property when you marry. So we're starting from the foundation 435 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:28,639 Speaker 1: of women affluent enough to have property. It's kind of 436 00:26:28,640 --> 00:26:32,439 Speaker 1: a narrow segment of women. At the end of the 437 00:26:32,480 --> 00:26:37,639 Speaker 1: Civil War, reconstruction efforts to guarantee civil rights, including the 438 00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:41,639 Speaker 1: right to vote to former slaves and their descendants, clashed 439 00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:45,399 Speaker 1: with this focus of looking for voting rights for white women. 440 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:48,800 Speaker 1: At first, it actually seemed as though these two movements 441 00:26:48,800 --> 00:26:52,439 Speaker 1: for suffrage could combine. At the first Women's Rights Convention 442 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:55,199 Speaker 1: after the Civil War, its name was changed to the 443 00:26:55,240 --> 00:26:59,320 Speaker 1: Equal Rights Association, which would work toward universal suffrage, not 444 00:26:59,359 --> 00:27:02,359 Speaker 1: just suffrage for women, and Frederick Douglass was one of 445 00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:07,080 Speaker 1: the Equal Rights Association's three vice presidents. But as the 446 00:27:07,119 --> 00:27:11,760 Speaker 1: Reconstruction amendments to the Constitution were drafted, a schism developed 447 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:15,159 Speaker 1: within the movement. The May eighteen sixty nine meeting of 448 00:27:15,200 --> 00:27:19,120 Speaker 1: the Equal Rights Association took place after Congress had passed 449 00:27:19,200 --> 00:27:22,520 Speaker 1: the fifteenth Amendment, as it was up for ratification by 450 00:27:22,560 --> 00:27:26,480 Speaker 1: the States. This amendment read quote, the right of citizens 451 00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:29,520 Speaker 1: of the United States to vote shall not be denied 452 00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,639 Speaker 1: or abridged by the United States or by any State, 453 00:27:32,720 --> 00:27:36,360 Speaker 1: on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. 454 00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,240 Speaker 1: So this amendment made no reference to the right to 455 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:43,320 Speaker 1: vote as related to sex, and Douglas was willing to 456 00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:47,439 Speaker 1: accept this less than universal suffrage because he knew how 457 00:27:47,520 --> 00:27:50,239 Speaker 1: much resistance there was to women's voting rights in much 458 00:27:50,280 --> 00:27:52,720 Speaker 1: of the nation, and he thought it was likely that 459 00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:55,600 Speaker 1: the fifteenth Amendment could only be ratified if it didn't 460 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:59,159 Speaker 1: include women. He also thought that white women wanted the 461 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:01,920 Speaker 1: right to vote had other ways to take political action, 462 00:28:02,440 --> 00:28:05,920 Speaker 1: while overall the black population desperately needed to vote because 463 00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:08,960 Speaker 1: they had no other means to take political action themselves. 464 00:28:09,560 --> 00:28:13,280 Speaker 1: Of course, many of the Equal Rights Association vehemently disagreed. 465 00:28:13,920 --> 00:28:18,719 Speaker 1: In the ensuing discussion, Douglas said, quote, when women, because 466 00:28:18,840 --> 00:28:21,800 Speaker 1: they are women, are dragged from their homes and hung 467 00:28:21,880 --> 00:28:25,200 Speaker 1: upon lamp posts, when their children are torn from their 468 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,960 Speaker 1: arms and their brains dashed out upon the pavement, when 469 00:28:28,960 --> 00:28:32,439 Speaker 1: they are objects of insult and outrage at every turn, 470 00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:35,960 Speaker 1: when they are in danger of having their homes burnt 471 00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:39,560 Speaker 1: down over their heads, when their children are not allowed 472 00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:43,400 Speaker 1: to enter schools, they will have an urgency to obtain 473 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:47,440 Speaker 1: the ballot equal to black men. Someone from the audience 474 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,040 Speaker 1: then asked whether this was not also true of black 475 00:28:50,080 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: women as well, and he answered yes, yes, yes, it 476 00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,120 Speaker 1: is true of the black women, but not because she 477 00:28:57,280 --> 00:29:00,240 Speaker 1: is a woman, but because she is black. So he 478 00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:04,720 Speaker 1: was basically pointing out that like yes, it was right 479 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:09,320 Speaker 1: and important for women to have the right to vote, 480 00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:13,440 Speaker 1: but the need was a lot more dire for black 481 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:16,520 Speaker 1: people to have the right to vote. The debate over 482 00:29:16,520 --> 00:29:20,400 Speaker 1: the fifteenth Amendment split the Equal Rights Association. At the 483 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:23,720 Speaker 1: conclusion of the meeting, it was disbanded, with Susan B. 484 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:27,920 Speaker 1: Anthony and Elizabeth Katy Stanton forming the National Woman's Suffrage 485 00:29:27,920 --> 00:29:32,120 Speaker 1: Association to once again focus only on voting rights for women, 486 00:29:32,800 --> 00:29:36,360 Speaker 1: even to the extent of directly opposing the fifteenth Amendment. 487 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,320 Speaker 1: Those who supported the fifteenth Amendment formed the American Woman's 488 00:29:40,320 --> 00:29:43,920 Speaker 1: Suffrage Association. We should also make it clear that this 489 00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:47,960 Speaker 1: was not just an ideological dispute over the wording of 490 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:51,440 Speaker 1: the fifteenth Amendment and whether it included any references to 491 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:55,800 Speaker 1: sex or gender. There was also explicit racism at work, 492 00:29:55,800 --> 00:30:00,120 Speaker 1: with Elizabeth Katy Stanton, for example, saying quote, what will 493 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:03,000 Speaker 1: we and our daughters suffer if these degraded black men 494 00:30:03,160 --> 00:30:06,040 Speaker 1: are allowed to have the rights? That would make them 495 00:30:06,200 --> 00:30:10,400 Speaker 1: even worse than our Saxon fathers. I also kept finding 496 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,080 Speaker 1: reference to a quote by Susan B. Anthony about how 497 00:30:14,080 --> 00:30:17,080 Speaker 1: she would rather cut off her right arm than campaign 498 00:30:17,120 --> 00:30:20,760 Speaker 1: for vote for black people before women I couldn't find 499 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,360 Speaker 1: the original place where she purportedly said that, but it 500 00:30:24,400 --> 00:30:27,600 Speaker 1: came up over and over. There were also elements of 501 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:30,320 Speaker 1: the suffrage movement who argued that women should have the 502 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:33,040 Speaker 1: right to vote because white women would help form a 503 00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:37,000 Speaker 1: voting bloc that would help maintain white supremacy, even if 504 00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,560 Speaker 1: black people could also vote, and one such advocate of 505 00:30:40,600 --> 00:30:44,280 Speaker 1: this was Henry B. Blackwell, husband of suffragist Lucy Stone. 506 00:30:45,320 --> 00:30:49,520 Speaker 1: When the fifteenth Amendment was ratified on February third, eighteen seventy, 507 00:30:50,080 --> 00:30:54,160 Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas immediately began campaigning for a sixteenth Amendment to 508 00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:57,280 Speaker 1: grant voting rights to women, and he would continue to 509 00:30:57,320 --> 00:31:01,120 Speaker 1: advocate for women's suffrage for the rest of his life. Sadly, 510 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:04,440 Speaker 1: Charlotte Wodward was the only signer of the Seneca falls 511 00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,320 Speaker 1: Convention's Declaration of Sentiments to live to see the ratification 512 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,200 Speaker 1: of the nineteenth Amendment giving women the right to vote 513 00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,680 Speaker 1: on August eighteenth of nineteen twenty. Apparently because of her 514 00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:18,400 Speaker 1: poor health, she never actually got to vote herself. But 515 00:31:18,560 --> 00:31:23,040 Speaker 1: even then, the same racially discriminatory voting laws that had 516 00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:26,280 Speaker 1: already been suppressing black men's right to vote since the 517 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:30,000 Speaker 1: end of reconstruction just applied to black women as well. 518 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,080 Speaker 1: So although the letter of the Nineteenth Amendment gave black 519 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,760 Speaker 1: women the right to vote, it was not until the 520 00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five that many black 521 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:44,520 Speaker 1: women and other women who were part of minority populations 522 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:48,480 Speaker 1: were actually able to do so. And of course, discriminatory 523 00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:52,480 Speaker 1: voting laws and attempts to suppress voters still exists today. 524 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,320 Speaker 1: I feel like every time a turn around, there's another 525 00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:58,880 Speaker 1: case before the Supreme Court about it. To close out 526 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:00,920 Speaker 1: his story, we're going to react turned for a moment 527 00:32:00,960 --> 00:32:04,720 Speaker 1: to Frederick Douglas's last years. In the eighteen seventies, he 528 00:32:04,760 --> 00:32:08,000 Speaker 1: moved to Washington, d c. And his wife, Anna, died 529 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:11,600 Speaker 1: of a stroke in eighteen eighty two. In eighteen eighty four, 530 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:14,520 Speaker 1: he remarried a woman named Helen Pitts, which raised some 531 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,440 Speaker 1: eyebrows because she was about twenty years younger than he 532 00:32:17,600 --> 00:32:21,400 Speaker 1: was and she was also white. On February twentieth, eighteen 533 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,040 Speaker 1: ninety five, Frederick Douglass went to a meeting of the 534 00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:27,880 Speaker 1: National Council of Women. He came home and began preparing 535 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,240 Speaker 1: to give a speech at a local church when he 536 00:32:30,280 --> 00:32:33,360 Speaker 1: died suddenly of a heart attack. He was about seventy seven. 537 00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:39,600 Speaker 1: He had been campaigning for equal rights until literally the 538 00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,040 Speaker 1: last day of his life. That is Frederick Douglas. We 539 00:32:43,040 --> 00:32:47,520 Speaker 1: were actually joined by Frederick Douglas there in Seneca Falls. Yeah, 540 00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:51,720 Speaker 1: it was quite exciting. They had a wonderful reenactor there 541 00:32:51,840 --> 00:32:54,200 Speaker 1: who was really great, and he came in halfway through 542 00:32:54,640 --> 00:32:57,960 Speaker 1: and I turned into Buddy the Elf, so you got 543 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:02,320 Speaker 1: to see him. Yeah, he was very gracious, he was 544 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:05,800 Speaker 1: He was so kind. We had a lot of people 545 00:33:05,840 --> 00:33:09,760 Speaker 1: who wanted to have pictures made after the show, and 546 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:14,280 Speaker 1: he accommodated everyone and was super just gracious and warm 547 00:33:14,320 --> 00:33:17,080 Speaker 1: and lovely the whole time. Yeah, he was great. Yeah, 548 00:33:17,120 --> 00:33:22,160 Speaker 1: So everyone we met and while we were in Seneca 549 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:25,640 Speaker 1: Falls was gracious and kind and welcoming. The National Park 550 00:33:25,680 --> 00:33:29,280 Speaker 1: Service staff that we met were all amazing. We sa 551 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:30,880 Speaker 1: as I said at the top of the show, we 552 00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:34,440 Speaker 1: were so honored to be able to do this show 553 00:33:35,240 --> 00:33:40,240 Speaker 1: there in the Wesleyan Chapel. It is great. So if 554 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:43,200 Speaker 1: you get a chance to go to Seneca Falls, especially 555 00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,640 Speaker 1: to go to a future convention days, Yeah, we had 556 00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:50,480 Speaker 1: a great time. That's a pretty great event. Yeah. Sadly 557 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:52,280 Speaker 1: we did not get to spend a ton of time 558 00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:56,080 Speaker 1: in Seneca Falls. It was a very that was a quick, 559 00:33:56,160 --> 00:33:59,160 Speaker 1: quick turnaround tip. Yeah, it was a quick turnaround tip 560 00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,360 Speaker 1: for both of us. Oh and I also would like 561 00:34:01,400 --> 00:34:05,479 Speaker 1: to thank my spouse for writing with me slush driving 562 00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:08,799 Speaker 1: the car all the way there and back. We made 563 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:11,600 Speaker 1: a weekend trip out of it, and I don't think 564 00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:15,480 Speaker 1: I could have made the drive by myself because it's 565 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:24,320 Speaker 1: a stretch. Thanks so much for joining us on this Saturday. 566 00:34:24,560 --> 00:34:26,640 Speaker 1: Since this episode is out of the archive, if you 567 00:34:26,719 --> 00:34:29,240 Speaker 1: heard an email address or a Facebook RL or something 568 00:34:29,280 --> 00:34:31,759 Speaker 1: similar over the course of the show, that could be 569 00:34:31,840 --> 00:34:36,600 Speaker 1: obsolete now. Our current email address is History Podcast at 570 00:34:36,680 --> 00:34:41,279 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio dot com. Our old house Stuffworks email address no 571 00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:44,320 Speaker 1: longer works. You can find us all over social media 572 00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:47,600 Speaker 1: at missed in History, and you can subscribe to our 573 00:34:47,640 --> 00:34:51,640 Speaker 1: show on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, and 574 00:34:51,840 --> 00:34:57,840 Speaker 1: wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff you Missed in 575 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:00,960 Speaker 1: History Class is a production of IHEARTRADI d For more 576 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,360 Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or 577 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:07,360 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.