1
00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,480
Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey

2
00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:10,959
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here. More than two centuries after

3
00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:13,640
Speaker 1: the birth of Frederick Douglas, few people have come close

4
00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:16,320
Speaker 1: to matching his skills as both an orator and an

5
00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:20,920
Speaker 1: agent of change. We spoke earlier this year with Pelham McDaniels,

6
00:00:20,960 --> 00:00:23,800
Speaker 1: the Third, who was then the curator of African American

7
00:00:23,840 --> 00:00:28,560
Speaker 1: Collections at Emory University's Rose Library and has since passed away.

8
00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:32,400
Speaker 1: McDaniel said, why we should remember Douglas is because of

9
00:00:32,440 --> 00:00:35,559
Speaker 1: what he represents to us even today, his ability to

10
00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:38,519
Speaker 1: not only speak truth to power, but do so in

11
00:00:38,600 --> 00:00:41,360
Speaker 1: such an eloquent way that he would challenge anyone who

12
00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:46,280
Speaker 1: stands against him. Indeed, the power of Douglas's voice contributed

13
00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,360
Speaker 1: greatly to the end of slavery, expansion of the right

14
00:00:49,400 --> 00:00:52,400
Speaker 1: to vote, and the general push towards equal rights for

15
00:00:52,479 --> 00:00:57,920
Speaker 1: all that still continues. So where did Douglas get that power?

16
00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,320
Speaker 1: He was born in slave saved in eighteen eighteen on

17
00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:04,480
Speaker 1: the coast of Maryland, under the name Frederick Bailey. He

18
00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:07,360
Speaker 1: recognized the value of literacy from an early age, and

19
00:01:07,440 --> 00:01:09,840
Speaker 1: so he taught himself to read and write. He was

20
00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:12,240
Speaker 1: hired out from ages eight to fifteen as a body

21
00:01:12,280 --> 00:01:15,000
Speaker 1: servant or valet, and rebelled when his owner sent him

22
00:01:15,040 --> 00:01:18,160
Speaker 1: to work in the fields. After a failed escape effort,

23
00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:20,440
Speaker 1: he was sent back to Baltimore, where he connected with

24
00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:24,080
Speaker 1: Anna Murray, a free black woman. She helped him coordinate

25
00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:27,280
Speaker 1: his escape and funded his train ticket, and as a result,

26
00:01:27,440 --> 00:01:29,080
Speaker 1: he was able to make a break for New York

27
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:31,840
Speaker 1: City dressed as a sailor, where he was technically free

28
00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,039
Speaker 1: but a fugitive done the less. Frederick married Anna, and

29
00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,240
Speaker 1: the pair took the surname Douglas in an effort to

30
00:01:38,319 --> 00:01:42,120
Speaker 1: keep from being captured. They relocated to Bedford, Massachusetts, and

31
00:01:42,200 --> 00:01:47,240
Speaker 1: eventually had five children. But Douglas's drive for freedom didn't

32
00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,880
Speaker 1: end with his own. He began attending abolitionist meetings, where

33
00:01:50,880 --> 00:01:53,560
Speaker 1: he quickly gained a reputation as a gifted speaker and writer,

34
00:01:53,920 --> 00:01:58,360
Speaker 1: and toured on behalf of the Massachusetts Anti Slavery Society. Ironically,

35
00:01:58,560 --> 00:02:01,480
Speaker 1: some of these same abolitionist thought him too well versed

36
00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:06,200
Speaker 1: and educated to have ever been enslaved. To prove his legitimacy,

37
00:02:06,360 --> 00:02:09,480
Speaker 1: in eighteen forty five, he published the first of three tones,

38
00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:13,760
Speaker 1: narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas. The ensuing publicity

39
00:02:13,760 --> 00:02:16,160
Speaker 1: bade him a target, however, and he had to spend

40
00:02:16,200 --> 00:02:19,760
Speaker 1: time in Europe to prevent being re enslaved. His freedom

41
00:02:19,760 --> 00:02:22,560
Speaker 1: was eventually bought on his behalf by abolitionists, and he

42
00:02:22,600 --> 00:02:25,200
Speaker 1: moved with his family to Rochester, New York to enjoy

43
00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:29,679
Speaker 1: free life. Douglas continued speaking on behalf of the abolition

44
00:02:29,720 --> 00:02:32,640
Speaker 1: of slavery, but also took an interest in women's rights.

45
00:02:32,800 --> 00:02:35,480
Speaker 1: Though he thought that women suffrage should come in time,

46
00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:39,440
Speaker 1: McDaniel said he believed that there should be equality across

47
00:02:39,480 --> 00:02:42,120
Speaker 1: the board. One of the things he argued against was

48
00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,600
Speaker 1: women getting the right to vote first. By excluding black

49
00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:47,880
Speaker 1: men from this equation, it put black men and women

50
00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:52,480
Speaker 1: in great danger. And while some abolitionists decried the United

51
00:02:52,480 --> 00:02:57,320
Speaker 1: States Constitution as being pro slavery, Douglas eventually expressed that

52
00:02:57,400 --> 00:03:00,920
Speaker 1: it wasn't that, but that it had been perhaps purposefully

53
00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:05,200
Speaker 1: misinterpreted by people who stood to benefit. In his most

54
00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,200
Speaker 1: famous speech, what to the Slave is fourth of July,

55
00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,840
Speaker 1: he said, what have I or those I represent to

56
00:03:11,960 --> 00:03:15,680
Speaker 1: do with your national independence? Are the great principles of

57
00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:19,240
Speaker 1: political freedom and of natural justice embodied? And that Declaration

58
00:03:19,240 --> 00:03:25,359
Speaker 1: of Independence extended to US. McDaniels explained he saw there

59
00:03:25,440 --> 00:03:28,360
Speaker 1: was more to the Constitution than was gleaned. He also

60
00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,679
Speaker 1: saw the elements of it that allowed for individuals in

61
00:03:30,720 --> 00:03:33,880
Speaker 1: the country to be free and to pursue the possibilities.

62
00:03:35,160 --> 00:03:38,360
Speaker 1: Douglas argued that the idea of universal human brotherhood, that

63
00:03:38,520 --> 00:03:42,040
Speaker 1: all were created equal, was rooted in Christianity in the Bible.

64
00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,480
Speaker 1: Although Douglas disagreed with the militant ideals of fellow abolitionist

65
00:03:46,560 --> 00:03:50,600
Speaker 1: John Brown, he eventually came to see that federal military intervention,

66
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:53,920
Speaker 1: realized in the form of the devastating Civil War, would

67
00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:58,760
Speaker 1: be necessary to eradicate slavery. He aggressively worked to influence

68
00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:02,200
Speaker 1: the Republican Party, which featured a particularly famous member in

69
00:04:02,320 --> 00:04:06,560
Speaker 1: President Abraham Lincoln, to prevent slaveries spread into new territories,

70
00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:12,360
Speaker 1: to attack laws the protected slaveholders, and to generally encourage abolitionism.

71
00:04:12,400 --> 00:04:15,120
Speaker 1: He eventually called Lincoln a friend and was integral in

72
00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:18,080
Speaker 1: the process of passing the thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution,

73
00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:23,080
Speaker 1: which abolished slavery. The fourteenth and fifteen Amendments eventually followed,

74
00:04:23,360 --> 00:04:27,760
Speaker 1: which respectively granted national birthright citizenship and established voting rights

75
00:04:27,800 --> 00:04:31,279
Speaker 1: regardless of race, previous condition of servitude, and skin color.

76
00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:35,799
Speaker 1: In eighteen seventy two, Douglas and his wife, Anna moved

77
00:04:35,880 --> 00:04:38,200
Speaker 1: to Washington, d c. To be nearer to a few

78
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:42,040
Speaker 1: of their children and to continue his activism. He went

79
00:04:42,080 --> 00:04:45,000
Speaker 1: on to hold a number of prestigious federal positions under

80
00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:49,320
Speaker 1: five different presidents, continued his public speaking engagements, and published

81
00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:52,200
Speaker 1: his third and final memoir, The Life and Times of

82
00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:56,320
Speaker 1: Frederick Douglas. It was particularly resident because it acknowledged the

83
00:04:56,360 --> 00:05:01,919
Speaker 1: continuing inequalities in America, despite abolition and weakons diduction. In

84
00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,000
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty two, Anna died, and in eighteen eighty four

85
00:05:05,200 --> 00:05:08,560
Speaker 1: Douglas remarried Helen Pitts, a suffragist who was twenty years

86
00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:12,040
Speaker 1: as junior and was white. The marriage was not looked

87
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,240
Speaker 1: upon favorably by many, but the couple remained wed until

88
00:05:15,279 --> 00:05:17,599
Speaker 1: his death from a heart attack in eighteen ninety five

89
00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:21,680
Speaker 1: at age seventy seven, more than a hundred years after

90
00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,800
Speaker 1: his passing. Douglas and his work are regularly celebrated as

91
00:05:24,839 --> 00:05:27,920
Speaker 1: having paved the way for hundreds of other civil rights activists.

92
00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:31,960
Speaker 1: Douglas didn't know his true date of birth, so he

93
00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:36,320
Speaker 1: selected February fourteenth. Following his death, the date became known

94
00:05:36,360 --> 00:05:40,800
Speaker 1: as Douglas Day, and related celebrations continue. Douglas's birth date

95
00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:43,160
Speaker 1: is one of the reasons that February is celebrated as

96
00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:47,800
Speaker 1: Black History Month. McDaniels explained that Douglas was the most

97
00:05:47,839 --> 00:05:51,479
Speaker 1: photographed American of the nineteenth century of any skin color,

98
00:05:52,040 --> 00:05:55,960
Speaker 1: and his was an image of masculinity in African American possibility.

99
00:05:56,880 --> 00:05:59,719
Speaker 1: McDaniels said that was one of the challenges of his

100
00:05:59,760 --> 00:06:02,520
Speaker 1: time time to find ways to represent the humanity of

101
00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,000
Speaker 1: people who aspired to be free and came from the

102
00:06:05,040 --> 00:06:08,880
Speaker 1: same circumstances. If he's criticized for anything, it's that he

103
00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:13,000
Speaker 1: presents in his speeches as sensational and romantic. But even

104
00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:15,640
Speaker 1: as we reflect on his life, we need to understand

105
00:06:15,680 --> 00:06:18,560
Speaker 1: that he was essentially an ambassador for a small nation

106
00:06:18,800 --> 00:06:26,520
Speaker 1: within a nation. Today's episode was written by Leo Hoyt

107
00:06:26,600 --> 00:06:28,920
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Klang. For more on this and

108
00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:31,520
Speaker 1: lots of other topics, visit how Stuff works dot com.

109
00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:33,760
Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart Radio. Or

110
00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,479
Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,

111
00:06:36,680 --> 00:06:39,520
Speaker 1: Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,