What Day Is It?

Of course you know what today is…

It’s “Frederick Douglass Day!”

 

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey) was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings.

 

 

 

In 1837 he fell in love with a free African American woman named Anna Murray. To help him escape, Anna provided him with money and a sailor’s uniform while he obtained identification papers from a free black seaman. On September 3, 1838, Frederick successfully escaped from slavery, reached New York and went to the house of David Ruggles, a noted African-American abolitionist.

 

 

On September 15, 1838, 11 days after he escaped to New York, Frederick married Anna Murray. They took the surname Douglass, after a character in the poem The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott. The couple had five children. Anna Murray-Douglass died in 1882. In 1884, Frederick married Helen Pitts, who was a female rights activist. As Helen was white and around 20 years younger than Douglass, the marriage created a controversy. They remained together till the death of Douglass in 1895.

 

 

And before I forget…

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

 

Have a Lovely Wednesday!