Frederick Douglass for Kids Read online

  If the muse were mine to tempt it

  And my feeble voice were strong,

  If my tongue were trained to measures,

  I would sing a stirring song.

  I would sing a song heroic

  Of those noble sons of Ham,*

  Of the gallant colored soldiers

  Who fought for Uncle Sam!**

  Ah, they rallied to the standard***

  To uphold it by their might;

  None were stronger in the labors,

  None were braver in the fight.

  From the blazing breach of Wagner

  To the plains of Olustee,

  They were foremost in the fight

  Of the battles of the free.

  And their deeds shall find a record

  In the registry of Fame;

  For their blood has cleansed completely

  Every blot of Slavery’s shame.

  So all honor and all glory

  To those noble sons of Ham—

  The gallant colored soldiers

  Who fought for Uncle Sam!

  * Ham was a son of Noah from the Bible who is said to be an ancestor of the African race.

  ** Uncle Sam is a common nickname for the United States.

  *** The standard is the American flag.

  6

  “THAT THIS NATION, UNDER GOD, SHAll HAVE A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM …”

  The Nation’s New Hour

  The Civil War was over. With the last cannon blast fired on the battlefield came the last shriek of a mother’s breaking heart as she stood on the slave’s auction block and her children were stolen from her arms. Slavery in America had come to an end.

  The joy Frederick Douglass felt in his heart was indescribable. He had dedicated his life’s work to bringing an end to slavery. In his highest hopes, however, he had never dared to imagine what life would be like if slavery actually ended. Yet it had. He had lived to see the end of slavery in his own lifetime.

  Now he felt at a loss. He said, “I felt that I had reached the end of the noblest and best part of my life; my school was broken up, my church disbanded, and the beloved congregation dispersed, never to come together again. The antislavery platform had performed its work, and my voice was no longer needed.”

  What should he do next? The antislavery societies had dissolved, and he no longer had a job. What employment could he find to support his family? He was about 48 years old. His children were now grown and could support themselves, but he and Anna still had their life before them.

  Frederick Douglass considered purchasing a small farm and living off the land. He had not considered, however, the fact that his country needed him. War-torn, tired, and suffering from its grievous losses, America needed Frederick Douglass to help bring healing to the new nation.

  “Invitations began to pour in upon me,” Douglass said, “from colleges, lyceums, and literary societies.” People yearned to hear the voice of inspiration that only Frederick Douglass could deliver. Often they requested his well-known speech, “Self-Made Men.” Offers flooded in to pay him $100 or $200 to appear for a single lecture. What a huge difference this was in comparison to the $450 he previously made in an entire year while lecturing for the American Antislavery Society!

  The Power of the Ballot

  As the year unfolded following the surrender at Appomattox, it soon became obvious that even though slavery was no longer a legal institution, the newfound rights of the freed slaves were violently being torn from their grasp. What Frederick Douglass had predicted since the middle of the war was now happening. Former slaveholders developed new methods of keeping the freedmen in bondage.

  “Though they were not slaves, they were not yet quite free, No man can be truly free whose liberty is dependent upon the thought, feeling, and action of others, and who has himself no means in his own hands for guarding, protecting, defending, and maintaining that liberty.”

  —Frederick Douglass

  Frederick Douglass discovered his new life’s work. He explained, “I therefore soon found that the Negro had still a cause, and that he needed my voice and pen with others to plead for it.” Douglass traveled throughout the states, urging the absolute necessity of giving power to the black man by giving him the right to vote.

  Together with a delegation made up of his son Lewis, his friends, and his fellow leaders, Frederick Douglass met with President Andrew Johnson to discuss the necessity of giving black men the power to vote.

  After this historic meeting, Douglass and his associates drafted a letter and submitted it to the US Senate, once again urging the necessity of giving black men the vote. Enfranchisement, or voting rights, for African Americans became the topic of the hour. As a result, the National Loyalist’s Convention was scheduled to be held in Philadelphia during the month of September 1866.

  MAKE A CANE

  After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, his widow, Mary Todd Lincoln, gave Frederick Douglass this walking stick that belonged to the president in

  Materials

  Straight tree branch or wooden dowel rod that is 1 inch thick and 36 inches long (Note: If you will be attaching a cane tip or handle to your cane, be sure to choose a thickness of wood that will fit the accessories.)

  Pocketknife (optional)

  Sandpaper

  Pencil

  Wood-burning tool (optional)

  Permanent marker

  Cane tip or handle (optional)

  Adult supervision required

  If you are using a branch, ask an adult to help you strip the bark from the branch using a pocketknife. Sand the wood with sandpaper until it is smooth. Use a pencil to draw a design on the wood. When you are satisfied with the design, make it permanent by either whittling with a pocketknife (with an adult’s permission), charring the wood with a wood-burning tool, or tracing over the penciled design with a permanent marker. When you are finished, attach a cane tip to the bottom or a handle to the top of the wood piece if you want. Cane tips and handles are available at online stores such as Treeline (www.treelineusa.com) or Fashionable Canes and Walking Sticks (www.fashionablecanes.com).

  Photo by author, courtesy National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site

  Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo by author

  To his surprise and honor, his home city of Rochester, New York, elected Frederick Douglass as its delegate to attend the convention. Douglass prepared for the event and booked passage on a train. En route, however, he was met by other delegates on the train also traveling to the convention. They tried to persuade Douglass to turn back because he was the only black delegate elected. “As a matter of policy or expediency,” Douglass replied to them, “you will be wise to let me in.” Pressing his point even further, Douglass bravely concluded, “I am bound to go into that convention; not to do so would contradict the principle and practice of my life.”

  A Day in History

  Frederick Douglass arrived in Philadelphia. A parade was scheduled to take place before the convention began. Unsure of his reception by the crowd, Douglass made his way to Independence Hall, the site where the parade would start. Two by two, the delegates were supposed to march, but who would march with Douglass?

  Douglass was deeply touched when Theodore Tilton, the editor of the largest weekly journal in New York, walked up to him and shook his hand. The warmth of Tilton’s hand warmed Douglass’s heart. Side-by-side, black and white together, these two delegates joined the parade. Cheers rang out on each street corner they turned. “Hurrah for Douglass!” voices cried. People clapped and cheered as they recognized this great man and American hero who devoted his life to bringing slavery to an end.

  And suddenly it happened. Frederick Douglass spotted a familiar face in the crowd. A woman stood at the corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets. Could it be? It was! It was Amanda Auld Sears, the daughter of his owners from plantation days, Lucretia and Thomas Auld. “I hastily ran to her,” Frederick Douglass said, “and ex
pressed my surprise and joy at meeting her. ‘But what brought you to Philadelphia at this time?’ I asked. She replied, with animated voice and countenance, ‘I heard you were to be here, and I came to see you walk in this procession.’ The dear lady, with her two children, had been following us for hours.”

  Meeting his former master’s daughter like this was a sign to Douglass that times were indeed changing. After the parade, he attended the convention and spoke out in favor of giving black men the vote. Others opposed his views, but stronger voices agreed with Douglass. The result of the convention was that the issue of suffrage moved forward at an even faster pace than he expected.

  Woman’s Suffrage Leaders

  Frederick Douglass’s strong stand caused disagreements among his circle of friends. Leaders of the woman’s suffrage movement were disappointed in Douglass’s new cause. They felt that women should be given the power to vote before blacks were. Many felt that because white women were more educated than former slaves, they would make better choices at the ballot box.

  Frederick Douglass strongly disagreed. He expressed his desire for all American citizens to vote, both men and women. He apologized to supporters of women’s rights and expressed his sorrow that women didn’t yet have the power to vote. However, he argued clearly, “If the Negro knows enough to fight for his country he knows enough to vote; if he knows enough to pay taxes for the support of the government, he knows enough to vote.”

  He urged women suffragists to wait patiently just a little while longer, for now was the hour of the black man. What use was it for white women to get the power to vote when they would mostly support the vote of their husbands? Giving white women the power to vote would double the strength of the former slaveholder’s household as well as the abolitionist household. “No!” Douglass cried. The Civil War would have been fought in vain if the result was that white women received the power to vote. “No!” Douglass insisted. The Civil War was fought for the freedom and rights of former slaves. Now was the black man’s hour!

  Frederick Douglass’s efforts were not in vain. “Unlike the movement for the abolition of slavery,” he rejoiced, “the success of the effort for the enfranchisement of the freedmen was not long delayed.” In 1870 the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified and made into law.

  “The liberties of the American people were dependent upon the ballot-box, the jury-box, and the cartridge-box.”

  —Frederick Douglass

  “The First Vote” by A. R. Waud.

  Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USZ62-19234

  Reconstruction

  After the Civil War ended slavery, the United States of America entered a span of years known as Reconstruction. Leaders such as Frederick Douglass worked to help newly freed men, women, and children transition into their new way of life. Politicians worked in Congress to help the southern states join the nation once again. The constitutions of southern states were rewritten to include black residents as citizens. Former masters were required to hire black workers as laborers rather than rule over them as owners. Military troops were stationed throughout the South for a short time to help establish law and order.

  During these years, Frederick Douglass was busy performing his part to help teach fellow citizens how to rebuild their lives. For a short time, he stepped into the role of editor-in-chief with the Washington, DC, newspaper the New National Era, before handing over the responsibilities to his sons Lewis and Frederick Jr.

  He also developed connections with the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company, more commonly known as the Freedmen’s Bank. For a short time Frederick Douglass was the president of this bank, which had been established to hold the finances and savings of newly freed men and women, especially throughout the southern states.

  These were difficult years for Frederick Douglass as well as the rest of the nation. Prejudice ran high. Dishonesty ran rampant. Violence erupted with terrible force against the newly freed. The Ku Klux Klan raged their deadly warfare, and many of the freedmen’s rights were snatched away through unfair legalities before they could be enjoyed.

  Political unrest boiled throughout the nation as Congress worked to give African American men the power to vote while at the same time rewriting the constitutions of the states throughout the South. Friends urged Frederick Douglass to move south and run for office, but he declined, intent instead on the work he could do as an advocate of the oppressed.

  Douglass rejoiced, however, to see African Americans join the lines at the ballot boxes and cast their votes after the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were passed. For the first time in the nation’s history, blacks were voted into the US Congress.

  Fire!

  In June 1872 Frederick Douglass was away from home when he heard the news. Fire! His home in Rochester, New York, had burned to the ground. Whispers reached his ears that someone started the fire on purpose. Speeding immediately to the scene, Douglass felt as if he were attending a funeral. Anna, along with Rosetta and her husband, had been able to save a few things, but the blaze had been too hot, too quick, and too furious. Gone was a household of precious possessions and years of family mementos. Gone were keepsakes from his trips and dedicated work as an abolitionist. And gone were his issues of his newspapers.

  Douglass’s heart felt heavy with sadness at the great loss, especially the irreplaceable loss of 12 volumes of his newspaper covering a span of 12 years. Even though one kind friend donated two of the missing volumes to Douglass after the fire, he was never able to replace the other ones.

  The first black senator and representatives elected to Congress. Front row (from left to right): Senator Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi, Representatives Benjamin Turner of Alabama, Josiah Walls of Florida, Joseph Hayne Rainey of South Carolina, and Robert Brown Elliott of South Carolina. Back row (from left to right): Representatives Robert DeLarge of South Carolina and Jefferson Long of Georgia. Courtesy of the Library of Congress, LC-USZC2-2325

  MICROFINANCING

  After the Civil War came to an end, Frederick Douglass worked for a short time as the president of the Freedmen’s Bank. The principle of this bank was to help people, mostly newly freed slaves, who had little or no money to get a start in the world.

  Today, microfinancing, or using small amounts of money to help people living in poverty, is making big news. Opportunities such as microlending operate under a key basic principle: with a small investment of money you can help someone help himself. For example, by loaning $25 to a man or woman in a different country, that person can buy a goat. The goat will supply milk to drink. Its babies can be sold. Some of the money can be used to pay back the loan. The rest of the money can be used to buy several chickens. Before long, that person’s family could have goats, chickens, cows, a new business, and food to eat.

  Then you can loan your $25 to a different man or woman and start this amazing success story all over again!

  If you would like to participate in a microlending program, check out organizations such as Kiva (www.kiva.org), Microplace (www.microplace.com), and Acción (www.accion.org). Another microfinancing option to help battle poverty is to donate a small gift through an organization such as Heifer International (www.heifer.org).

  Frederick and Anna Douglass lived in this house in the heart of Washington, DC, for over five years. Photo by author

  Twelve years of influential work were lost to history. “If I have at any time said or written that which is worth remembering or repeating,” he said, “I must have said such things between the years 1848 and 1860, and my paper was a chronicle of most of what I said during that time.” Some of the great events he had covered in that time span included the Free Soil Convention at Buffalo, the nomination of Martin Van Buren, the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the Dred Scott decision, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, the Kansas Nebraska Bill, the Border War in Kansas known as Bleeding Kansas, the John Brown raid upon Harpers Ferry, and the beginning of the Civil War.


  Anna and Frederick Douglass took stock of their lives. They weighed important factors regarding the nation’s current needs as well as their own personal plans. They made a crucial decision: they decided to move from Rochester, New York, to Washington, DC.

  Political Statesman

  A grand and influential new career opened for Frederick Douglass. Now living at the nation’s capital in Washington, DC, Douglass stepped into his nation’s political arena. Never before had African Americans risen to such a position of power and influence, but the times were changing. Black representatives and senators were elected. Frederick Douglass joined the ranks of political leadership in the United States of America.

  Four different presidents appointed Frederick Douglass to important government positions. As a loyal advocate of the oppressed, Douglass first and foremost considered civil rights and equality among all peoples as he fulfilled each of his various roles. He traveled to such places as Santo Domingo and Haiti, spending significant time meeting with government officials, key leaders, and important individuals.

  Presidents sought out his advice, and Douglass eagerly offered it. Able to evaluate each situation from his unique vantage point, Frederick Douglass’s wise words were always valuable. Not one to sway with the tide, Douglass stayed true to his convictions for the personal rights of all mankind whether black or white, man or woman, rich or poor. His voice rang out in these years on behalf of the best interests of his nation and his fellow Americans.

  Douglass walked freely and bravely among the leaders of the United States, often in the midst of severe prejudice and outspoken misrepresentation among the press, while always staying in touch with the needs and current situations of the downtrodden and disadvantaged. Frederick Douglass persevered along the path he had chosen, and he stood head and shoulders above the crowds.