The "Sympathy For My Brethren In Bonds" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Weather outside is miserable so I decided to grab my MacBook Air and check my email.  Third one was from St. James Episcopal Church in downtown Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Email told about the services for the week and daily readings we might want to view.  Then came the weekly short-story titled "Celebrating The Saints" which is always interesting.  But, today it was rather unique as the story began with:  This week we give thanks for and celebrate the life of Frederick Douglass, Prophetic Witness.  Wow, it was just yesterday that I wrote a story for my blog about Thaddeus Stevens who was an abolitionist who lived in Lancaster for many years.  The story about Mr. Douglass was both interesting and brought to life much that I had wrote yesterday.  Mr. Douglas was born a slave, but the exact date of his birth is unknown.  It was thought that he was probably born in 1817.  His mother was a negro slave and his father a white man.   His birthplace was on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, in the Tuckahoe district.  He was raised as a slave on the plantation of Col. Edward Lloyd until he was ten years old when he was sent to one of Col. Lloyd's relatives in Baltimore where he was employed in a shipyard.  At that time he was known as Frederick Bailey. At the age of 14 he experienced a conversion to Christ in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  

A young Frederick Douglass

While under the bonds of slavery he learned his letters from carpenter's marks on planks and timbers in the shipyard.  He listened to his owner's wife read the Bible and asked her to teach him to read it himself.  While working in the shipyard he continued to pick up all the information he could to satisfy his thirst for knowledge.  While working there he heard of the abolitionists and began a plan to escape to the North. On September 3, 1838 he escaped to New York, eventually landing in New Bedford.  At this time he changed his name to Frederick Douglass.  He supported himself for a few years by day labor on the wharves and in workshops.  

The Frederick Douglass House in Washington, D.C.

During that time he met his first wife.  In 1941 he attended an anti-slavery convention where he was asked to speak.  He made a favorable impression and became the agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and spent a few years traveling through New England giving lectures against slavery.  In 1845 he left for England where he spoke about slavery in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales.  His friends feared he might be captured and taken back to the United States and forced back into slavery so they raised money to pay his former master for his freedom.  Upon his return to New York he founded "Frederick Douglass's Paper", a weekly journal in Rochester, N.Y.  He later changed the name to "The North Star" and continued publishing it for several years.  He escaped to Canada after the attack on Harper's Ferry, fearing he would be captured.  After time in Quebec he returned to England for over half-a-year and then returned to Rochester to continue working on his newspaper.  

The Civil War Recruitment Poster in 1863
Click on images to enlarge

When the Civil War began, Mr. Douglass urged President Lincoln to employ the use of colored troops.  Douglass then became active in enlisting men to fill the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Massachusetts regiments.  After slavery had been abolished he took to the lecture circuit.  He was an imposing man who was over 200 pounds and 6 feet in height.  His complexion was slightly dark-skinned and he had a great shock of white hair.  As a speaker he kept it simple with simple English and few gestures.  In 1870 be became the editor of "The New National Era" in Washington, D.C.  A year later President Grant appointed him Asst. Secretary to the commission to San Domingo.  This was the first of many government appointments he fulfilled.  He wrote several books about his time in bondage.  He was married twice with his second wife being Miss Pitts, a white woman who was a clerk in the New York Recorder's office where he was the Recorder.  

An older Frederick Douglass

He was one of the most distinguished looking men wherever he went.  He was courteous, gentle bearing and liked by both white and black citizens.  On February 20, 1895 Frederick Douglass dropped dead at 7:00 pm in the hallway of his home on Anacostia Heights.  The newspaper told the story of his death in over a dozen paragraphs.  He was in good health, seventy-eight years old and had come from a speaking engagement.  The obituary told the story like this:  He was a chatting with his wife in the hallway of his home.  He grew very enthusiastic in his explanation of one of the events of the day, when he fell upon his knees, with hands clasped.  Mrs. Douglass, thinking this was part of his description, was not alarmed, but as she looked he sank lower and lower, and finally lay stretched upon the floor, breathing his last.  Realizing he was ill, she raised his head, and then understood that he was dying.  The end of the article in the St. James story told that Douglass was highly critical of churches that did not disassociate themselves from slavery, and he was a strong advocate of racial integration.  He disavowed black separatism and wanted to be counted as equal among his white peers.  When he met Abraham Lincoln in the White House, he noted that the President treated him as a kindred spirit without one trace of condescension.  My story today has some of the same tones to it as my story about Stevens.  Both men, one white, one black were more similar than contrasting.  Both were heroes in their own time!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

The tombstone or monument for Frederick Douglass in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester, NY.
This looks very similar to the monument erected in the cemetery in Lancaster for Thaddeus Stevens.