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Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1818〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Frederick Douglass Biography )〕 – February 20, 1895) was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.〔 "Moreover, though he does not make the point explicitly, again the very fact that Douglass is ably disputing this argument on this occasion celebrating a select few's intellect and will (or moral character) — this fact constitutes a living counterexample to the narrowness of the pro-slavery definition of humans."〕 Even many Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 This Day is Resistance History: The Birth of Frederick Douglass ) "The publishing of this autobiography by Douglass came about in part because Douglass would often encounter disbelief from White audiences about his former slave status, because he spoke so eloquently in public."〕 Douglass wrote several autobiographies. He described his experiences as a slave in his 1845 autobiography, ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'', which became a bestseller and influential in supporting abolition, as did the second, ''My Bondage and My Freedom'' (1855). After the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery and wrote his last autobiography, ''Life and Times of Frederick Douglass''. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, it covered events during and after the Civil War. Douglass also actively supported women's suffrage, and held several public offices. Without his approval, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as the running mate and Vice Presidential nominee of Victoria Woodhull, on the radical and visionary Equal Rights Party ticket.〔 A firm believer in the equality of all peoples, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant, Douglass famously said, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."〔 From page 33: "My point here is, first, the Constitution is, according to its reading, an anti-slavery document; and, secondly, to dissolve the Union, as a means to abolish slavery, is about as wise as it would be to burn up this city, in order to get the thieves out of it. But again, we hear the motto, 'no union with slave-holders;' and I answer it, as the noble champion of liberty, N. P. Rogers, answered it with a more sensible motto, namely—''No union with slave-holding.'' I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong."〕 ==Life as a slave== Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, (on the state's Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay), and was given his name by his mother, Harriet Bailey. The plantation was located between Hillsboro〔 and Cordova. His birthplace was likely his grandmother's shack east of Tappers Corner, () and west of Tuckahoe Creek.〔 Note that, though Amanda Barker's web site devoted to the Douglass birthplace states that you can't find it with tour books and guides, that is no longer the case.〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Historical Society of Talbot County: Tours and Museum Information ) See the ''"Frederick Douglass Driving Tour of Talbot County"''.〕 Years later, after escaping to the North, he took the surname Douglass, having already dropped the use of his two middle names. The exact date of Douglass's birth is unknown. He later chose to celebrate it on February 14.〔 The exact year is also unknown (on the first page of ''"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave"'', he stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it.")〔 Frederick Douglass began his own story thus: "I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland." (Tuckahoe is not a town; it refers to the area west of the creek in Talbot County.) In successive autobiographies, Douglass gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817. He adopted February 14 as his birthday because his mother Harriet Bailey used to call him her "little valentine".〕〔Slaves were punished for learning to read or write, and so could not keep records. Based on the extant records of Douglass's former owner, Aaron Anthony, historian Dickson Preston determined that Douglass was born in February 1818. McFeely, 1991, p. 8.〕 He was of mixed race, which likely included Native American on his mother's side, as well as African and European. He wrote of his earliest times with his mother: : "The opinion was ... whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion I know nothing.... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant.... It () common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. "I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day. ... She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone." After this early separation from his mother, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. At the age of seven, however, he was separated from his grandmother, and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer. Douglass's mother died when he was about ten. After Anthony died, the boy was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas' brother Hugh Auld in Baltimore. When Douglass was about twelve years old, Hugh Auld's wife Sophia started teaching him the alphabet. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated the boy the way one human being ought to treat another. When Hugh Auld discovered her activity, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to read, he would become dissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard.〔Douglass, Frederick. ''The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass: His Early Life as a Slave, His Escape from Bondage, and His Complete History'', p. 50. Dover Value Editions, Courier Dover Publications, 2003. ISBN 0-486-43170-3.〕 In his autobiography, Douglass related how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood, and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked. One day Mrs. Auld saw Douglass reading a newspaper; she ran over and snatched it from him, with her face showing that she believed education and slavery were incompatible with each other. Douglass continued, secretly, to teach himself how to read and write. He later often said, "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom."〔Jacobs, H. and Appiah, K. (2004). ''Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.'' Paperback, pp. xiii, 4.〕 As Douglass began to read newspapers, pamphlets, political materials, and books of every description, this new realm of thought led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited ''The Columbian Orator'', an anthology which he discovered at about age twelve, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. The book, first published in 1797, is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches and dialogues, to assist students in learning reading and grammar. When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the ''New Testament'' at a weekly Sunday school. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that in any week, more than 40 slaves would attend lessons. For about six months, their study went relatively unnoticed. While Freeland remained complacent about their activities, other plantation owners became incensed about their slaves being educated. One Sunday they burst in on the gathering, armed with clubs and stones, to disperse the congregation permanently. In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("()s a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas Auld sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker." He whipped Douglass regularly, and nearly broke him psychologically. The sixteen-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again.〔Bowers, Jerome. (Frederick Douglass ), (Teachinghistory.org ). Accessed June 3, 2010.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Frederick Douglass」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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