Biography of Frederick Douglass for Kids: American Civil Rights History for Children - FreeSchool

Frederick Douglass was a famous speaker, writer, civil rights activist, and abolitionist. Born into slavery, he escaped to freedom and dedicated the rest of his life to securing freedom for others and equal rights for everyone. He wrote three biographies which still provide an excellent look at the conditions slaves were kept in.

This kid-friendly video is filled with facts and information about Frederick Douglass and his life; it also briefly explains the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments. Frederick Douglass changed history!

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Today we're going to learn
about the famous abolitionist,

Frederick
Douglass.

Although he was born a slave, Frederick
Douglass later escaped to freedom

and became famous around
the world as a writer, speaker,

and supporter of freedom for slaves
and equal rights for everyone.

He was born on
a plantation in Maryland

and named Frederick
Augustus Washington Bailey.

Because he was born into slavery,
he never knew his birthday.

Slave records show he was born
sometime in February of 1818.

Frederick Douglass
never knew his father

and spent very little
time with his mother.

Instead, he was raised by
his grandmother until he was six or seven,

when he was old enough
to begin work on the plantation.

Two years later, he was sent
to Baltimore to be a child's companion

in the house of
Mr. Hugh Auld.

It was in Baltimore that young
Frederick began to learn how to read.

Mr. Auld's wife, Sophia, taught him
the alphabet and how to make simple words,

but when her husband
found out what she was doing,

he forced her
to stop.

He said that teaching a slave
to read was illegal and unsafe,

that once a slave learned to read
he would never be satisfied with slavery

and it would be
impossible to keep him.

When young Frederick heard those words,
he suddenly realized that learning

to read and write would be
his pathway from slavery to freedom.

Although he no longer
had a teacher,

he secretly taught himself
to read and write by watching others,

determined
not to give up

even though he was punished
whenever he was caught.

At about
15 years old,

Frederick Douglass was sent
from Baltimore back to the plantation,

where he was forced
to work for a cruel master

who whipped
and beat him frequently.

One day when he was sixteen years old,
he fought back during a beating, and won,

and the man
never beat him again.

Soon after this he was sent
to work for another master,

and there he made an attempt
to escape to freedom.

That attempt
failed,

and Frederick Douglass was sent back
to Baltimore to work in a shipyard.

In Baltimore he made friends
with free black men and women,

including Anna Murray, who
encouraged him to try to escape again.

With ID papers borrowed
from another friend,

Frederick Douglass disguised
himself as a free black sailor

and took a train north to New York
on September 3, 1838.

Once safe in New York,
he wrote to Anna Murray,

who traveled north
to be with him.

They were married
a few days later

and settled in New Bedford,
Massachusetts,

where they changed
their last name to Douglass

to avoid being found
by Frederick's old master.

At 20 years old, Frederick Douglass
was finally a free man.

Soon,
he became a preacher,

and began attending
abolitionist meetings

with others who wanted to end
slavery in the United States.

Before long, he was speaking
at anti-slavery meetings himself.

In 1845 he published
his first autobiography,

"Narrative of the Life of Frederick
Douglass, an American Slave."

It became wildly popular
in the United States as well as Europe,

selling thousands
of copies.

Douglass
and his friends worried

that the fame caused by his book
would put him in danger

of being recaptured
by his old master,

and so he traveled to
Great Britain for safety.

While there,
he was a popular speaker.

Crowds of people
came to listen to him.

His supporters there
raised enough money

to purchase his legal freedom
from his old owner,

at a cost of about
seven hundred dollars.

With his legal
freedom secured,

Frederick Douglass returned
to the United States in 1847.

There, he continued his fight
for freedom and equality.

He started an abolitionist newspaper,
attended women's rights conventions,

and called for
desegregation of schools.

He also helped escaping slaves
to freedom on the Underground Railroad.

By the time
the Civil War began,

Frederick Douglass was one of
the most famous black men in America.

He even served as an advisor
to President Abraham Lincoln,

calling for equal treatment
of black soldiers in the Union army.

Following the end of the Civil War and
the ratification of the 13th amendment

to the Constitution - which completely
outlawed slavery in the United States -

Frederick Douglass
continued to call for equality.

Black people and women
still did not have the right to vote,

and states in the South
were passing new laws

to segregate black people
from white people.

He lived to see the passage
of the 14th amendment,

which made everyone born
in the United States a citizen,

and the 15th
amendment,

which gave former slaves
and black men the right to vote.

He would not live to see women receive
the right to vote or segregation end.

On February
20, 1895,

Frederick Douglass spoke
in public for the last time,

at a Women's Rights
meeting.

After returning home,
he suffered a heart attack and died.

He was about
77 years old.

Frederick Douglass
remains an influential figure

in the history of
Civil Rights in America.

He has been
honored with statues

and his name is found on bridges
and schools across the country.

His face has even been
put on stamps and coins.

He fought all his life
for equality for everyone.

He always believed what he said
in the motto of his newspaper,

"Right is of no Sex
- Truth is of no Color -

God is the Father of us all,
and we are all brethren."

I hope you enjoyed learning
about Frederick Douglass today.

Goodbye till next time!