Monday, February 1
February brings Black History Month and we will be recognizing a special African American each day during our announcements. Today we are recognizingFredrick Douglas. (1818-1895)
Born in Maryland in 1818, the son of a slave mother and a white father, possibly his owner, Douglass escaped bondage by fleeing North. Through his vivid portrayals of brutality, the severing of familial bonds, and mental torture, he documented the iniquity of the peculiar institution and disproved the Southern propaganda of the happy slave. Douglas rose to prominence in the abolitionist movement, partly due to his personal experience of having lived as chattel, but also he knew how to enrapture an audience. One observer described him as strikingly memorable.