✨✨Carolyn Janett✨✨ @Only1CJ - Twitter Profile

Abolitionist Frederick Douglass was the most photographed American of the 19th century. He never smiled in a single photo to counter the notion of a happy slave. Born in 1817 in Maryland, Douglass was enslaved from birth. At age 12, he learned the alphabet from the slaveholder's wife; however, his lessons were soon discontinued under the belief that it would foster a desire for freedom. But it was already too late. Douglass continued to learn from white children and others in his neighborhood. He began to read newspapers and devoured any books he could get his hands on. Soon, he began teaching others how to read and write. More than 40 people would attend his secret lessons until it was broken up by an angry white mob. At age 16, Douglass was made to work for a brutal slave master by the name of Edward Covey, who was known as a "slave-breaker." He whipped Douglass so regularly that his wounds didn't have time to heal. The beatings were so severe that they broke his body, soul, and spirit. One day, Douglass could not take it anymore and fought back and won. Covey could have had Douglass killed, but he didn't want to risk his reputation. He never tried to beat him again. In 1838, after several failed attempts, Douglass managed to escape slavery by boarding a north-bound train and taking it all the way to New York City. A year prior to his escape, he had met a woman named Anna Murray, who was a free black woman living in Baltimore. He fell in love with her, and she, in turn, helped him escape by providing him with a sailor's uniform, part of her savings to pay for travel expenses, identification papers, and protection papers. Douglass later wrote about seeing New York City for the first time: "A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the 'quick round of blood,' I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions." Murray soon followed, and 11 days later, the two were married by a black Presbyterian minister. They remained married for 44 years until her death in 1882.