New national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1870-1874, 1872-01-04
Prom La Constitution, Psris.l
Frederick Douglass.
by George u. vashom, from the
French OF
MELvIL BLoNCoURT,
Deputy from suadalouPe-

once lesson and an example. 1t proves how,
in free country, persons who are placed by
fortunes chance on the lowest round of the
social ladder can succeed, through the mere
force Of intelligence, labor, and morality, in
| elevating themselves to the rank of the most
worthy. in shining among the most illustrious-
And this happy result Of institutions truly
democratic, is here still more apparent from
the fact. that Douglass, to day one Of the men
of the highest consideration in the United
States, has not only had to break his bonds as
slave, but also to contend afterwards with
the oppressive laws and prejudices against his
race
Notwithstanding the abolition of slavery and
the political enfranchisement of colored men,
race prejudces are, unfortunately, far from
having completely disappeared, from the great
| Republc--we know it but what matters the
absurdity Of prejudices there, where all citi-
zens, whatever may be their origin, are in full
possession of all their rights, and can, without
let or hinderance, exercise them?
Frederick Douglass, the eminent journalist,
the great orator of the United States, is mu-
latto, sprung from white man and q negro
slave woman. Antiquity would have made Of
HIM heroic parsonage, 80 much does his life,
which is like an epic of American slavery re-
semble the legendary and yet, all the incidents
therein are real and well attested. He was
born at Tuckahoe, on the eastern shore of
Maryland about 1877. He himself knows
neither the precise date of his birth, nor the
name Of his father lie passed the first years
of his infancy in the house of his master, one
Colonel Lloyd
Amid his most distant recollections appear
two figures-his mother and his grandmother
Betty. although well advanced in years."
he tells us in his Memoirs, the latter was
still straight, active, and strong" 1t was by
her that he was raised As to his mother, of
whom he speaks only with filial tenderness, be
traces the following portrait. "She was of a
jet and shiny black, tall in stature well pro.
portioned with regular features, and noted
among the other slaves for her quiet manners.
As she was field hand, she had to go twelve
miles and return, between sunset and sunrise,
whenever she came to see her children. |
learned, after her death, that she knew how to
read, and that she was the only person among
| the slaves of Tuckahoe that enjoyed that adyan
tage. 1 never learned how she acquired this
accomplishment for our quarters was the last
place in the world where she could have re-
ceived any lessons
AT the age of six or seven years, little Fred.
erick, or Fred, as he was then called, was re.
quired by the plantation situated abou,
twelve miles from the cabin in which he had,
until then. lived with his grandmother. She
took him without forewarning him of ANYTHING
to the quarter of the field hands. In order to
spare the child the fatigue Of the way, his aged
grandmother bore him from time to time on her
shoulders. He was left by her among the little
negroes of his own age. "She looked at me-
he says, "with an air of sadness. She was
about to lose another object Of her affection, OF
she had lost so many. 1 noticed her grief. and
its influence gained upon me-" Some minutes
after, the poor woman, quite overcome, re-
ceived the order to go, without a word in re
ply and the little muatto found himself alone
and given over to the odious power of an over
seer. 1t was not long, however, before he dis
covered among the laborers a young brother
Perry, sister Sarah and another named Eliza
who bad all three, preceded him there
81 had never seen," Douglass goes on to sa,
in his Memoirs, ca brother nor sister bu
had sometimes heard them spoken of; I Eel
interested in them without knowing too wei
who or what they were,-we had neithe
played nor grown up together-slavery ha,
rendered us strangers each unto the ether"
On the plantation the fare was bad, scarcel,
sufficient; and the children were often in wan
OF clothing; but per contra, they learned tn,
Lords prayer under the masters lash. As t,
the adults, they, with their bodies Scared b,
the lash, resembled those martyrs of the ANTIQUE
servitude of whom Plautus said, "Asses b,
their obduracy to blows, slaves are of the rae,
of goats or Of panthers, by reason of the mark
with which they are checkered." And so, NOR
than one had reason to cry out, like Xanthia
, in the Hasps, so turtle how envy thee tn
hard shell which covers thy backr'
During this barbarous initiation young Doug
lass lost his mother. 81 was only then" b
continues, "eight or nine years DID, She die,
on one of our masters farms at Tuckahoe. i,
the neighborhood of IIillsborough As if sh
died at sea, no one knew where her grave wa
to be found, for it bore neither cross. no
funereal stone." Some time after, he was sen
to Baltimore, to serve in the house of one O
r his masters daughters, who had been recent,
married. He found in Mrs Auld-that wa
the name of this lady-a protectress who's
> kindness went so far as to teach him the alnbs
bet Never did fairy or peri endow the luck,
princes OF the story books with gift az pre-
cious. But as soon as her husband learne,
this transgression Of the laws and "philoso
ply of slavery, he fastened to put matters {,
: rights. 1t was too late !! The young schola
already possessed the talsman which was t,
enable him, not only to acquire liberty, but I,
attain, one day, to the highest SUBMITS of in
telligence.
IL Is from this moment, in fact, that Doug
; lass, resolving not to groan forever in the hel
OF Resignation, commenced his heroic struggl,
against the system Of iniquities which, in tn,
United States, had pressed SO heavily upon h
race--a struggle fierce, obstinate, full Of peril
and one in which he, without ceasing, brayel,
staked bis life for the Black Code coult
; punish with death the slave who, in violation
OF the decree of this monument Of human per
versity, dared to learn how to read. This mon