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69-524: The National Liberal League was one of the first national organizations dedicated to separating church and state. It was presaged by a series of local organizations that emerged before the Civil War that sought to combat Sunday laws, bible-reading in public schools, and other government policies perceived to violate religious liberty. These issues would concern the National Liberal League that formed in

138-534: A child, Douglass was exposed to a number of religious sermons, and in his youth, he sometimes heard Sophia Auld reading the Bible . In time, he became interested in literacy; he began reading and copying bible verses, and he eventually converted to Christianity . He described this approach in his last biography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass : I was not more than thirteen years old when, in my loneliness and destitution, I longed for some one to whom I could go, as to

207-507: A den of hungry lions.' Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil. Once Douglass had arrived, he sent for Murray to follow him north to New York. She brought the basic supplies for them to set up a home. They were married on September 15, 1838, by a black Presbyterian minister, just eleven days after Douglass had reached New York. At first they adopted Johnson as their married name, to divert attention. As

276-452: A father and protector. The preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson, was the means of causing me to feel that in God I had such a friend. He thought that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God: that they were but natural rebels against his government; and that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God through Christ. I cannot say that I had

345-588: A free black seaman. Douglass crossed the wide Susquehanna River by the railroad's steam-ferry at Havre de Grace to Perryville on the opposite shore, in Cecil County , then continued by train across the state line to Wilmington, Delaware , a large port at the head of the Delaware Bay . From there, because the rail line was not yet completed, he went by steamboat along the Delaware River farther northeast to

414-518: A huge, horrible, repulsive form", and "an abomination in the sight of God". Of ministers like John Chase Lord, Leonard Elijah Lathrop, Ichabod Spencer , and Orville Dewey , he said that they taught, against the Scriptures, that "we ought to obey man's law before the law of God". He further asserted, "in speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of

483-418: A means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker". He whipped Douglass so frequently that his wounds had little time to heal. Douglass later said the frequent whippings broke his body, soul, and spirit. The 16-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won

552-572: A northbound train of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad in Baltimore. The area where he boarded was formerly thought to be a short distance east of the train depot, in a recently developed neighborhood between the modern neighborhoods of Harbor East and Little Italy . This depot was at President and Fleet Streets, east of "The Basin" of the Baltimore harbor , on the northwest branch of

621-498: A physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again. Recounting his beatings at Covey's farm in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave , Douglass described himself as "a man transformed into a brute!" Still, Douglass came to see his physical fight with Covey as life-transforming, and introduced the story in his autobiography as such: "You have seen how a man

690-609: A speech in Elmira, New York , then a station on the Underground Railroad , in which a black congregation would form years later, becoming the region's largest church by 1940. Douglass also joined several organizations in New Bedford and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison 's weekly newspaper, The Liberator . He later said that "no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments [of

759-621: A spokesman for "free religion", he asserted that Christianity , understood as based on the lordship of Christ , is no longer tenable. He rejected all dogma and reliance on Scriptures or creeds, teaching the truth is open to every individual. Abbot graduated from Harvard University and the Meadville Theological School . He served Unitarian churches in Dover, New Hampshire , and Toledo, Ohio , but his ministry proved controversial, and in 1868 New Hampshire's highest court ruled that

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828-554: A very distinct notion of what was required of me, but one thing I did know well: I was wretched and had no means of making myself otherwise. I consulted a good coloured man named Charles Lawson, and in tones of holy affection he told me to pray, and to "cast all my care upon God." This I sought to do; and though for weeks I was a poor, broken-hearted mourner, traveling through doubts and fears, I finally found my burden lightened, and my heart relieved. I loved all mankind, slaveholders not excepted, though I abhorred slavery more than ever. I saw

897-429: Is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. 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. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said: 'I felt as one might feel upon escape from

966-521: The Chesapeake Bay . Although this placed him only some 20 miles (32 km) from the Maryland–Pennsylvania state line, it was easier to continue by rail through Delaware, another slave state. Dressed in a sailor's uniform provided to him by Murray, who also gave him part of her savings to cover his travel costs, he carried identification papers and protection papers that he had obtained from

1035-642: The Golden Rule . In this sense, Douglass distinguished between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of America" and considered religious slaveholders and clergymen who defended slavery as the most brutal, sinful, and cynical of all who represented "wolves in sheep's clothing". In What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? , an oration Douglass gave in the Corinthian Hall of Rochester, he sharply criticized

1104-763: The Patapsco River . Research cited in 2021, however, suggests that Douglass in fact boarded the train at the Canton Depot of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad on Boston Street, in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore, further east. Douglass reached Havre de Grace, Maryland , in Harford County , in the northeast corner of the state, along the southwest shore of the Susquehanna River , which flowed into

1173-560: The anti-slavery interpretation of the U.S. Constitution . When radical abolitionists, under the motto "No Union with Slaveholders", criticized Douglass's willingness to engage in dialogue with slave owners, he replied: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong." Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland . The plantation

1242-511: The "Quaker City" of Philadelphia , Pennsylvania, an anti-slavery stronghold. He continued to the safe house of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York City . His entire journey to freedom took less than 24 hours. Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York City: I have often been asked, how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There

1311-546: The 10th anniversary of her death. Users outside the USA may not yet be able to gain full access to editions linked through Google Books. See official Google Inside Google Book Search blog post "From the mail bag: Public domain books and downloads", November 9, 2006, 11:19 AM, posted by Ryan Sands, Google Book Search Support Team, Eprint Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey , c. February 14, 1818  – February 20, 1895)

1380-504: The 1870s. Officers included Francis E. Abbott , T.B. Wakeman , Elizur Wright , Robert G. Ingersoll , and others. Annual conventions took place in Syracuse (1878) Cincinnati (1879), St. Louis (1882), Milwaukee (1883), and Cleveland (1885). In 1884 The Radical Review observed that the League "gave promises of great usefulness in the early years of its existence. In the fall of 1878 its activity

1449-532: The 1879 convention, in opposition to an adopted motion to provide a general defense, rather than his preference to exclude distributors of prurient material and only defend "real Freethought". The league evolved into the American Secular Union around 1885. Circa November 1901, a faction of the American Secular Union split off, and resumed use of the older "National Liberal League" name. The name

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1518-486: The 1947-founded organization to California, that the organization renamed itself in 1966 to the "National League For The Separation Of Church And State", and that subsequent to Johnson's death an organization of that name continued in New York, with leadership passing to Fred Edwords . National Reform Association (1864) Francis Ellingwood Abbot Francis Ellingwood Abbot (November 6, 1836 – October 23, 1903)

1587-628: The Dover, New Hampshire, First Unitarian Society of Christians' chosen minister was insufficiently "Christian" to serve his congregation. See Hale v. Everett, 53 N.H. 9 (1868). The Rev. Abbot had, it said, once preached that: In another sermon, the court noted, Rev. Abbot had even declared that "If Protestantism would include Mr. Abbot in this case," New Hampshire's highest court concluded, Hale v. Everett, 53 N.H. 9, 87-88 (1868). But opinions concerning Abbot diverged widely. Frederick Douglass , for example, praised Frank Abbot for doing "much to break

1656-602: The Hardys, rescued him. His hand was broken in the attack; it healed improperly and bothered him for the rest of his life. A stone marker in Falls Park in the Pendleton Historic District commemorates this event. In 1847, Douglass explained to Garrison, "I have no love for America, as such; I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I? The Institutions of this Country do not know me – do not recognize me as

1725-498: The Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). Following the Civil War , Douglass was an active campaigner for the rights of freed slaves and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass . First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death,

1794-473: The attitude of religious people who kept silent about slavery, and he charged that ministers committed a " blasphemy " when they taught it as sanctioned by religion. He considered that a law passed to support slavery was "one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty" and said that pro-slavery clergymen within the American Church "stripped the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throne of religion

1863-580: The barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roast in the fire and eat. That boy did not wear pants like you do, but a tow linen shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned to spell from an old Webster's spelling-book and to read and write from posters on cellar and barn doors, while boys and men would help him. He would then preach and speak, and soon became well known. He became Presidential Elector, United States Marshal, United States Recorder, United States diplomat, and accumulated some wealth. He wore broadcloth and didn't have to divide crumbs with

1932-616: The book covers his life up to those dates. Douglass also actively supported women's suffrage , and he held several public offices. Without his knowledge or consent, Douglass became the first African American nominated for vice president of the United States, as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket. Douglass believed in dialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides, as well as, after breaking with William Lloyd Garrison , in

2001-422: The book is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches, and dialogues, to assist students in learning reading and grammar. He later learned that his mother had also been literate, about which he would later declare: I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any love of letters I possess, and for which I have got—despite of prejudices—only too much credit, not to my admitted Anglo-Saxon paternity, but to

2070-666: The couple. Douglass responded to the criticisms by saying that his first marriage had been to someone the color of his mother, and his second to someone the color of his father. The couple settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts (an abolitionist center, full of former enslaved people), in 1838, moving to Lynn, Massachusetts , in 1841. After meeting and staying with Nathan and Mary Johnson , they adopted Douglass as their married name. Douglass had grown up using his mother's surname of Bailey; after escaping slavery he had changed his surname first to Stanley and then to Johnson. In New Bedford,

2139-423: The day he arrived, Sophia saw to it that Douglass was properly fed and clothed, and that he slept in a bed with sheets and a blanket. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him "as she supposed one human being ought to treat another." Douglass felt that he was lucky to be in the city, where he said enslaved people were almost freemen , compared to those on plantations. When Douglass

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2208-428: The direct pathway from slavery to freedom." Under her husband's influence, Sophia came to believe that education and slavery were incompatible and one day snatched a newspaper away from Douglass. She stopped teaching him altogether and hid all potential reading materials, including her Bible, from him. In his autobiography, Douglass related how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing

2277-485: The dogs under the table. That boy was Frederick Douglass. At the age of 6, Douglass was separated from his grandparents and moved to the Wye House plantation , where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer and Edward Lloyd was his unofficial master. After Anthony died in 1826, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas's brother Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia Auld in Baltimore . From

2346-548: The extant records of Douglass's former owner, Aaron Anthony, historian Dickson J. Preston determined that Douglass was born in February 1818. Though the exact date of his birth is unknown, he chose to celebrate February 14 as his birthday, remembering that his mother called him her "Little Valentine ." Douglass's mother, enslaved, was of African descent and his father, who may have been her master, apparently of European descent; in his Narrative (1845), Douglass wrote: "My father

2415-590: The fetters of religious superstition, for which he is entitled to gratitude." Letter from Hon. Frederick Douglass to Rev. M.J. Savage (June 15, 1880), published in Farewell Dinner to Francis Ellingwood Abbot, on Retiring from the Editorship of "The Index" 48 (George H. Ellis, 1880). Following the controversy in New Hampshire, Abbot left the ministry in 1868 to write, edit, and teach. Abbot's theological position

2484-468: The great mission of the slave's redemption from his chains". In addition, he called religious people to embrace abolitionism, stating, "let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to

2553-586: The hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." So deep was this influence that in his last autobiography, Douglass said "his paper took a place in my heart second only to The Bible ." Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass and had written about his anti- colonization stance in The Liberator as early as 1839. Douglass first heard Garrison speak in 1841, at a lecture that Garrison gave in Liberty Hall, New Bedford. At another meeting, Douglass

2622-546: The introduction to Scientific Theism (wherein Abbot criticized nominalism and traced it through Kant among others), Abbot "put his finger unerringly [...] upon the one great blunder of all modern philosophy." (For the full texts of the public controversy and the obituary, see "External links" below.) Abbot committed suicide in 1903 by taking sleeping pills at his wife's gravesite in Central Cemetery, Beverly, Massachusetts, on

2691-477: The latter was such a common name that he wanted one that was more distinctive, and asked Nathan Johnson to choose a suitable surname. Nathan suggested " Douglass ", after having read the poem The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott , in which two of the principal characters have the surname " Douglas ". Douglass thought of joining a white Methodist Church , but was disappointed, from the beginning, upon finding that it

2760-486: The library, images of angels and Jesus are displayed, as well as interior and exterior photographs of Washington's Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church . Throughout his life, Douglass had linked that individual experience with social reform, and, according to John Stauffer , he, like other Christian abolitionists, followed practices such as abstaining from tobacco, alcohol and other substances that he believed corrupted body and soul. Douglass stated himself that he

2829-468: The marriage. Upon her death, Assing bequeathed Douglass a $ 13,000 trust fund (equivalent to $ 441,000 in 2023), a "large album", and his choice of books from her library. The marriage of Douglass and Pitts provoked a storm of controversy, since Pitts was both white and nearly 20 years younger. Many in her family stopped speaking to her; his children considered the marriage a repudiation of their mother. But feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated

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2898-453: The motto "Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren." In his 1848 "Letter to Thomas Auld", Douglass denounced his former slaveholder for leaving Douglass's family illiterate: Your wickedness and cruelty committed in this respect on your fellow-creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon my back, or theirs. It is an outrage upon

2967-436: The native genius of my sable, unprotected, and uncultivated mother —a woman, who belonged to a race whose mental endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in disparagement and contempt. When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he "gathered eventually more than thirty male slaves on Sundays, and sometimes even on weeknights, in a Sabbath literacy school." In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a]s

3036-403: The religious organizations of our land. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States ... Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, Samuel J. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend [Robert R. Raymonde]". He maintained that "upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in

3105-495: The same gracious manner ... but in my former visits to this place I had failed to meet them". Douglass and Anna Murray had five children: Rosetta Douglass , Lewis Henry Douglass , Frederick Douglass Jr. , Charles Remond Douglass , and Annie Douglass (died at the age of ten). Charles and Rosetta helped produce his newspapers. Anna Douglass remained a loyal supporter of her husband's public work. His relationships with Julia Griffiths and Ottilie Assing , two women with whom he

3174-534: The segregated railroad coach. In 1843, Douglass joined other speakers in the American Anti-Slavery Society 's "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month tour at meeting halls throughout the eastern and midwestern United States . During this tour, slavery supporters frequently accosted Douglass. At a lecture in Pendleton, Indiana , an angry mob chased and beat Douglass before a local Quaker family,

3243-544: The soul—a war upon the immortal spirit, and one for which you must give account at the bar of our common Father and Creator. Sometimes considered a precursor of a non-denominational liberation theology , Douglass was a deeply spiritual man, as his home continues to show. The fireplace mantle features busts of two of his favorite philosophers, David Friedrich Strauss , author of The Life of Jesus , and Ludwig Feuerbach , author of The Essence of Christianity . In addition to several Bibles and books about various religions in

3312-614: The winds." During his visits to the United Kingdom between 1846 and 1848, Douglass asked British Christians never to support American churches that permitted slavery, and he expressed his happiness to know that a group of ministers in Belfast had refused to admit slaveholders as members of the Church. On his return to the United States, Douglass founded the North Star , a weekly publication with

3381-543: The world in a new light, and my great concern was to have everybody converted. My desire to learn increased, and especially did I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the Bible. Douglass was mentored by Rev. Charles Lawson, and, early in his activism, he often included biblical allusions and religious metaphors in his speeches. Although a believer, he strongly criticized religious hypocrisy and accused slaveholders of " wickedness ", lack of morality, and failure to follow

3450-577: The writings of the men with whom he worked. Douglass continued, secretly, to teach himself to read and write. He later often said, "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom." 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 that he discovered at about age 12, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. First published in 1797,

3519-577: Was segregated . Later, he joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church , an independent black denomination first established in New York City, which counted among its members Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman . He became a licensed preacher in 1839, which helped him to hone his oratorical skills . He held various positions, including steward , Sunday-school superintendent , and sexton . In 1840, Douglass delivered

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3588-689: Was a teetotaler . According to David W. Blight , however, "Douglass loved cigars" and received them as gifts from Ottilie Assing . Douglass praised the agnostic orator Robert G. Ingersoll , whom Douglass met in Peoria, Illinois , stating, "Genuine goodness is the same, whether found inside or outside the church, and that to be an 'infidel' no more proves a man to be selfish, mean and wicked than to be evangelical proves him to be honest, just and human. Perhaps there were Christian ministers and Christian families in Peoria at that time by whom I might have been received in

3657-625: Was a white man." According to David W. Blight 's 2018 biography of Douglass, "For the rest of his life he searched in vain for the name of his true father." Douglass's genetic heritage likely also included Native American. Douglass said his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and, after he escaped to the North in September 1838, he took the surname Douglass , having already dropped his two middle names. He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother: The opinion

3726-436: Was about 12, Sophia Auld began teaching him the alphabet . Hugh Auld disapproved of the tutoring, feeling that literacy would encourage enslaved people to desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard. "'Very well, thought I,'" wrote Douglass. "'Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.' I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood

3795-473: Was again in use circa 1945 by an organization which is claimed to have been unrelated. During Eisenhower's presidency, the National Liberal League questioned the appointment of William Brennan to the Supreme Court. In the 1960s, James Hervey Johnson is reported to have assumed the leadership of the National Liberal League of that era. Current era records suggest that Johnson relocated operations in his era of

3864-472: Was also 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 is a 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 of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she

3933-674: Was an American philosopher and theologian who sought to reconstruct theology in accordance with the scientific method . His lifelong romance with his wife, Katharine Fearing Loring, forms the subject of If Ever Two Were One , a collection of his correspondence and diary entries. Abbot was born to Joseph Hale Abbot and Fanny Ellingwood Larcom on November 6, 1836 in Boston, Massachusetts . He married Katherine Fearing on August 3, 1859 in Nashua, New Hampshire . The couple had three children: Everett Vergnies, Fanny Larcom, and Edward Stanley Abbot. As

4002-534: Was an American social reformer , abolitionist , orator, writer, and statesman. He became the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century. After escaping from slavery in Maryland in 1838, Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York and gained fame for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he

4071-421: Was between Hillsboro and Cordova ; his birthplace was likely his grandmother's cabin east of Tappers Corner and west of Tuckahoe Creek . In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it." In successive autobiographies, he gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817. However, based on

4140-486: Was crippled by the appearance of some of those internal strifes and dissentions which seem to be the inevitable accompaniment of the development of all reformatory organisations. To screen personal animosities, always contemptible, side issues were introduced, and the essential aim of the League lost sight of. ... The National Liberal League split on the discussion of the constitutionality of the so-called Comstock law of 1873 ." Ingersoll resigned from his vice-presidency after

4209-499: Was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to claims by supporters of slavery that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography. Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as an enslaved person in his Narrative of

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4278-522: Was gone. After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother Betsy Bailey, who was also enslaved, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who was free . Betsy would live until 1849. Frederick's mother remained on the plantation about 12 miles (19 km) away, visiting Frederick only a few times before her death when he was 7 years old. Returning much later, about 1883, to purchase land in Talbot County that

4347-507: Was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man." Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him from his owner, but was unsuccessful. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love with Anna Murray , a free black woman in Baltimore about five years his senior. Her free status strengthened his belief in the possibility of gaining his own freedom. Murray encouraged him and supported his efforts by aid and money. On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding

4416-462: Was meaningful to him, he was invited to address "a colored school": I once knew a little colored boy whose mother and father died when he was six years old. He was a slave and had no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in a hovel, and in cold weather would crawl into a meal bag head foremost and leave his feet in the ashes to keep them warm. Often he would roast an ear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many times has he crawled under

4485-411: Was professionally involved, caused recurring speculation and scandals. Assing was a journalist recently immigrated from Germany, who first visited Douglass in 1856 seeking permission to translate My Bondage and My Freedom into German. Until 1872, she often stayed at his house "for several months at a time" as his "intellectual and emotional companion." Assing held Anna Douglass "in utter contempt" and

4554-674: Was stated in Scientific Theism (1885) and The Way Out of Agnosticism (1890). In the latter book, Josiah Royce wrote an article so scathing that Abbot took it as an unfair attempt to destroy his reputation, and eventually responded publicly with Mr. Royce's Libel (1891 October) in which he sought redress from Royce's employer Harvard University. The debate moved to the pages of The Nation , where Charles Sanders Peirce took Abbot's side; William James and Joseph Bangs Warner, less so. In his 1903 obituary of Abbot, Peirce praised Abbot's philosophical work and love of truth, and wrote that, in

4623-541: Was the daughter of Gideon Pitts Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass's. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), Pitts worked on a radical feminist publication named Alpha while living in Washington, D.C. She later worked as Douglass's secretary. Assing, who had depression and was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer, committed suicide in France in 1884 after hearing of

4692-786: Was unexpectedly invited to speak. After telling his story, Douglass was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. A few days later, Douglass spoke at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society 's annual convention, in Nantucket . Then 23 years old, Douglass conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his life as a slave. While living in Lynn, Douglass engaged in an early protest against segregated transportation. In September 1841, at Lynn Central Square station , Douglass and his friend James N. Buffum were thrown off an Eastern Railroad train because Douglass refused to sit in

4761-444: Was vainly hoping that Douglass would separate from his wife. Douglass biographer David W. Blight concludes that Assing and Douglass "were probably lovers". Though Douglass and Assing are widely believed to have had an intimate relationship, the surviving correspondence contains no proof of such a relationship. Anna died in 1882. In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts , a white suffragist and abolitionist from Honeoye, New York . Pitts

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