112-414: Among the numerous literary works titled Selected Essays are the following: Selected Essays (Frederick Douglass) by Frederick Douglass Selected Essays (T. S. Eliot) by T. S. Eliot Selected Essays (William Troy) by William Troy Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
224-513: A brokerage firm on Wall Street . Wall Street brokers were shocked. "Petticoats Among the Bovine and Ursine Animals," the New York Sun headlined. Woodhull, Claflin & Company opened in 1870, with the assistance of the wealthy Cornelius Vanderbilt , an admirer of Woodhull's skills as a medium; he is rumoured to have been Tennie's lover, and to have seriously considered marrying her. Woodhull made
336-452: A "curse of society". Woodhull repudiated her earlier views on free love, and began idealizing purity, motherhood, marriage, and the Bible in her writings. She even claimed that some works had been written in her name without her consent. Historians doubt that assertion by Woodhull. Woodhull, with sister Tennessee (Tennie) Claflin, became the first female stockbrokers and in 1870 they opened
448-534: 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
560-507: 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
672-454: A doctor from a town outside Rochester, New York . Her family had consulted him to treat the girl for a chronic illness. Woodhull practiced medicine in Ohio at a time when the state did not require formal medical education and licensing. By some accounts, Woodhull abducted Victoria to marry her. Woodhull claimed to be the nephew of Caleb Smith Woodhull , mayor of New York City from 1849 to 1851; he
784-452: 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
896-668: A fortune on the New York Stock Exchange by advising clients like Vanderbilt. On one occasion she told him to sell his shares short for 150 cents per stock, which he duly followed, and earned millions on the deal. Newspapers such as the New York Herald hailed Woodhull and Claflin as "the Queens of Finance" and "the Bewitching Brokers." Many contemporary men's journals ( e.g., The Days' Doings ) published sexualized images of
1008-588: 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
1120-717: A full-page engraving of Woodhull, surrounded by prominent suffragists, delivering her argument. Woodhull joined the International Workingmen's Association, also known as the First International . She supported its goals by articles in her newspaper. In the United States, many Yankee radicals, former abolitionists and other progressive activists, became involved in the organization, which had been founded in England. German-American and ethnic Irish nearly lost control of
1232-518: 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
SECTION 10
#17328758501271344-400: A man. Woodhull said: To woman, by nature, belongs the right of sexual determination. When the instinct is aroused in her, then and then only should commerce follow. When woman rises from sexual slavery to sexual freedom, into the ownership and control of her sexual organs , and man is obliged to respect this freedom, then will this instinct become pure and holy; then will woman be raised from
1456-492: A man." Victoria Woodhull Victoria Claflin Woodhull (born Victoria California Claflin ; September 23, 1838 – June 9, 1927), later Victoria Woodhull Martin , was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement who ran for president of the United States in the 1872 election . While many historians and authors agree that Woodhull was the first woman to run for the presidency, some disagree with classifying it as
1568-418: 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
1680-620: A memorial in support of the New Departure to the House Committee. She read the memorial aloud to the Committee, arguing that women already had the right to vote – all they had to do was use it – since the 14th and 15th Amendments guaranteed the protection of that right for all citizens. The simple but powerful logic of her argument impressed some committee members. Learning of Woodhull's planned address, suffrage leaders postponed
1792-406: A murder to destroy life in its embryotic condition, as it is to destroy it after the fully developed form is attained, for it is the self-same life that is taken. Later in the same essay she asks: Can any one suggest a better than to so situate woman, that she may never be obligated to conceive a life she does not desire shall be continuous? Woodhull also promoted eugenics , which was popular in
1904-512: A national circulation of 20,000. Its primary purpose was to support Victoria Claflin Woodhull for President of the United States. Published for the next six years, feminism was the Weekly' s primary interest, but it became notorious for publishing controversial opinions on taboo topics, advocating among other things sex education , free love , women's suffrage, short skirts , spiritualism , vegetarianism , and licensed prostitution. History often states
2016-467: A negligible, but unknown, percentage of the popular vote. A man in Texas said that he had voted for her, saying he was casting his vote against Grant. Woodhull again tried to gain nominations for the presidency in 1884 and 1892 . Newspapers reported that her 1892 attempt culminated in her nomination by the "National Woman Suffragists' Nominating Convention" on September 21. Marietta L. B. Stow of California
2128-572: 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
2240-487: A period as I can; to change that love every day if I please, and with that right neither you nor any law you can frame have any right to interfere. Woodhull railed against the hypocrisy of society's tolerating married men who had mistresses and engaged in other sexual dalliances. In 1872, Woodhull publicly criticized well-known clergyman Henry Ward Beecher for adultery. Beecher was known to have had an affair with his parishioner Elizabeth Tilton, who had confessed to it, and
2352-498: 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
SECTION 20
#17328758501272464-477: A proceeding that proved to be one of the most sensational legal episodes of the era, gripping the attention of hundreds of thousands of Americans: the trial ended with a hung jury , but the church won the case hands down. On November 2, 1872, Woodhull, Claflin and Col. Blood were arrested and charged with publishing an obscene newspaper and circulating it through the United States Postal Service. In
2576-513: A prominent Protestant minister in Brooklyn. He supported female suffrage but had lectured against free love in his sermons. Woodhull published the article to highlight what she saw as a sexual double standard between men and women. That same day, a few days before the presidential election, U.S. Federal Marshals arrested Woodhull, her second husband, Colonel James Blood , and her sister Tennie on charges of "publishing an obscene newspaper" because of
2688-655: A run-in with Anthony during a meeting of the National Women's Suffrage Association (NWSA). (The radical NWSA later merged with the conservative American Women's Suffrage Association [AWSA] to form the National American Woman Suffrage Association .) Woodhull learned how to infiltrate the all-male domain of national politics and arranged to testify on women's suffrage before the House Judiciary Committee . In December 1870, she submitted
2800-534: A second, and more reputable fortune. They were among the first women to found a newspaper in the United States, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly , which began publication in 1870. Woodhull was politically active in the early 1870s when she was nominated as the first woman candidate for the United States presidency. Woodhull was the candidate in 1872 from the Equal Rights Party , supporting women's suffrage and equal rights; her running mate (unbeknownst to him)
2912-609: 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
3024-511: A story that set off a national scandal and preoccupied the public for months. Henry Ward Beecher , a renowned preacher of Brooklyn's Plymouth Church, had condemned Woodhull's free love philosophy in his sermons but a member of his church, Theodore Tilton , disclosed to Elizabeth Cady Stanton , a colleague of Woodhull, that his wife had confessed Beecher was committing adultery with her. Provoked by such hypocrisy, Woodhull decided to expose Beecher. He ended up standing trial in 1875, for adultery in
3136-555: A true candidacy because according to the Constitution she would have been too young to be President if elected. An activist for women's rights and labor reforms, Woodhull was also an advocate of " free love ", by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce and bear children without social restriction or government interference. "They cannot roll back the rising tide of reform," she often said. "The world moves." Woodhull twice went from rags to riches , her first fortune being made on
3248-554: 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
3360-416: A woman's rights advocate, Woodhull moved to the leadership circle of the suffrage movement. Although her constitutional argument was not original, she focused unprecedented public attention on suffrage. Woodhull was the second woman to petition Congress in person (the first was Elizabeth Cady Stanton ). Numerous newspapers reported her appearance before Congress. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper printed
3472-411: Is only one phase of the larger question of women's emancipation. More important is the question of her social and economic position. Her financial independence underlies all the rest." Ellen Carol DuBois refers to her as a "socialist feminist." On April 2, 1870, Woodhull's letter to the editor of the New York Herald was published, announcing her candidacy. Woodhull was nominated for president of
Selected Essays - Misplaced Pages Continue
3584-429: 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
3696-521: 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
3808-642: 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
3920-763: 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
4032-787: The Union Army in Missouri during the American Civil War , and had been elected as city auditor of St. Louis, Missouri . Woodhull's support of free love likely started after she discovered the infidelity of her first husband, Canning. Women who married in the United States during the 19th century were bound into the unions, even if loveless, with few options to escape. Divorce was limited by law and considered socially scandalous. Women who divorced were stigmatized and often ostracized by society. Victoria Woodhull concluded that women should have
4144-560: 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
4256-791: The legalization of prostitution . A personal account from one of Colonel Blood's friends suggests that Tennessee was held against her will in a brothel until Woodhull rescued her, but this story remains unconfirmed. While Woodhull's earlier radicalism had stemmed from the Christian socialism of the 1850s, for most of her life, she was involved in Spiritualism and she did not use religious language in her public speeches. However, in 1875, Woodhull began to publicly espouse Christianity and she changed her political stances. She exposed Spiritualist frauds in her periodical, alienating her Spiritualist followers. She wrote articles against promiscuity, calling it
4368-511: 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
4480-568: The Austrian mystic Franz Mesmer and the new spiritualist movement. Her father, Reuben Buckman "Buck" Claflin, Esq., was a con man, lawyer and snake oil salesman . He came from an impoverished branch of the Massachusetts -based Scots-American Claflin family , semi-distant cousins to Massachusetts Governor William Claflin . Woodhull was whipped by her father, according to biographer Theodore Tilton. Biographer Barbara Goldsmith claimed she
4592-602: 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
Selected Essays - Misplaced Pages Continue
4704-498: 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,
4816-429: The United States by the newly formed Equal Rights Party on May 10, 1872, at Apollo Hall, New York City. A year earlier, she had announced her intention to run. Also in 1871, she publicly spoke out against the government only being composed of men; she proposed the development of a new constitution and the creation of a new government a year thence. Her nomination was ratified at the convention on June 6, 1872, making her
4928-457: The United States. Present at one of her lectures was the banker John Biddulph Martin . They began to see each other and married on October 31, 1883. His family disapproved of the union. From then on, she was known as Victoria Woodhull Martin. Under that name, she published the magazine The Humanitarian from 1892 to 1901 with help from her daughter, Zula Woodhull. Her husband John died in 1897. After 1901, Martin gave up publishing and retired to
5040-407: The Woodhull and Claflin's Weekly, on an essay called When Is It Not Murder to Take a Life? , she asserts: Many women who would be shocked at the very thought of killing their children after birth, deliberately destroy them previously. If there is any difference in the actual crime we should be glad to have those who practice the latter, point it out. The truth of the matter is that it is just as much
5152-403: The accuracy of Goldsmith's saying that "Years later, Vickie would say that Buck made her 'a woman before my time. ' " Macpherson wrote, "Not only did Victoria not say this, there was no 'often' involved, nor was it about incest." Woodhull believed in spiritualism – she referred to "Banquo's Ghost" from Shakespeare 's Macbeth – because it gave her belief in a better life. She said that she
5264-488: The arrest prevented Woodhull from attempting to vote during the 1872 presidential election. With the publication of the scandal, Theodore Tilton , Elizabeth's husband, sued Beecher for "criminal conversation" (adultery) and alienation of affection . The 1875 trial was sensationalized across the nation and resulted in a hung jury. Woodhull received no electoral votes in the election of 1872, an election in which six different candidates received at least one electoral vote, and
5376-473: 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
5488-580: 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
5600-500: 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
5712-422: 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
SECTION 50
#17328758501275824-406: The choice to leave unbearable marriages. Woodhull believed in monogamous relationships, although she also said she had the right to change her mind. The choice to have sex or not was, in every case, the woman's choice, since this would place her in an equal status to the man, who had the capability to physically overcome and rape a woman, whereas a woman did not have that capability with respect to
5936-491: The content of this issue. The sisters were held in the Ludlow Street Jail for the next month, a place normally reserved for civil offenses but that also held more hardened criminals. The arrest was arranged by Anthony Comstock , the self-appointed moral defender of the nation at the time. Opponents raised questions about censorship and government persecution. The three were acquitted on a technicality six months later, but
6048-555: The country because he was worried they might testify in hearings on the distribution of the elder Vanderbilt's estate. The sisters accepted the offer and moved to Great Britain in August 1877. She made her first public appearance as a lecturer at St. James's Hall in London on December 4, 1877. Her lecture was called "The Human Body, the Temple of God," a lecture which she had previously presented in
6160-557: The country, establishing residence at Norton Park, Bredon's Norton , Worcestershire, where she built a village school with Tennessee and Zula. Through her work at the Bredon's Norton school, she became a champion for education reform in English village schools with the addition of kindergarten curriculum. She was active in the pioneering days of female motorists, with the Ladies' Automobile Club , and
6272-666: 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,
6384-423: 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
6496-428: 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
6608-485: 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
6720-463: The early 20th century. Her views on eugenics tied into her views on abortion, because she blamed abortion for assorted problems with pregnancies. Her interest in eugenics might have been motivated by the profound intellectual impairment of her son. She advocated, among other things, sex education, "marrying well," and pre-natal care as a way to bear healthier children and prevent mental and physical disease. Her writings express views which are closer to
6832-407: The expulsions. Recent scholarship has shown Woodhull to have been a far more significant presence in the socialist movement than previous historians had allowed. Woodhull thought of herself as a revolutionary and her conception of social and political reorganization was, like Marx, based upon economics. In an article titled "Woman Suffrage in the United States" in 1896, she concluded that "suffrage
SECTION 60
#17328758501276944-548: 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
7056-453: The first woman candidate. Woodhull's campaign was also notable because Frederick Douglass was nominated as its vice-presidential candidate, even though he did not take part in the convention. He did not acknowledge his nomination and did not play any active role in the campaign. His nomination stirred up controversy about the mixing of white and black people in public life, and fears of miscegenation . The Equal Rights Party hoped to use
7168-468: 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
7280-586: 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
7392-509: The iniquity and morbidness in which she now wallows for existence, and the intensity and glory of her creative functions be increased a hundred-fold … . In this same speech, which became known as the "Steinway speech," delivered on Monday, November 20, 1871, in Steinway Hall , New York City, Woodhull said of free love: Yes, I am a Free Lover. I have an inalienable, constitutional and natural right to love whom I may, to love as long or as short
7504-477: 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
7616-486: 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
7728-468: 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
7840-453: 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
7952-436: 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
8064-530: The nominations to reunite suffragists with African-American civil rights activists, because the exclusion of female suffrage from the Fifteenth Amendment two years earlier had caused a substantial rift between the groups. Having been vilified in the media for her support of free love , Woodhull devoted an issue of Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly (November 2, 1872) to an alleged adulterous affair between Elizabeth Tilton and Reverend Henry Ward Beecher ,
8176-490: The opening of the 1871 National Woman Suffrage Association 's third annual convention in Washington in order to attend the committee hearing. Susan B. Anthony , Elizabeth Cady Stanton , and Isabella Beecher Hooker , saw Woodhull as the newest champion of their cause. They applauded her statement: "[W]omen are the equals of men before the law, and are equal in all their rights." With the power of her first public appearance as
8288-710: The organization, and feared its goals were going to be lost in the broad-based, democratic egalitarianism promoted by the Americans. In 1871, the Germans expelled most of the English-speaking members of the First International's U.S. sections, leading to the quick decline of the organization, as it failed to attract the ethnic working class in America. Karl Marx commented disparagingly on Woodhull in 1872, and expressed approval of
8400-457: The pair running their firm (although they did not participate in the day-to-day business of the firm), linking the concept of publicly minded, un-chaperoned women with ideas of " sexual immorality " and prostitution . On the date of May 14, 1870, Woodhull and Claflin used the money they had made from their brokerage to found a newspaper, the Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly , which at its height had
8512-421: The paper advocated birth control , but some historians disagree. The paper is now known for printing the first English version of Karl Marx 's Communist Manifesto in its edition of December 30, 1871, and the paper argued the cause of labor with eloquence and skill. James Blood and Stephen Pearl Andrews wrote the majority of the articles, as well as other able contributors. In 1872, the Weekly published
8624-410: The raid, 3,000 copies of the newspaper were found. It was this arrest and Woodhull's acquittal that propelled Congress to pass the 1873 Comstock Laws . George Francis Train once defended her. Other feminists of her time, including Susan B. Anthony , disagreed with her tactics in pushing for women's equality. Some characterized her as opportunistic and unpredictable; in one notable incident, she had
8736-403: 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
8848-405: The road as a magnetic healer before she joined the spiritualist movement in the 1870s. Authorship of many of her articles is disputed (many of her speeches on these topics were collaborations between Woodhull, her backers, and her second husband, Colonel James Blood ). Together with her sister, Tennessee Claflin , she was the first woman to operate a brokerage firm on Wall Street , making
8960-495: 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
9072-468: The scandal was covered nationally. Woodhull was prosecuted on obscenity charges for sending accounts of the affair through the federal mails, and she was briefly jailed. This added to sensational coverage during her campaign that autumn for the United States presidency. Woodhull spoke out in person against prostitution and considered marriage for material gain a form of it but in her journal, Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly, Woodhull expressed support for
9184-534: 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,
9296-544: 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
9408-585: The title Selected Essays . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Selected_Essays&oldid=421005015 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey , c. February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895)
9520-404: The views of anarchist eugenicists, rather than the views of coercive eugenicists like Sir Francis Galton . In 2006, publisher Michael W. Perry discovered writings which show that Woodhull supported the forcible sterilization of people who she considered unfit to breed. He published these writings in his book "Lady Eugenist". He cited a New York Times article from 1927 in which she concurred with
9632-614: 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
9744-495: 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
9856-577: 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,
9968-577: 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
10080-689: 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
10192-625: 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
10304-438: Was abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass . Her campaign inspired at least one other woman – apart from her sister – to run for Congress. A check on her activities occurred when she was arrested on obscenity charges a few days before the election. Her paper had published an account of the alleged adulterous affair between the prominent minister Henry Ward Beecher and Elizabeth Richards Tilton that had rather more detail than
10416-436: 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
10528-494: Was also starved and sexually abused by her father when still very young. She based her incest claim on a statement in Theodore Tilton's biography: "But the parents, as if not unwilling to be rid of a daughter whose sorrow was ripening her into a woman before her time, were delighted at the unexpected offer." Biographer Myra MacPherson disputes Goldsmith's claim that "Vickie often intimated that he sexually abused her" as well as
10640-472: 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
10752-479: 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
10864-421: 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
10976-416: Was born with an intellectual disability in 1854, a condition Victoria believed was caused by her husband's alcoholism. Another version recounted that her son's disability was caused by a fall from a window. After their children were born, Victoria divorced her husband and kept his surname. About 1866, Woodhull married Colonel James Harvey Blood , who also was marrying for a second time. He had served in
11088-399: Was considered proper at the time. However, it all added to the sensational coverage of her candidacy. Victoria California Claflin was born the seventh of ten children (six of whom survived to maturity), in the rural frontier town of Homer , Licking County, Ohio . Her mother, Mrs Roxanna "Roxy" Hummel Claflin, was born to unmarried parents and was illiterate. She had become a follower of
11200-499: 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
11312-478: Was forced to leave school and home with her family when her father, after having "insured it heavily," burned the family's rotting gristmill . When he tried to get compensated by insurance, his arson and fraud were discovered; he was run off by a group of town vigilantes . The town held a "benefit" to raise funds to pay for the rest of the family's departure from Ohio. When she was 14, Victoria met 28-year-old Canning Woodhull (listed as "Channing" in some records),
11424-522: 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
11536-481: Was guided in 1868 by Demosthenes to what symbolism to use supporting her theories of Free Love. As they grew older, Victoria became close to her sister Tennessee Celeste Claflin (called Tennie), seven years her junior and the last child born to the family. As adults, they collaborated in founding a stock brokerage and newspaper in New York City. By age 11, Woodhull had only three years of formal education, but her teachers found her to be extremely intelligent. She
11648-494: Was in fact a distant cousin. They were married on November 20, 1853. Their marriage certificate was recorded in Cleveland on November 23, 1853, when Victoria was two months past her 15th birthday. Victoria soon learned that her new husband was an alcoholic and a womanizer. She often had to work outside the home to support the family. She and Canning had two children, Byron and Zulu (later called Zula) Maude Woodhull. Byron
11760-507: 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
11872-462: 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
11984-708: Was nominated as the candidate for vice president. The convention was held at Willard's Hotel in Boonville, New York , and Anna M. Parker was its president. Some women's suffrage organizations repudiated the nominations, claiming that the nominating committee was unauthorized. Woodhull was quoted as saying that she was "destined" by "prophecy" to be elected president of the United States in the upcoming election. In October 1876, Woodhull divorced her second husband, Colonel Blood. After Cornelius Vanderbilt 's death in 1877, William Henry Vanderbilt paid Woodhull and her sister Claflin $ 1,000 (equivalent to $ 29,000 in 2023 ) to leave
12096-411: 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
12208-546: Was reputed to have been the first woman to drive a car in Hyde Park , London and in the English country roads. Woodhull expressed thoughts on abortion : Every woman knows that if she were free, she would never bear an unwished-for child, nor think of murdering one before its birth. In one of her speeches, she states: The rights of children, then, as individuals, begin while yet they are in foetal life. Children do not come into existence by any will or consent of their own. At
12320-488: 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
12432-786: 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
12544-444: 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
#126873