Frederick Douglass

Slavery was a time in America when some people were treated differently than other people. The people who were treated differently were African Americans. African Americans worked for white Americans who “owned” them. African Americans were called slaves at the time. Slaves did not have the right to learn to read and write because their masters or owners thought that they would learn dangerous things about freedom, democracy, and human rights. It was illegal for anyone to teach slaves how to read and write. Frederick Douglass was born a slave. His master’s wife taught him how to read and write even though she was not allowed to. He later escaped from slavery by disguising himself as a sailor. He was an abolitionist. An abolitionist was a person who opposed or was against slavery. He gave many speeches and lectures about freedom and also supported the Women’s Rights Movement. He published articles for The Liberator which was the newspaper of William Lloyd Garrison who was also an abolitionist. Later Douglass began to publish his own newspaper, The North Star. Mary McLeod Bethune was a female educator at the time. She opened a Literacy and Industrial Training School for African American Girls in Daytona. She chose Daytona because of economic opportunities and because it was a popular tourist place. The school received donations from local black churches such as money, equipment, and labor. Soon Bethune opened the Daytona Education and Industrial School for Negro Girls. Today this school is called Bethune-Cookman University. Both Frederick Douglass and Mary McLeod Bethune faced many obstacles in order to accomplish their goal which was to provide freedom and civil rights for African Americans.