In my last blog I wrote about
my journey returning to academia and touched on the internship I was about to undertake
with the Fells Point Preservation Society. All during the winter break my
anxiety was in overdrive as I truly did not know what to expect but eagerly
looked forward to this experience. On January 5th I received an
email from the Board member who would act as my mentor but unfortunately we could
not meet until January 26th. That meeting went exceptionally well
and I was tasked with writing a walking tour commemorating the 200th
anniversary of the birth of Frederick Douglass concentrating on his years in
Fells Point. I am almost embarrassed to say I knew scant little of Mr.
Douglass’ life other than he was a slave in Maryland, an abolitionist and
champion of black civil rights. So a researching I did go.
I dove into my task and checked out over twelve books
from the UMBC library either written about Douglass or written by Douglass
himself. My research revealed a portrait of a man, who on one hand, the most
photographed person of his time, but on the other, exceedingly private regarding
his personal life. The Fells Point years appeared a mere footnote, at best, but
nonetheless pivotal as they sparked the flame that would become his life’s
mission. His words and speeches inspire us today with the same fervor that
stirred a nation struggling with its identity on the cusp of civil war. To
write a tour successfully I needed to dig deeper into Douglass’ childhood to grasp
the importance of his time in Baltimore, why and who inspired him to become a
man Lincoln admired declaring “there is no man in the country whose opinion I
value more than yours.”[1]
As any history major will relate, research is tedious,
time-consuming, eye straining and at times exasperating, teetering between overwhelmed
or underwhelmed depending on existing source material. I was experiencing the
emotion of the latter, left pondering how in the heck I would stretch out these
fragments of information surrounding Douglass’ time in Fells Point into a five
stop hour long tour. I sought the assistance of UMBC Special Collections
Department, Courtney Hobson, Coordinator, Dresher Center for the Humanities at
UMBC, Enoch Pratt Free Library Maryland Department and Periodical Department
along with Francis O’Neill, Reference Librarian with the Maryland Historical
Society, and am eternally in their debt for the invaluable assistance, guidance
and patience each provided. I determined the best approach should combine known
facts with anecdotes of Douglass’ Fells Point years supplemented with
historical knowledge of life in the area during that time. Having been on
numerous walking tours myself I recognized the tour needed to connect on a
personal level with the audience. I wanted to paint the picture of his Fells
Point years, first, through the eyes of an eight-year-old boy, and then as they
shaped him as a man destined to influence a nation.
In 1818 Frederick Douglass, born Frederick Bailey, grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in rural Talbot County, separated from his mother and raised by his maternal grandmother. Sadly, it was common practice for slave owners to separate families as a form of control and Douglass was no exception. His mother labored on a plantation twelve miles from Douglass and would often sneak out at night walking those twelve miles, risked the beating she knew would come, just to see him. He only saw his mother five times and for no more than an hour each visit. Douglass never knew the actual date of his birth and in my research I found a touching account of why Douglass chose February 14th as his birthday. He recalled her calling him her “little Valentine”[2], a poignant and heartbreaking memory for a child. When he was eight he endured another separation that sent him to live with the Auld family in Fells Point, Baltimore. Sophia Auld, wife of his master Hugh, taught him the alphabet and was teaching him to read when her husband halted his education, fearing it would make him rebel against being a slave. He later recalled that Mrs. Auld was the first white person who ever treated him with kindness. After Auld forbade his learning, Douglass would bribe the white neighborhood boys to teach him to read and bought his first book from a shop at 28 Thames Street which runs along the waterfront. It was the waterfront where Douglass first encountered black men earning a living through the craft of ship caulking, which would later become his profession. Douglass later recalled that blacks, slave or free, had more opportunities in an urban setting then those blacks working on rural plantations. While in Fells Point Douglass found religion at the Strawberry Alley Methodist church and was mentored by a man known as ‘Uncle Lawson’, his spiritual father. He joined the East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society, which included black caulkers and black men and women looking to improve themselves by literary reading, open discussion and debated various topics, including freedom, liberty and religion.
The years Douglass spent in Fells Point provided the
foundation which propelled and influenced his ideals, morals and principals, inspiring
his lifelong passion to tirelessly advocate for the rights and freedom of all
people of color. I was now ready to write Douglass’ story and life in Fells
Point.
Post by Catherine Sansone
[1] Douglass, Frederick. The Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass: from 1817-1882. Christian Age Office 1882. Page 321.
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