Frederick Douglass

Brother Frederick Douglass was born into slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey near Easton in Talbot County, Maryland. He was not sure of the exact year of his birth, but he knew that it was 1817 or 1818. Despite being born into slavery, Douglass taught himself secretly to read and write though this in itself was a serious crime in the antebellum South. Living under the harshness of slavery for twenty years, in 1838 he escaped to freedom and went to New York City. There he met and married a free woman of color, Anna Murray. Soon thereafter he changed his name to Frederick Douglass. With his newfound freedom, Douglass had the opportunity to leave the US and seek a more peaceful life in Europe. However he refused, stressing that he felt he had an obligation to those enslaved Africans he had left behind. Douglass set about this task working as a leading abolitionist in the North. A magnificent orator he made endless passionate speeches for the freedom of his brethren in bondage. For his noble deeds, Brother Douglass was given posthumous membership in Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.