Module 3: "Frederick Douglass" and "Renaissance Man"

In 1841, a runaway slave, a tall, handsome man named Frederick Douglass, speaks up at an abolitionist meeting on Nantucket Island, near Boston: “I felt strongly moved to speak. But the truth was, I felt myself a slave, and the idea of speaking to white people weighed me down.”

But he didn’t tell how he escaped to freedom. If he had, the slave catchers would have known how to capture others who were using the same route.

They will not allow that we have a head to think, and a heart to feel and a soul to aspire.

You degrade us, and then ask why we are degraded—you shut our mouths and then ask why we don’t speak—you close your colleges and seminaries against us, and then ask why we don’t know more.

You degrade us, and then ask why we are degraded—you shut our mouths and then ask why we don’t speak—you close your colleges and seminaries against us, and then ask why we don’t know more.

Walk into the visitor center at Frederick Douglass National Historic Site, and you’ll hear a park volunteer repeat the words highlighted in the park’s short film: “Agitate. Agitate. Agitate,” she says. Agitate means to move things around, to stir the pot.

After escaping from slavery in 1838, he would change his name to Douglass, to avoid being recaptured.

Douglass was such a skilled speaker that some people began to doubt he was a fugitive (runaway) slave.

Soon Douglass began using tactics that would gain popularity in the civil rights movement. In the early 1840s, he staged a sit-in on a segregated train car in Massachusetts.

Soon Douglass began using tactics that would gain popularity in the civil rights movement. In the early 1840s, he staged a sit-in on a segregated train car in Massachusetts.