banjobutch:Happy birthday, Frederick Douglass! (February 14*, 1818)*Douglass’ actual date of birth i
banjobutch:Happy birthday, Frederick Douglass! (February 14*, 1818)*Douglass’ actual date of birth is unknown, but he chose to celebrate his birth on the 14th.A fiery and articulate voice of the abolitionist movement, Frederick Douglass was one of the most important leaders of the movement in the years leading up to the Civil War. Born into slavery in Maryland, Douglass experienced an early life of brutality and cruelty, serving several masters before escaping slavery in 1838, making his way to New York City. Douglass became well-read and well-spoken, making a name for himself as an activist and agitator. Douglass published his autobiography, which was acclaimed and widely-read, and the abolitionist newspaper known as the North Star. Douglass associated with abolitionists such as John Brown, as well as the early figures of the women’s rights movements. After the Civil War, Douglass continued to agitate for equality for Black Americans and women, and in 1872 was the first Black man nominated for Vice President, on the ticket of the Equal Rights Party. Douglass continued his activism into the final years of his life, always supportive of equal rights for Black people and for women, and an ally of anti-colonial struggles. He would die in 1895, leaving behind a wealth of writings and speeches which continue to inspire and influence activists to this day.“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both.”Power concedes nothing without a demand. -- source link