Major Mike | Today in History 09/03 (Frederick Douglass)

Daguerreotype portrait of Frederick Douglass circa 1848 (© Fotosearch/Getty Images)

(1838) Frederick Douglass escapes slavery, heads north to freedom

Born a slave in Maryland, future statesman and abolitionist Frederick Douglass makes his third attempt to escape his bonds and head north. Dressed as a sailor and carrying false identification papers, he boards a train in Baltimore and in 24 hours will arrive at a safe house in New York City.

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. In his time, he was described by abolitionists as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.

Lived: Feb 1818 – Feb 20, 1895
Nationality: American
Spouse: Helen Pitts Douglass (m. 1884 – 1895) · Anna Murray-Douglass (m. 1838 – 1882)
Parents: Harriet Bailey (Mother)
Children: Charles Remond Douglass (Son) · Frederick Douglass, Jr. (Son) · Annie Douglass (Daughter) · Lewis Henry Douglass (Son) · Rosetta Douglass (Daughter)
Siblings: Arianna Bailey (Sister) · Kitty Bailey (Sister) · Sarah Bailey (Sister) · Eliza Bailey (Sister) · Perry Bailey (Brother)
Highlights
1838: Frederick Douglass married Anna Murray-Douglass on September 15, 1838; their marriage lasted 44 years till August 04, 1882.

1845: Douglass’s best-known work is his first autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, published in 1845.

1847: After returning to the U.S. in 1847, Douglass started publishing his first abolitionist newspaper, the North Star, from the basement of the Memorial AME Zion Church in Rochester, New York.

1848: In September 1848, Douglass published an open letter addressed to his former master, Thomas Auld, berating him for his conduct, and enquiring after members of his family still held by Auld.

1853: In 1853, he was a prominent attendee of the radical abolitionist National African American Convention in Rochester.

1877: In 1877, Douglass visited Thomas Auld, who was by then on his deathbed, and the two men reconciled.

Frederick Douglass
wiki/Frederick_Douglass

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(1838) Frederick Douglass escapes slavery, heads north to freedom.
Also on this day,

1783 | Great Britain officially loses its rebellious colonies

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Today in History ^09/03/17

Detail of the signatures on The Definitive Treaty of Peace Between Great Britain and the United States, dated Sept 3, 1783 (© AP)

(1783) Great Britain officially loses its rebellious colonies

The Treaty of Paris is signed, granting Great Britain's former colonies freedom, and ending an 8-year war. Benjamin Franklin and John Adams are in the French capital acting for the United States, while Britain has sent a delegation that will refuse to sit for the official portrait.

The Treaty of Paris, signed in Paris by representatives of King George III of Great Britain and representatives of the United States of America on September 3, 1783, ended the American Revolutionary War. The treaty set the boundaries between the British Empire in North America and the United States, on lines "exceedingly generous" to the latter. Details included fishing rights and restoration of property and prisoners of war.

This treaty and the separate peace treaties between Great Britain and the nations that supported the American cause — France, Spain, and the Dutch Republic — are known collectively as the Peace of Paris. Only Article 1 of the treaty, which acknowledges the United States' existence as free sovereign and independent states, remains in force.