Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and Children

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey never knew his birth date or who his father was. He saw his mother only four or five times after he was separated from her as an infant. When he was seven, his mother became ill and died, but no one told Frederick. Such details were not supposed to matter to enslaved children in the early 1800s. As a young teenager, Frederick realized how much such details did matter to his humanity. He recognized the injustice of slavery and grew determined to escape. After he gained his freedom, he changed his last name to Douglass to avoid detection. He dedicated the rest of his life to achieving freedom for others as he had for himself. In 1865, the 13th Amendment officially abolished slavery. Douglass, then 47…

Frederick Douglass leaned over the railing of the ship bound for Great Britain. It was August 1845. Douglass had fled from an enslaved life seven years earlier. He was fleeing again to avoid being captured and returned to the slaveholder who claimed ownership of him. Douglass hoped he would have one friend in Ireland: Daniel O’Connell. American abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison had written to O’Connell about Douglass. The Garrisonians maintained an antislavery society in Ireland. O’Connell was known as the emancipator of millions of Irish Catholics. Irish Catholics had been ruled by the Protestant English for 700 years. After a long struggle led by O’Connell, Irish Catholics had finally won the right to sit in Britain’s Parliament in 1829. O’Connell viewed the fate of oppressed Irish people and enslaved Black…

Sojourner Truth (1797–1883) was born into slavery in New York but escaped to freedom with her youngest child in 1826. In 1828, she took the daring action to sue for the return of her enslaved son—and won the case against a white man. Two decades later, she joined the abolition lecture circuit. She traveled the country giving speeches that shared her simple, passionate, and spiritual views on both antislavery and women’s rights issues. Three generations of women from a prominent Philadelphia family became abolition activists. Charlotte Forten (1785–1884); her daughters Margaretta (1806–1875), Harriet (1810–1875), and Sarah (1814–1883); and granddaughter Charlotte (1837–1914) were activists. They organized fairs, raised money, published essays, and lectured. The first two generations of Fortens were founding members of the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. The society pushed…

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After he was born in 1818, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was separated from his enslaved mother, Harriet Bailey, and sent to live with his enslaved grandmother. His grandmother’s job on the plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore was to care for enslaved children until they were old enough to work. Fred’s memory of his mother included only a few visits, late at night. Harriet walked 12 miles from where she was enslaved to see her son. Of his father, Fred knew only that the man was white—possibly Captain Aaron Anthony, the man who ran the plantation. As a small child, Fred spent his time playing near his grandmother’s cabin and fishing in a nearby pond. When he was about six or seven years old, his grandmother took him to Anthony’s house.…

Three hundred people filled Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19, 1848. They were there to attend the first women’s rights convention. With a handful of female friends, Elizabeth Cady Stanton had organized the convention and had drafted a Declaration of Sentiments. The declaration called for an end to the false claim that women were inferior to men as well as changes in laws oppressing women. It demanded educational opportunities for women. It listed women’s suffrage—the right to vote—as one of the demands. Among the 32 men who attended the second day of the convention was Frederick Douglass. Douglass recognized that the situations of Black people and women of all races were similar. Arguments used to justify slavery also supported male supremacy. Many people felt that women…

Frederick Douglass was pleased when Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860. Of the three main candidates campaigning for the office, Lincoln was the only one who had spoken out against slavery. But Douglass was disappointed by Lincoln’s inaugural address. Lincoln said he would abide by the Republican platform. He would not interfere with slavery in the South. Although Lincoln was opposed to slavery, his first priority was to preserve the Union. On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter, beginning the Civil War. Lincoln called for 75,000 Union troops to suppress the Confederacy. But Black men were not allowed in the Union army. The situation upset Douglass. He believed that the real issue in the war was slavery and that Black people wanted to fight for their…

Can you solve this crossword puzzle about the many people who played a part in Frederick Douglass’s life? All the answers can be found in this issue. The solution is on page 49. ACROSS 3. Julia _____ traveled from Great Britain to help Frederick Douglass get his newspaper up and running. 5. Douglass met his first wife, Anna _____, a free Black woman, in Baltimore. 7. Douglass attended the first women’s suffrage convention, which was organized by Elizabeth Cady _____. 8. Daniel _____ was an Irish Catholic activist whose abolitionist views spread in Great Britain and in the United States. 10. Abolitionist John _____ tried to convince Douglass to participate in his raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. 11. The Equal Rights party nominated Douglass as its vice-presidential candidate…

A slave is a “person bound in servitude as the property of another.” The word’s roots go back to the Medieval Latin Sclavus. Sclavus is a reference to “Slavs.” Slavs are members of a Slavic-speaking people in Eastern Europe. In the Middle Ages, many captured Slavs wound up enslaved. Frederick Douglass’s ability to persuade and move people with his speeches turned him into a famous orator. An orator is an “eloquent and skilled public speaker.” The word comes from the Latin orare, which means “to pray” or “to speak publicly.” Fugitive can mean “one who flees.” The word can also describe “running away or fleeing, often from the law.” The word comes from the Latin words fugitivus and fugitus, meaning “one who flees” or “deserter.” Douglass and other antislavery activists…

Thomas Auld wanted to teach Fred Bailey a lesson. Fred refused to be a submissive enslaved boy. So, Auld loaned him out to Edward Covey, a man with a reputation as a cruel slave breaker. Covey overworked Fred then beat him. Fred was given less and less food. His clothing became ragged. He grew desperate. He asked Auld to take him away, but Auld refused. Hiding from Covey only brought more beatings. Fred began to lose hope that his situation would change. But after a particularly savage whipping, Fred decided he would not suffer such treatment again. The next morning, Covey ordered Fred to the hayloft of the barn. As Fred began climbing the ladder, Covey tried to slip a rope around his legs. Fred kicked free and tumbled off…

Frederick Douglass was intrigued by what he heard about white abolitionist John Brown. So, when Brown invited Douglass to his home in Springfield, Massachusetts, in November 1847, Douglass accepted. Douglass later described Brown’s bluish-gray eyes as “full of light and fire.” He continued, “[Brown] is in sympathy a black man, and as deeply interested in our cause, as though his own soul had been pierced with the iron of slavery.” Brown proposed a radical plan to draw enslaved people off southern plantations. He wanted to organize bands of armed men to be stationed at intervals in the Allegheny Mountains. Freed enslaved men willing to fight would join Brown’s small army. Anyone else would be sent to freedom in the north on the Underground Railroad. Brown called it a “Subterranean Pass-Way.”…

Frederick Douglass experienced a rebirth as a moral crusader in the final years of his life. His sense of outrage deepened as the federal government failed to honor its promise to help Black Americans achieve political equality. In particular, his doubts grew over whether the Republican party would continue to fight segregation and advance the interests of Black Americans. Throughout the 1870s and most of the 1880s, Douglass had regularly praised the Republicans as “the party of Abraham Lincoln.” Douglass especially endorsed Republicans in their effort to assist formerly enslaved people to become full and productive citizens. During the 1872, 1876, 1880, and 1884 presidential elections, he worked for the party. He called for northern voters to support Republican candidates and policies. By 1872, Douglass was a resident of Washington,…

IN OTHER NEWS Frederick Douglass is not the only former enslaved person to become a famous abolitionist and activist. Take a look. MASTER OF DISGUISE Like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman (1822–1913) was born enslaved in Maryland. Also like Douglass, she was determined to be free. One night, she fled on her own to Pennsylvania. She then risked her life to return again and again to help family members and others escape slavery, too. She may be one of the most famous conductors on the Underground Railroad. To avoid recapture, she became good at disguising herself—as a man or an old woman. She pretended to read a newspaper even though she did not know how to read. She also served as a spy and a soldier for the Union army in…

YOUR LETTERS Citizenship is the promise of a better tomorrow and a greater future. Citizenship is the promise of hope and a gateway of opportunity. Citizenship is the promise that if you work hard enough, you can achieve your wildest dreams. Citizenship is the promise that you are an American, someone who enjoys the “unalienable rights” promised so long ago. Citizenship is the promise of freedom. Nowelle Morris, age 14 Solar Eclipse, 2024The Statue of LibertyA National Road Draw a picture or write a poem or a short essay that connects to one of the above COBBLESTONE themes on which we currently are working. All contributions must be your original work. Include a note from a parent or a legal guardian clearly stating: “This is my child’s original work, and…