Frederick Douglass

Today in History

July 28, 1838. Twenty-one days since I stepped off that train in New York with Anna Murray's borrowed papers in my pocket. I am still learning to answer to "Douglass" without flinching. The abolitionists want my story—every gory detail of the lash. I refuse. Give me a podium and I will speak of the mind they could not chain, the literacy I stole in bread-trades with white boys on the Baltimore streets. My hands shake less now when I hold a pen. The Narrative churns in me already, though I know publishing it puts a price on my head. Let them come. I have already purchased myself.

July 26, 1848

This week—July 19 & 20—Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott convened their bold convention in Seneca Falls. I was not invited. The Rochester Anti-Slavery Society, where I labor, sits close enough to hear the echoes. Yet the Declaration they issued speaks of 'all men' while the room debated whether 'all' might dare include women. Today, July 26, I am told the newspapers are still arriving, and I read their resolutions with my customary impatience. I have learned that rights deferred become rights denied. My newspaper, The North Star, shall give this movement its due—because I know too well what it costs when another's liberty is treated as an afterthought. Had I only known how long the road... but no. I know now. That suffices.