The Life of Frederick Douglass and what it means to me Today 

      Frederick Douglass was a person who accepted nothing but the best.  He was born in the darkest periods of slavery on an estate owned by Colonel Lloyd in Talbert County, Maryland in 1817.  As a child he was removed form his mother due to getting sold and then placed with his grandmother at the age of the 8.  Later he was placed with his Aunt Katy, who beat him badly.  After living with his Aunt Katy, he got sold on to a family named the Aulds. 

      The Aulds were a white family who owned a plantation of slaveworkers.  Mrs. Auld helped young Frederick learn to read until Mr. Auld found out about it.  He upsettly told his wife "Learning will spoil the best nigger in the world."  Young Frederick heard that and it motivated him for the future. 

      Mr. Auld's order almost broke the heart of the young slave, but it was a turning point in his life.  It made him realize, as nothing else could have, the value of education.  He made this solemn vow: "knowledge I mean to have".  He learned to write by seeing carpenters mark letters on the timber according to its name, for example S for starboard and L for larboard.  He would copy the letters on any available material.  He challenged white boys to see who could make a similar letter the most accurately. 

      He stood for more than just a black man.  He published a newspaper titled The North Star.  He worked with white abolitionists named Wendell Phillips, Theodore Tilton, and John Brown to end slavery which gave him the opportunity to meet President Abraham Lincoln.  Through meeting Frederick Douglass, Lincoln came up with the emancipation of proclamation in 1869.  Douglass stands in history to become the first African-American to feel and express the actually word "freedom."   

      He is important to me because he opened a door for any black to walk through life easier than before, to enjoy the obstacles that life throws at you, and to live everyday to fight what you believe in.  He made it easier in education, too.  He didn't have the chance to experience education like we do today, due to slavery.  Now we get the chance to share equal respect, experience, and opportunities with the other minorities.