From the Slave House to the White House: Eight African American Political firsts

By Joseph Wesley Knotts

A collection of short stories of eight African American's who each overcame adversity and beat the odds to become a first in American Politics.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257280988

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Frederick Douglas

Feb. 14, 1818, to Feb. 20, 1895

Frederick Douglass was the first African American to be put center stage for the rights of people living under the bonds of oppression. He was born Frederick Augustas Washington Bailey in February of 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland, at Wye Plantation. He was only an infant when he was separated from his mother, leaving him with only his grandmother until the age of six. Shortly after his sixth birthday he was moved to the main house. Having no one to rely upon, he slowly began to learn how the white people spoke as he watched their daily lives and conversations.

Although he could not yet read or write, he could speak as well as any of the finest people of Southern society.

He was still a child of 12 when his life was thrown into chaos, as he was moved to Baltimore, Maryland, after being given to Lorretta and Thomas Auld. The Aulds then sent young Frederick to serve with Mr. Auld’s brother Hugh, who also resided in Baltimore.

American slaves generally did not leave the plantations. Most were born there and would die there, never knowing an outside world. Imagine what a 12-year-old slave must have felt as he was taken from the only thing he had ever known, to begin a life’s journey that would take him to places where his name would be spoken of in reverence.

Right then he was just a boy who had to have been terrified out of his mind. No family, no friends, no love, only strangers. After arriving at the home of Hugh and Sophia Auld, young Frederick would be around children who were different than the little slave boys and girls he had known; they could read and write. Frederick wanted so very much to learn how to read and write, but he dared not mention this to Mr. Auld, as he knew Mr. Auld’s views on slaves learning to read: If a slave learns to read, then he will become dissatisfied and desire his freedom.

To this day no one is really sure of the reason, but Mrs. Auld broke the law of the land and taught Frederick the alphabet. As hard to believe as it is, slaves were not allowed to be taught, yet the moral law was stronger in Mrs. Auld’s heart than man’s law in its outright stupidity could ever be. So there it began, at the age of 12 years old one of history’s greatest speakers and honored humanitarians learned the alphabet. He was hooked, consumed by a burning desire to read. It was a passion he would crave his entire life, a love of continued learning through absorbing written knowledge like a sponge absorbing water. It all started when he learned the alphabet from a woman who saw a bright light in the eyes of a young Frederick Douglass.

Sometime during his twelfth year he discovered the Colombia Orator, which developed his clarity of views of freedom and human rights. He deeply sought for all mankind, regardless of race, color or gender, to be educated and he spoke out on the subject throughout his public and private life. All these feelings, all that knowledge were unlocked because this noble man wanted to learn, wanted all men to be judged not on the color of skin but by the content