 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
TASK FORCE TO STUDY THE HISTORY AND LEGACY OF SLAVERY IN MARYLAND (Final Report) 1999/12/31 MdHR 991422 MdHR 991422, Image No: 330 Print image (43K) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
||||
|
||||
|
TASK FORCE TO STUDY THE HISTORY AND LEGACY OF SLAVERY IN MARYLAND (Final Report) 1999/12/31 MdHR 991422 MdHR 991422, Image No: 330 Print image (43K) |
| and diligently worked to make the world aware of the horrors of slavery. While denouncing the horrors of slavery, he was not believed by many audiences, so he was forced to reveal his true identity and the location of his enslavement, which was a potential danger to his continued "freedom". Strangely enough, "his owner", Thomas Auld, made no effort to recapture him,"52 but the threat was always there. While touring Europe on the antislavery circuit, "on December 12, 1846, Frederick Douglass, officially ceased to be a chattel and became a free human being in the eyes of the law for $711.66, the dollar equivalent of 150 sterling." 53 Upon his return to the United States, he again wrote about his life, and the horrors of the institution of slavery. He became an advisor to Presidents; was a friend to Harriet Tubman, John Brown and many prominent others; "the major recruiter for the famed 54th Massachusetts: 54; a newspaper publisher; the Register of Deeds for the District of Columbia; "President of the Freedmens Bank" 55, and was minister to Haiti. But of all of his triumphs, the memories of his enslavement on the Eastern Shore of Maryland had the most devastating and indelible impressions on his life. Douglass was so influenced by slavery that he spent the remainder of his life trying to eradicate it and any other form of injustice, including sexism. |