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"Words Set Me Free: The Story of Young Frederick Douglass," written by Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrated by James Ransome, tells the story of a boy born into slavery who taught himself to read, even though it was illegal.
Author Lesa Cline-Ransome and illustrator James Ransome, who live in Rhinebeck.
Mrs. Tourtelot reads the story:
Frederick Douglass learned to read when he was "rented" to a family in Baltimore, Maryland. This map of slave vs. free states in 1821, when Frederick Douglass was a boy, shows how close Maryland was to the free states:
This map from 1861 shows slave vs free states just before the Civil War. This was after Frederick Douglass had escape to the North.
Some photographs of Frederick Douglass are below. During his life, Frederick Douglass had more than 160 portraits taken, making him the most photographed American of that time. This was part of his fight against racist illustrations and cartoons. Frederick Douglass believed that photographs let him present himself to the world as a human being worthy of respect and dignity.
His first wife, Anna Murray:
With his second wife, Helen Pitts (and her sister Eva). When people criticized Frederick Douglass for marrying a white woman, he would tell them that his first wife was Black, like his mother, and his second wife was white, like his father.
Learn more about Frederick Douglass in these videos:
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