The Frederick Douglass ABC
by Bill Alley, Broadca
smith and Beard Advocate
With the month of February upon us, Black History Month comes alive with enduring, challenging and breakthrough stories, music and art. It just so happens that this very month is a starting place, a living legend, and an epitaph of Frederick Douglass. Born February 1818 under the legal name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and surviving until his 77th year in 1895, his yearning for the freedom shaped his quest for breaking forced servitude far beyond his own experience.
A for Abolitionist: his quest for loosing both tongue and pen got moving while living with his new wife in his early 20s in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Bay State, its nickname, was the first colony to adapt slavery in the 1640s. With the new nation getting down to business in becoming ‘a light on a hill’, part of that light was a cross-examination on the keeping of a servant class. Douglass was able to state his mission to remove the enslavement of not just the African; his work coincided with powerful and influential people throughout his life—
FEBRUARY 2019 EDITION
BETTER BEARD TIP
BLACK HISTORY MONTH
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The Frederick Douglass ABC
by Bill Alley, Broadca
smith and Beard AdvocateWith the month of February upon us, Black History Month comes alive with enduring, challenging and breakthrough stories, music and art. It just so happens that this very month is a starting place, a living legend, and an epitaph of Frederick Douglass. Born February 1818 under the legal name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and surviving until his 77th year in 1895, his yearning for the freedom shaped his quest for breaking forced servitude far beyond his own experience.
A for Abolitionist: his quest for loosing both tongue and pen got moving while living with his new wife in his early 20s in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Bay State, its nickname, was the first colony to adapt slavery in the 1640s. With the new nation getting down to business in becoming ‘a light on a hill’, part of that light was a cross-examination on the keeping of a servant class. Douglass was able to state his mission to remove the enslavement of not just the African; his work coincided with powerful and influential people throughout his life— especially from White politicians, Jewish and Protestant religious leaders, Women who were equally skilled orators and writers. All contributed greatly to move the public perception from the ownership of a race to the freedom of fellow Americans.
B for Beard: Douglass spent the first three decades with a shorn appearance, but by his mid-30s he was seen with a full head of straight hair and a full, stout beard. Historians and scholars record two very telling ways Black men were presenting themselves since the mid-1800s. First in style and skill, many of the enslaved were the barbers and stylists for men and women of all parts of 19th century society. History also speaks to the power and prowess of the manly whisker, viewed as scholarly, secure, and a mark of leadership quality.
C for Clergy: It was in his New Bedford rented home that Douglass found the orator’s voice within organized religion. His spiritual guidance was nurtured within the Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the first Black denomination in the US, with notable membership in the ranks which included ladies Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth. Ordained in 1839, Douglass would progress through his intended mission with Bible and the Abolition movement in his heart and soul.
For more on the life of this Bearded Champion of faith and freedom here are three autobiographies, all historic artifacts which are royalty free and downloadable.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave at LibriBox
My Bondage And My Freedom - http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/202
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass at LibriBox
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