Today in History: September 3
Frederick Douglass
"On Monday, the third day of September, 1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence from childhood."
On September 3, 1838, abolitionist, journalist, author, and human rights advocate Frederick Douglass made his dramatic escape from slavery—traveling north by train and boat—from Baltimore, through Delaware, to Philadelphia. That same night, he took a train to New York, where he arrived the following morning.
Born into slavery on a plantation in Tuckahoe, Maryland, circa 1817, he was the son of a black mother and an unidentified white father. He never knew the date of his birth, but celebrated his birthday on February 14 in memory of his mother, who had brought him a heart-shaped cake on the night that he last saw her.
Only a small boy when his mother died, Douglass, born Frederick Bailey, lived with his grandmother in the slave quarters until he was eight years old, when he was "hired out" and sent to work in the home of Hugh Auld. While working for the Auld family in Baltimore, Frederick began to acquire a formal education. Mrs. Auld broke Maryland state law in order to teach the young boy to read, and Frederick later tried to learn all he could from schoolboys he met on the streets of Baltimore.
After an earlier unsuccessful attempt, Frederick escaped from slavery in 1838 by posing as a free sailor wearing a red shirt, a tarpaulin hat, and a black scarf tied loosely around his neck. He boarded a train bound for Philadelphia.
On sped the train, and I was well on my way…when the conductor came into the negro car to collect tickets and examine the papers of his black passengers. This was a critical moment in the drama.Chapter of Frederick Douglass's Draft Manuscript of His Autobiography, Page 4, circa 1880.
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, published 1881.
Words and Deeds in American History: Selected Documents Celebrating the Manuscript Division's First 100 Years
Frederick had to be able to sound, as well as look, like a sailor:
My knowledge of ships and sailor's talk came much to my assistance, for I knew a ship from stem to stern, and from keelson to cross-trees, and could talk sailor like an 'old salt.'
Overjoyed at being free when he reached New York City, Frederick immediately had to face feelings of loneliness and fear as a stranger in a strange land. Fortunately, he was soon given assistance by free black abolitionist and activist David Ruggles.
Two weeks after reaching a free state, Douglass married Anna Murray, a free black woman whom he had met in Baltimore. He settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where his experience as a ship caulker enabled him to find work on the docks. In New Bedford, Frederick gave a friend the privilege of choosing for him a new name, since he might be sought under the old name as a runaway:
I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of "Frederick." I must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of my identity. Mr. Johnson had just been reading the Lady of the Lake, and at once suggested that my name be "Douglass."Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, 1845.
Three years later, Frederick Douglass began to give lectures on behalf of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Douglass wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in part to refute charges that it was impossible that someone of his accomplishments could have been a slave.
"My Escape from Slavery," by Frederick Douglass, was published in November 1881 in The Century Illustrated Magazine. His fully revised autobiography was published as Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, also in 1881. In this section of his revised autobiography, Douglass describes in vivid detail his escape by train from Maryland, where he was legally a slave, north to New York City. Douglass omitted the details of this story from his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave out of concern for the safety of those who helped him escape and for others still held in slavery.
With proceeds from the Narrative and the aid of money and a press provided by British philanthropists, Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany began in 1847 to edit and publish a newspaper, The North Star, based in Rochester, New York.
The goals of the newspaper were to:
Abolish slavery in all its forms and aspects, advocate universal emancipation, exalt the standard of public morality, and promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the colored people, and hasten the day of freedom to the Three Millions of our enslaved fellow countrymen.
The paper also advanced women's rights, a cause that Douglass had championed since his participation in the first women's rights convention of 1848 at Seneca Falls, where he spoke out eloquently in support of the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments. Douglass was one of the original signers of this manifesto of women's rights, drafted by Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Charles wrote this letter from Camp Meigs in Readville, Massachusetts. The younger Douglass relates an encounter with a pugilistic Irishman, who began heckling him while he was rejoicing over "the news that Meade had whipped the rebels [at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania]." Before a fight could begin, a policeman led the Irishman away.
During the Civil War, Douglass advised President Lincoln, urging him to allow the enlistment of African-American soldiers and to frame the conflict as an assault on slavery. He was responsible for recruiting African Americans to fight for the Union, and his own two sons, Charles and Lewis, enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts Regiment.
After the war, Douglass held several appointed government positions, including U.S. marshal of D.C. He continued to fight for the civil rights of African Americans and women. He was U.S. minister and general consul to Haiti from 1889-91.
After Douglass' death in 1895, the Frederick Douglass Memorial Association purchased "Cedar Hill," Douglass' home for the last eighteen years of his life. The association donated the site to the National Park Service which restored the home in 1971-72 with information obtained from the Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present collection.
Find out more about Frederick Douglass in American Memory:
- Visit the The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress to view approximately 7,400 items (38,000 images) relating to Douglass' life as an escaped slave, abolitionist, editor, orator, and public servant.
- These collections and exhibitions contain many images of Douglass and texts written by and about him:
- African American Perspectives: Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1818-1907 (includes texts of several addresses given by Douglass)
- The African-American Experience in Ohio: Selections from the Ohio Historical Society
- African American Odyssey
- Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present
- The African-American Mosaic Exhibition is a Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History & Culture.
- Search the Today in History Archives on Frederick Douglass or abolition and abolitionist to find relevant features such as those for April 16, 1888 and January 2, 1893.
- See the sheet music for Frederick Douglass' Funeral March by N. Clark Smithe (1890) in the collection The Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana.
- A digital image of another page of Douglass's newspaper, The North Star, June 20, 1850 is available in the Influence of Prominent Abolitionists section of the exhibition, The African-American Mosaic: African-American Culture and History.
- Visit The Frederick Douglass National Historic Site maintained by the National Park Service. Don't miss the exhibition American Visionaries: Frederick Douglass, also produced by the NPS.
The cover's text states that the song was "composed and respectfully dedicated, in token of confident esteem to Frederick Douglass…for his fearless advocacy, signal ability and wonderful success in behalf of His Brothers in Bonds…and to the Fugitives From Slavery…by their friend Jesse Hutchinson, Jr."
Louis H. Sullivan
…it must be fairly clear to you that the spirit of democracy is a function seeking expression in a social form…Is there anything that does not reside in function and form? Not that I have been able to discover.Louis H. Sullivan
Architect and writer Louis H. Sullivan, was born in Boston Massachusetts on September 3, 1856. Sullivan spent much of his youth on his grandparents' small farm and, at age sixteen, entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study architecture. He went on to contribute to the city of Chicago's reputation for architectural excellence and to inspire the field of architecture with his philosophy that "form ever follows function."
Sullivan worked in a booming Chicago filled with architectural job opportunities following the great Chicago Fire. At just twenty-five years of age, Sullivan was made a full partner in the firm of Dankmar Adler, a highly-respected architect and engineer. In conjunction with Adler, Sullivan produced over 100 landmark buildings including the Auditorium Building described in Rand McNally's 1893 Guide to Chicago as follows:
…the chief architectural spectacle in Chicago…is 17 or more stories in height…The walls are of granite and Bedford stone…the interior is of steel, terra cotta, and other non-combustible materials. A hotel…the largest theater in the world, a recital hall, 4 stores, and 136 offices go to make up the building…It is estimated that in the mosaics of this great fabric are 50,000,000 pieces of marble, all placed by hand…The Republican National Convention of June, 1888, was held in the theater, and the finished building was dedicated by President Harrison during the holidays of 1889-90. Cost, $3,200,000.
Other work developed by the firm of Adler and Sullivan included the Wainwright Building in St. Louis, the Guaranty (now Prudential) Building in Buffalo, New York, and, in Chicago, the Stock Exchange, the Gage Building, and, with architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the Transportation Building for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. The latter represented a departure from the Exposition's otherwise neoclassical architecture as coordinated by Sullivan's nemesis, Daniel H. Burnham.
After his association with Adler ended in 1895, Sullivan went on to design Chicago's Schlesinger-Mayer Store, now the Carson Pirie Scott Store, and a number of smaller buildings throughout the Midwest including the Merchants' National Bank in Grinnell, Iowa, Farmer's National Bank in Owatonna, Minnesota, Farmers' and Merchants' Union Bank in Columbus, Wisconsin, and the Purdue State Bank in Lafayette, Indiana.
The American Memory collections contain a wealth of information on American architecture and photographs of American buildings:
- Search the Today in History Archive on architect to read features on Sullivan's rival David Burnham and others such as Cyrus Eidlitz, Frank Lloyd Wright, and landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead.
- Search the following collections for images of American-designed buildings:
- Built in America: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record, 1933-Present
- Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner , 1935-1955
- American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920
- Washington as It Was: Photographs by Theodor Horydczak, 1923-1959
- Taking the Long View: Panoramic Photographs, 1851-1991
- Small-Town America: Stereoscopic Views from the Robert Dennis Collection, 1850-1920
- Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880-1920
- American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 documents American architectural design. It contains many images of work by outstanding Chicago architects. The collection also presents a Selected Bibliography on the Photography of Architecture and Landscape.
- Search on William LeBaron Jenney, under whom Sullivan first worked in Chicago; H. H. Richardson, whose Marshal Field Wholesale Store inspired Sullivan's Auditorium; Frank Lloyd Wright, who worked as Sullivan's draftsman; George Elmslie, who worked with both Wright and Sullivan; John Root, Sullivan's friend; and Daniel Burnham, chief architect of the 1893 Columbian Exposition and landmark city planner for Chicago.
- See more images of buildings designed by Sullivan, and by the firm Adler and Sullivan. Search the American Memory collections of photographs and prints on those terms.
- For more images of Chicago at the turn of the century, search on Chicago in American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936, a collection of images from the University of Chicago Library.
- The Chicago Imagebase displays a wide variety of Chicago architectural images. These include Rand McNally's 1893 Guide to Chicago.
Treaty of Paris Signed
On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed, bringing the Revolutionary War to its final conclusion. Nearly two years had passed since British General Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, which had effectively ended the fighting.
With this treaty, Great Britain recognized American independence and agreed upon borders for the new nation. The Continental Congress had ratified preliminary articles of peace on April 15.
- Browse Documents from the Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, 1774-1789 which contains 2,774 broadsides, chronicling the founding of the nation from the beginnings of colonial resistance to British rule through the drafting and ratification of the Constitution. The collection includes the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, various drafts of the Constitution, resolutions, proclamations, and treaties.
- Read the text of the Treaty of Paris in a 1783 broadside printed in Philadelphia by David C. Claypoole. Browse subject headings such Treaties--Great Britain--1783 or Treaties--Iroquois Indians--1784 for more treaties from this same period. Trace the roots of independent America in the Special Presentation To Form a More Perfect Union: An Introduction to the Congressional Documents and in the timeline America During the Age of Revolution.
- Browse the Journals of the Continental Congress, part of A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875. Click on "View Navigator" and then select a particular date. These journals are the records of the daily proceedings of the Congress as kept by the office of its secretary, Charles Thomson.
- Search across the entire collection for example, on Treaty of Paris for a rich documentary history of the development of the nation, the federal government, and its role in the national life.
- Visit A Guide to the American Revolution, 1763-1783 to locate materials relating to the Revolution including manuscripts, books, and maps, as well as a selected bibliography. See the page on The Treaty of Paris in Primary Documents of American History.
- Explore close-up views of maps of the era using the zoom feature in The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789 in Map Collections.
- To learn more about Washington's role in the Revolutionary War, examine the collection George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress, 1741-1799, which includes a timeline of events with links to related correspondence.
- Read excerpts from The Thomas Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress to discover more about the American revolutionary who drafted the Declaration of Independence at the age of thirty-three. The collection includes relevant time lines and a selection of quotations.
- Search the Today in History Archive on Revolutionary War for more events in the American struggle for independence or search on Constitution for events in the development of this foundational document of democracy. Examples of related features include the Boston Massacre, the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the signing of the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.