Abolitionist Frederick Douglass designated February 14 as his birthday, and that’s another reason to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
Frederick Douglass escaped slavery and went on to be an influential anti-slavery and women’s rights activist. He never knew when his actual birthday was. Many enslaved Americans didn’t. As Douglass wrote in his 1845 autobiography:
“I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. . . . I do not remember to have ever met a slave who could tell of his birthday. They seldom come nearer to it than planting-time, harvest-time, cherry-time, spring-time, or fall-time.”
— Frederick Douglass, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass“
He goes on to describe how this lack of knowledge caused him a lot of pain in his childhood. After all, all the white children could tell their ages.
All Douglass knew was that the year of his birth was 1818. And the only reason he knew that was because, in 1835, he overheard the plantation owner mention that Douglass was seventeen years old.
Asking about his actual birthday got him zero answers. Instead, the plantation owner told Douglass that his questions were “improper and impertinent, and evidence of a restless spirit”.
That last part had some truth in it. Douglass tried to escape the bonds of slavery several times throughout his young adulthood. In September of 1838, he made it to the free state of New York.
His description of how he felt after his successful escape demonstrates the double-edged sword of this existence. On the one hand: “It was a moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced.” On the other hand: “I was yet liable to be taken back, and subjected to all the tortures of slavery. This in itself was enough to damp the ardor of my enthusiasm.”
Frederick Douglass spent the rest of his life fighting for the abolition of slavery and the rights of women. As a free man, he created what had been denied him all his life: a birthday. He estimated that he was born in February, and decided to celebrate it on February 14th.
After his death, African American activist, educator, and author Mary Church Terrell established February 14th as Douglass Day.
The “father of Black History Month” Carter G. Woodson chose a week in February for the Black History celebration in part because it’s the month Frederick Douglass celebrated his birthday.
Happy birthday to ya, Frederick Douglass!
“We have to do with the past only as we can make it useful to the present and to the future.”
— Frederick Douglass, Speech at Rochester, New York, July 5, 1852
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Shannon Moreau is the Editor of the NMBLC EQ Blog