专八人文知识需知美国名人--弗雷德里克.道格拉斯

专八人文知识需知的美国名人--弗雷德里克.道格拉斯

　　英语专八人文知识涵盖的知识面较广，考生们需要平时多积累小常识，这样在专八考试中才能游刃有余，新东方在线整理了专八人文知识需知的美国名人系列知识点供考生们参考。

　　弗雷德里克·道格拉斯Frederick Douglass(1817─1895)十九世纪美国废奴运动领袖，是一名杰出的演说家、作家、人道主义者和政治活动家。在废奴运动中他是一个巨人般的人物。

　　Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey,circa 1818 – February 20, 1895) an American abolitionist,women's suffragist, editor, orator, author, statesman, ministerand reformer. Escaping from slavery, he made strongcontributions to the abolitionist movement, and achieved apublic career that led to his being called "The Sage of Anacostia" and "The Lion of Anacostia".Douglass is one of the most prominent figures in African American and United States history.

　　He was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, orrecent immigrant. He was fond of saying, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobodyto do wrong."

　　Life as a slave

　　Frederick Douglass began his own story thus: "I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, andabout twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland.". Frederick Augustus WashingtonBailey, who later became known as Frederick Douglass, was born a slave in Talbot County,Maryland, between Hillsboro and Cordova, in a shack east of Tappers Corner and west ofTuckahoe Creek.[2] He was separated from his mother, Harriet Bailey, when he was still an infantand lived with his maternal grandmother Betty Bailey. His mother died when Douglass was aboutseven.

　　The identity of his father is obscure. Douglass originally stated that he was told his father was awhite man, perhaps his master Aaron Anthony. Later he said he knew nothing of his father'sidentity. At age seven, Douglass was separated from his grandmother and moved to the WyeHouse plantation, where Anthony worked as overseer. When Anthony died, Douglass was given toLucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld. She sent Douglass to serve Thomas' brother Hugh Auld inBaltimore.

　　When Douglass was about twelve, Hugh Auld's wife Sophia started teaching him the alphabetdespite the fact that it was against the law to teach slaves to read. When Hugh Auld discoveredher activity, he strongly disapproved, saying that if a slave learned to read, he would becomedissatisfied with his condition and desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this statement as the"first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard. As detailed in his autobiography, Douglasssucceeded in learning to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing thewritings of men with whom he worked.

　　As Douglass learned and began to read newspapers, political materials, and books of everydescription, he was exposed to a new realm of thought that led him to question and thencondemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator, whichhe discovered at about age twelve, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and humanrights.

　　When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to readthe New Testament at a weekly Sunday school. As word spread, the interest among slaves inlearning to read was so great that in any week, more than 40 slaves would attend lessons. Forabout six months, their study went relatively unnoticed. While Freeland was complacent abouttheir activities, other plantation owners became incensed that their slaves were being educated.One Sunday they burst in on the gathering, armed with clubs and stones, to disperse thecongregation permanently.

　　In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh after a dispute ("[A]s a means of punishingHugh," Douglass wrote). Dissatisfied with Douglass, Thomas Auld sent him to work for EdwardCovey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker." There Douglass was whippedregularly. The sixteen-year-old Douglass was indeed nearly broken psychologically by his ordealunder Covey, but he finally rebelled against the beatings and fought back. After losing aconfrontation with Douglass, Covey never tried to beat him again.

　　In 1837, Douglass met Anna Murray, a free black in Baltimore. They married soon after he obtainedhis freedom.

　　From slavery to freedom

　　Douglass first unsuccessfully tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him out from his ownerColonel Lloyd. In 1836, he tried to escape from his new owner Covey, but failed again.

　　On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding a train to Havre de Grace,Maryland. Dressed in a sailor's uniform, he carried identification papers provided by a free blackseaman. He crossed the Susquehanna River by ferry at Havre de Grace, then continued by trainto Wilmington, Delaware. From there he went by steamboat to "Quaker City" (Philadelphia,Pennsylvania) and continued to New York; the whole journey took less than 24 hours.

　　Frederick Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York City:

　　"I have often been asked, how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers mayshare the same curiosity. There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not givea more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the'quick round of blood,' I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time ofjoyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon afterreaching New York, I said: 'I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions.'Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow,defy the skill of pen or pencil."

　　Abolitionist activities

　　Douglass continued traveling up to Massachusetts. There he joined various organizations in NewBedford, including a black church, and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed toWilliam Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal The Liberator, and in 1841 heard Garrison speak at ameeting of the Bristol Anti-Slavery Society. At one of these meetings, Douglass was unexpectedlyasked to speak.

　　After he told his story, he was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. Douglass wasinspired by Garrison and later stated that "no face and form ever impressed me with suchsentiments [of the hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." Garrison was likewiseimpressed with Douglass and wrote of him in The Liberator. Several days later, Douglass deliveredhis first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention in Nantucket. Then23 years old, Douglass conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his roughlife as a slave.

　　In 1843, Douglass participated in the American Anti-Slavery Society's Hundred Conventionsproject, a six-month tour of meeting halls throughout the Eastern and Midwestern United States.He participated in the Seneca Falls Convention, the birthplace of the American feminist movement,and signed its Declaration of Sentiments.

　　Autobiography

　　Douglass' best-known work is his first autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, anAmerican Slave, published in 1845. At the time, some skeptics attacked the book and questionedwhether a black man could have produced such an eloquent piece of literature. The book receivedgenerally positive reviews and it became an immediate bestseller. Within three years of itspublication, the autobiography had been reprinted nine times with 11,000 copies circulating in theUnited States; it was also translated into French and Dutch and published in Europe.

　　The book's success had an unfortunate side effect in making him a public figure. Douglass' friendsand mentors feared that the publicity would draw the attention of his ex-owner, Hugh Auld, whomight try to get his "property" back. They encouraged Douglass to tour Ireland, as many otherformer slaves had done. Douglass set sail on the Cambria for Liverpool on August 16, 1845, andarrived in Ireland as the Irish Potato Famine was beginning.

　　Douglass published three versions of his autobiography during his lifetime (and revised the third ofthese), each time expanding on the previous one. The 1845 Narrative, which was his biggest seller,was followed by My Bondage and My Freedom in 1855. In 1881, after the Civil War, Douglasspublished Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, which he revised in 1892.

　　Fight for emancipation

　　Douglass and the abolitionists argued that because the aim of the war was to end slavery, AfricanAmericans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass publicized this viewin his newspapers and several speeches.

　　President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared thefreedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. Douglass described the spirit of those awaitingthe proclamation: "We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky...we werewatching...by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day...we were longing for the answerto the agonizing prayers of centuries."

　　With the North no longer obliged to return slaves to their owners in the South, Douglass foughtfor equality for his people. He made plans with Lincoln to move the liberated slaves out of theSouth. During the war, Douglass helped the Union by serving as a recruiter for the 54thMassachusetts Regiment. His son Frederick Douglass Jr. also served as a recruiter and his otherson, Lewis Douglass, fought for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment at the Battle of Fort Wagner.

　　Slavery everywhere in the United States was outlawed by the post-war (1865) ratification of the13th Amendment. The 14th Amendment provided for citizenship and equal protection under thelaw. The 15th Amendment protected all citizens from being discriminated against in voting becauseof race.

　　After Reconstruction

　　As white Democrats regained power in the state legislatures of the South after Reconstruction,they began to impose new laws that disfranchised blacks and to create labor and criminal lawslimiting their freedom. Many African Americans, called Exodusters, moved to Kansas to form all-black towns where they could be free. Douglass spoke out against the movement, urging blacks tostick it out. He had become out of step with his audiences, who condemned and booed him forthis position.

　　In 1877, Douglass was appointed a United States Marshal. In 1881, he was appointed Recorder ofDeeds for the District of Columbia.

　　At the 1888 Republican National Convention, Douglass became the first African American toreceive a vote for President of the United States in a major party's roll call vote.

　　He was appointed minister-resident and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti (1889–1891). In1892 the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner to the Chicago World'sColumbian Exposition. He spoke for Irish Home Rule and the efforts of leader Charles StewartParnell in Ireland. He briefly revisited Ireland in 1886.

　　Also in 1892, Douglass constructed rental housing for blacks, now known as Douglass Place, in theFells Point area of Baltimore. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in2003.

　　Death

　　Gravestone of Frederick Douglass located in Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York OnFebruary 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women inWashington, D.C. During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and given a standingovation by the audience. Shortly after he returned home, Frederick Douglass died of a massiveheart attack or stroke in Washington, D.C. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester,New York.

专四专八：历年真题免费领

专四专八：精选好课 暖心助学