Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass. "Tales of Horror". , Chattel slavery and the anti-slavery movement were the major factors that drove the onset of the Civil War. During the 1840s and 1850s, Frederick Douglass, more than any other individual, generated great anti-slavery support in America and abroad. His eloquent speeches and writings were uniquely influential because they were based on personal "tales of horror," as he called them, experienced as an enslaved child from his birth near Hillsboro in 1818 until his escape from Baltimore in 1838., Many of Douglass' best known descriptions of enslaved life were based on events in and around Hillsboro. His separation from his mother in 1824 and the division of his family among slaveholders in 1828 occurred 1.5 miles south of Hillsboro on the west side of the Tuckahoe Creek. Other events occurred just south of Hillsboro on the east side of the Tuckahoe, including the murder of his wife's cousin. A drunken slaveholder brutally beat Douglass' brother Perry in 1828, an incident that may have occurred in Hillsboro., Douglass graphically related such awful incidents in his 1845 and 1855 autobiographies as well as in his prolific essays and speeches. Doubtless, the residents of Douglass' sleepy home town (population 180) would have been shocked to know that the local experiences of a slave child would eventually be related to a worldwide audience and increase sectional passions that resulted in the Civil War., [Sidebar:] , Take to the Water , As a young man, Frederick Douglass determined, "It cannot be that I shall live and die a slave. I will take to the water." As you paddle southwest toward Covey's Landing, you will glide past the Anthony farm where Douglass was born., To learn more about Maryland's designated water trails, visit the Maryland Department of Resources online or download their mobile app., [Captions:] , Frederick Douglass began his first autobiography in 1845: "I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough…", Douglass' wife, Anna Murray Douglass, was born in nearby Denton. Her family, however, was from "Tuckahoe Neck," just south of Hillsboro.