Fun Facts about Frederick Douglass

For Spring Break this year, I got to spend a couple of days in Washington D.C. Although I have been several times now, there were just a few things that I really wanted to do and had not gotten to yet. One of them was visiting Frederick Douglass' House in Anacostia. Every year, I look forward to rereading Douglass' narrative with my eighth graders; it is one of my favorites books of all time. If you have not read it, I highly recommend it; it may be the best 100 pages you have read in a while. I was surprised how many things about Douglass I did not yet know. Here are just a few:

- Frederick Douglass was 6 ft. 4 in.--as tall as Abraham Lincoln.
- After publishing his autobiography, Douglass had to flee the United States because he was a runaway slave and therefore a refugee from the law. He spent two years abroad in Ireland and called them some of the best years of his life. In Ireland, he felt free from all prejudice--a freedom he never fully felt in the US.
- Frederick Douglass' first wife helped him escape from slavery. After she passed away, he remarried a white women 20 years his junior--I had no idea. Somewhat ironically, he had a portrait from Othello over his fireplace while he was alive.
- Douglass amassed a large personal fortune public speaking.

- There was a laundry room addition to the Douglass home which was quite unusual for the time. Dress was very important to Douglass. He knew he would always be judged on his appearance so he was always sure to cleanly pressed and immaculately fashionable. When he was gone on long speaking engagements (weeks at a time), his wife would send clean pressed shirts ahead of him so he would always have clean laundry waiting for him when he arrived.
- Frederick Douglass was a huge supporter of the women's rights movement. His home has portraits of Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
- Douglass' favorite author's were Shakespeare and...yes, you guessed it...Charles Dickens. I knew we had something in common.
- Douglass was very physically active and could be seen working out in front of his house every day with hand weights--even on the day he died. (Below you can see the weights next to his shoes in the bedroom.) He had two speaking engagements scheduled on the day he died; he had a heart attack on the way there.

For humor's sake, I must add that, other than the tour guide, I was the only white person there, but I am proud to be Frederick Douglass' biggest Caucasian fan. He was a great writer, an eloquent speaker, an excellent politician, and a truly energetic and courageous man.