August 29, 1868 – Letter from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Tubman

Most people don’t think of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman as being contemporaneous actors on the historical stage, but in fact, they were both born into slavery on Maryland’s Eastern Shore at approximately the same time. They also both escaped as young adults: Douglass in 1838, and Tubman in 1849.

Harriet Tubman was born as Araminta Ross in the 1820s. In her early 20s, she married John Tubman. She began to go by her mother’s first name and her husband’s last name, and thus came to be known as Harriet Tubman.

When her owner died in 1849, his will set Harriet free. Unfortunately, in addition to his will, he also left behind outstanding debts. Realizing that she would likely be sold to settle those debts, Harriet chose instead to escape. But she wanted to bring out others from slavery too and soon began a stealth operation to do so. As the New York Times reports:

During the 1850s she led 13 groups of enslaved family members and kin to freedom this way, returning to the Egypt of the Eastern Shore slavery time and again. On the African-American underground network, she was known as ‘Moses,’ the spiritual leader of her people. She sang in her husky, haunting voice, often in code. She let it be known she carried a pistol, inspiring fear in the hearts of slave catchers – who never caught up with her, their most wanted fugitive.”

In fact, as a Pittsburgh Theological Seminary post observes:

. . . in the 1860s, Harriet was so notorious for her own escape and her role in freeing others that there was a bounty on her head. To be more accurate, there were many bounties on her head. The total value was somewhere around $40,000 [in 1860 dollars].”

Harriet Tubman

Douglass fought for freedom in a different way: as a public speaker, and as a writer, publishing his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845. The book has only eleven chapters, but is considered to be one of the most influential pieces of literature to fuel the 19th Century abolitionist movement in the United States. Within four months of publication, five thousand copies were sold; by 1860, almost 30,000 copies were sold.

After publication, Douglass left his home in Massachusetts and sailed to England and Ireland for two years in fear of being recaptured by his owner in the United States. While abroad, he gained supporters who paid $710.96 to purchase his emancipation from his legal owner. He also gained insight into the uniquely American character of racism:

Eleven days and a half gone and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle [Ireland]. I breathe, and lo! the chattel [slave] becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab—I am seated beside white people—I reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown into the same parlour—I dine at the same table—and no one is offended… I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me, ‘We don’t allow niggers in here!”

After returning to the U.S. in 1847, Douglass started publishing an abolitionist newspaper, the North Star, from the basement of the Memorial AME Zion Church in Rochester, New York. The paper’s motto was “Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.” The AME Church and “North Star” vigorously opposed the mostly white American Colonization Society and its proposal to send blacks back to Africa.

Douglass circa 1847–52, around his early 30s

Douglass also became acquainted with Tubman, having mutual friends, and coming to each other’s aide in the abolitionist movement. The New York Times notes:

Tubman once brought a group of 13 runaway slaves to the Douglass home in Rochester, N.Y., where he put them up in his barn before they went to Canada. Tubman also stayed as a houseguest at least once in the run-up to war, possibly to discuss [John] Brown’s daring plan. But strangely, given their Chesapeake connection and their mutual regard, Tubman and Douglass never seemed that close in public.”

During the Civil War, each played an important role in working for the Union. But Douglass was always more in the spotlight than Tubman. On this day in history, August 29, 1868, Douglass acknowledged this, writing to her:

Dear Harriet:

I am glad to know that the story of your eventful life has been written by a kind lady, and that the same is soon to be published. You ask for what you do not need when you call upon me for a word of commendation. I need such words from you far more than you can need them from me, especially where your superior labors and devotion to the cause of the lately enslaved of our land are known as I know them. The difference between us is very marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I have wrought in the day – you in the night. I have had the applause of the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few trembling, scarred, and foot-sore bondmen and women, whom you have led out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt, ‘God bless you,’ has been your only reward. The midnight sky and the silent stars have been the witnesses of your devotion to freedom and of your heroism. Excepting John Brown – of sacred memory – I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have. Much that you have done would seem improbable to those who do not know you as I know you. It is to me a great pleasure and a great privilege to bear testimony for your character and your works, and to say to those to whom you may come, that I regard you in every way truthful and trustworthy.

Your friend,
Frederick Douglass”