8/7/2019 Black History Dedriah

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Black History as defined by Wikipedia, is the remembrance of the events in the history of theAfrican diaspora. Since 1976, it is celebrated annually in the United States of America and

Canada in February, but in October it is celebrated in the United Kingdom. In America, BlackHistory month is also referred to as African-American History Month.

In 1926, Black History Month was actually started as Negro History Week by Carter G.Woodson. Black History Weeks objective is to educate the American people about the culturalbackground and reputable achievements of African-Americans.

When Carter G. Woodson started Negro History Week, his purpose for doing this was to allow

African American to become a more significant part of American History. According to JohnHope Franklin an historian, Woodson continued to express hope that Negro History Week

could outlive its usefulness. During Black History Week, African American history is taught tothousands of students in elementary, high school, and university levels respectively. African

American history is an extremely important part of American history, also it is also almostimpossible to find an American History textbook that does not include passages about black

history.

8/7/2019 Black History Dedriah

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abolitionlist

Born in Talbot County, Maryland, Frederick Douglass was sent to Baltimore as a house servantat the age of eight, where his mistress taught him to read and write. Upon the death of his master,

he was sent to the country to work as a field hand. During his time in the South he was severely

flogged for his resistance to slavery. In his early teens he began to teach in a Sunday schoolwhich was later forcibly shut down by hostile whites. After an unsuccessful attempt to escapefrom slavery, he succeeded in making his way to New York disguised as a sailor in 1838. He

found work as a day laborer in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and after an extemporaneousspeech before the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society became one of its agents.

Douglass quickly became a nationally recognized figure among abolitionists. In 1845 he bravely

published hisNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which related his experiences as aslave, revealed his fugitive status and further exposed him to the danger of reenslavement. In the

same year he went to England and Ireland, where he remained until 1847, speaking on slaveryand women's rights and ultimately raising sufficient funds to purchase his freedom. Upon

returning to the United States he founded the North Star. In the tense years before the Civil Warhe was forced to flee to Canada when the governor of Virginia swore out a warrant for his arrest.

Douglass returned to the United States before the beginning of the Civil War and, after meetingwith President Abraham Lincoln, he assisted in the formation of the 54th and 55th Negro

regiments of Massachusetts. During Reconstruction he became deeply involved in the civil rightsmovement and in 1871 he was appointed to the territorial legislature of the District of Columbia.

He served as one of the presidential electors-at-large for New York in 1872 and shortly thereafterbecame the secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission. After serving for a short time as the

police commissioner of the District of Columbia, he was appointed marshal in 1871 and held thepost until he was appointed the recorder of deeds in 1881. In 1890 his support of the presidential

campaign of Benjamin Harrison won him his minister resident and consul general to theRepublic of Haiti and later, the charge d'affaires of Santo Domingo. In 1891 he resigned the

position in protest of the unscrupulous business practices of American businessmen. Douglassdied at home in Washington, D.C.