Anna murray douglass biography sample
Anna murray douglass
Frederick douglass second wife.
Anna Murray Douglass is best known as the first wife of black abolitionist Frederick Douglass. Her life illustrates the challenges facing women who were married to famous men. Born as a free black in rural Maryland, her parents, Mary and Bambarra Murray, were manumitted shortly before her birth.
She grew up in Baltimore, where she met a ship caulker six years her junior, Frederick Washington Bailey.
Anna murray douglass biography sample
Although it is unclear how they met, Murray facilitated his second escape attempt by providing money for a train ticket and a sailor’s disguise. She followed him to New York City, where they were married by the prominent black minister, Rev.
J.W.C. Pennington. They adopted the surname Douglass when they moved to a Quaker community in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
While Frederick began his climb as an abolitionist orator, Anna cared for their children, born between 1839 and 1849: Rosetta, Lewis, Frederick, Charles, and Annie.
In 1847, they moved to Rochester, New York, where Frederick