What difference can one person make in the world? How could someone born into slavery, owned, beaten and oppressed, end up changing American history? "This is the story of how one man's careful decisions and many accomplishments not only made his own life better but in many ways changed the history of America."
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born a slave on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1818. At the age of nine he started working as a slave for a man named Hugh Auld and his wife and children. Hugh's wife, Sophia, was teaching her own children how to read and for a short time she included Frederick in the lessons.
Frederick watched the Auld children grow up learning. He understood that their education gave them a chance to succeed in life that he did not have. He saw that "learning to read would make him unfit to be a slave," and he took eery chance to borrow books and pick up old newspapers in the streets so he could practice.
This man we know today as Frederick Douglass shaped his own life by having the courage to educate himself, to escape from slavery and to speak the truth about what is was like to be a slave.
He created a place of influence for himself, published his autobiography in 1845 and turned his gift for words toward speaking for the rights of black people and women.
One man made choices that claimed self-respect and dignity and used his innate gifts as powers. Ultimately his decisions shaped his own life and the lives of thousands he would never know.
40 pages 978-0060277093 Ages 7-11
Recommended by: Barb Langridge, abookandahug.com
This book is a finalist for the 2018 Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards in the Grades 3 and 4 category.
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n this picture book biography, the late New York Times bestselling author Walter Dean Myers and acclaimed artist Floyd Cooper take readers on an inspiring journey through the life of Frederick Douglass.
Frederick Douglass was a self-educated slave in the South who grew up to become an icon. He was a leader of the abolitionist movement, a celebrated writer, an esteemed speaker, and a social reformer, proving that, as he said, “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”
The story of one of America’s most revered figures is brought to life by the text of award-winning author Walter Dean Myers and the sweeping, lush illustrations of artist Floyd Cooper."--from the publisher
