Frederick Douglas' Daughter

[LindaTrent]

I just found this while looking over the Portsmouth Times this afternoon, and thought it interesting.

From the Portsmouth Times (Portsmouth, Ohio) Feb. 8, 1859

Fred. Douglass's Daughter For Sale. -- Among the servants offered for sale by a Mr. Forrest of Memphis, Tenn., is a girl who is known to be the daughter of Fred Douglas, the Abolitionist. -- She is said to be of the class known among the dealers as a 'likely girl,' and is a native of North Carolina. -- Memphis Avalanche.

Transcribed and submitted by
Linda Trent
lindatrent@zoomnet.net

[brown]

Re: Frederick Douglas' Daughter

Amazing little nugget buried for so long. Thanks for bring it to us.
Any idea how many "Forrest" slaveholders were in Memphis at the time?

[col90]

Re: Frederick Douglas' Daughter

Hmm..it would be interesting to know who this is referring to...Douglass was married and living in Rochester, New York, by 1859 (and had been there about 10 years). He had four surviving children, only one of whom was a daughter. The other, Annie, died when she was 10, in Rochester. His other daughter, Rosetta, born in 1839, is living with her parents at the time this newspaper notice is given, and in fact, marries there in 1863. Frederick Douglass himself was from Maryland, and yet this is from a Tennessee paper.....I have a number of materials pertaining to Frederick Douglass in the Maryland Room, the special collection I manage...and I've never seen anything about this.

Curious......

Colleen

[Fritz]

Re: Frederick Douglas' Daughter

Hmm..it would be interesting to know who this is referring to...Douglass was married and living in Rochester, New York, by 1859 (and had been there about 10 years). He had four surviving children, only one of whom was a daughter. The other, Annie, died when she was 10, in Rochester. His other daughter, Rosetta, born in 1839, is living with her parents at the time this newspaper notice is given, and in fact, marries there in 1863. Frederick Douglass himself was from Maryland, and yet this is from a Tennessee paper.....I have a number of materials pertaining to Frederick Douglass in the Maryland Room, the special collection I manage...and I've never seen anything about this.

Curious......

Colleen

Could this ad be something with a "come on" to get more publicity since they advertised "Freferick Douglas' daughter"?

[LindaTrent]

Re: Frederick Douglas' Daughter

Could this ad be something with a "come on" to get more publicity since they advertised "Frederick Douglas' daughter"?

I looked up Frederick Douglas, last night, and he escaped from slavery around 1838, married Sept. 15, 1838 and his daughter was born June 24, 1839. So she would have been born out of slavery.

My guess is that the majority of the population was entirely unaware of this point, and they (the men putting on the sale) figured there's a possibility to draw a larger crowd to bring in more money, so they hyped up the sale by saying they had a daughter of one of the greatest abolitionists of all time! Even if someone wasn't interested in buying her they might be interested in at least seeing her, "there's a succor born every minute" atmosphere. :D Once the person arrived perhaps he/she would become interested in purchasing someone.

I don't know if someone was intentionally trying to imply that Douglas had a sweetheart during his days in slavery and got her pregnant before escaping, and that the daughter eventually wound up in North Carolina?

I'm also curious what they mean by "the class known among the dealers as a 'likely girl.'" Likely for what? I can think of a number of things not politically correct as well as likely to run away, etc.

I just report what I see. :D Thanks for everyone who's replied so far.

Linda.

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Frederick Douglas' Daughter

Hmm..it would be interesting to know who this is referring to...Douglass was married and living in Rochester, New York, by 1859 (and had been there about 10 years). He had four surviving children, only one of whom was a daughter. The other, Annie, died when she was 10, in Rochester. His other daughter, Rosetta, born in 1839, is living with her parents at the time this newspaper notice is given, and in fact, marries there in 1863. Frederick Douglass himself was from Maryland, and yet this is from a Tennessee paper.....I have a number of materials pertaining to Frederick Douglass in the Maryland Room, the special collection I manage...and I've never seen anything about this.

Curious......

Colleen

Colleen-

I'd like to see those records sometime. My pre-war ancestor was Col. Minchin Lloyd of Maryland, a wealthy tobacco plantation owner and in Douglass's book he says he was born on Col. Lloyd's plantation but sold at an early age.

Col. Lloyd's 1860s relative (don't really know how related yet) was John Lloyd, my ancestor who managed the Surratt Tavern in Surratsville, MD the night John Wilkes Booth came for owner Mary Surratt's supplies to kill President Lincoln. The only way John Lloyd got away from the hangman's noose was that in the assasination trial, for which he was subpoenaed, he supposedly told the jury that he didn't know what was in the package Mrs. Surratt wanted him to give Booth.

In my family, the story was that he actually did know Booth well, knew the gun and the boots were in the package, and knew very well what Booth was up to bring a full Southern sympathizer.

Thanks- John Lloyd

[GASharpshooter]

Re: Frederick Douglas' Daughter

"The only difference between General George Washington and General Robert E. Lee is that General Washington won his war..."

Heee I'm sure if Lee had the French on his side he woulda won his too :D