The Activism and Dignity of Anna Murray Douglass
Anna Murray Douglass, Frederick Douglass’ first wife of 44 years and the mother of their children, is like most women known in history. She is often credited for being essential for Frederick Douglass to do the work that he did, but little is known of her directly, so she is often relegated to the shadows of history. She faced issues that many women would be familiar with today, including intense public scrutiny of everything from the way she looked to how she raised her family. However, Anna Murray Douglass is, in her own right, a remarkable woman and even more so as you consider her life with her husband Frederick.
Anna was the first of 12 children born of parents who had been recently manumitted from slavery, so Anna was a free Black American. She left home at the age of 17 for Baltimore to work as a domestic helper. Maryland had a thriving Black community of churches and schools despite oppressive racial laws. When she met Frederick, she had been earning and saving money for years. It is well documented, in fact, that Anna played an instrumental role in his escape from enslavement, procuring the documents he needed and sewing the sailor uniform he used to flee. When he sent for her from New York, she arrived ready to marry him, bringing with her everything a couple would need to start a life together.
According to their daughter, Rosetta Douglass Sprague, her parents “met at the base of a mountain of wrong and oppression, victims of the slave power as it existed over sixty years ago, one smarting under the manifold hardships as a slave, the other in many ways suffering from the effects of such a system.”
Being married to such a public figure, and one who was actively being hunted for most of his life due to the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Anna faced particular hardships. As Frederick Douglass became more popular, he also became more absent from the home. She was often solely in charge of their children, the household and their finances. In fact, while he was traveling Britain and Ireland for two years to maintain his safety and freedom, she saved everything he sent home, spending only her own money she earned from mending shoes.
Anna was an activist in her own right, belonging to anti-slavery societies and an active member of the Underground Railroad in Rochester, NY. She welcomed and provided comfort to everyone received at their home, from dignitaries to runaway slaves. Despite Anna’s strengths and abilities, however, many contemporaries had formed their own opinions about the silent partner of such a venerated public figure. Journalists, fellow activists and even Frederick Douglass’s friends often judged Anna as not being good enough for him, and often commented on her appearance, her darker skin and even spread rumors of her husband’s affairs with white women. Frederick and Anna had to tread lightly in her defense as it was seen improper for women to be mentioned in print, but Frederick Douglass often spoke of Anna in his private letters. In a letter to his former owner he wrote of her, “Instead of finding my companion a burden she is truly a helpmeet.”
While Anna and Frederick were inextricably linked, Anna proved herself to be a patient mother, an avid learner, a keen observer, an steadfast partner and a strong activist. In the words of their daughter Rosetta, “It is difficult to say any thing of mother without the mention of father, her life was so enveloped in his. Together they rest side by side, and most befittingly, within sight of the dear old home of hallowed memories and from which the panting fugitive, the weary traveler, the lonely emigrant of every clime, received food and shelter.”