Inspirational Frederick Douglass Quote Short-Sleeve Unisex T-Shirt

Inspirational Frederick Douglass Quote Short-Sleeve Unisex T-Shirt
"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." One of our favorite quotes of all time. It was true then and it's true now.

FROM WIKIPEDIA:

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland. The plantation was between Hillsboro^[14] and Cordova; his birthplace was likely his grandmother's cabin^[a] east of Tappers Corner, (38.8845°N 75.958°W) and west of Tuckahoe Creek.^[15][16] The exact date of his birth is unknown, and he later chose to celebrate his birthday on February 14.^[4] In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it."^[14][17]

Douglass was of mixed race, which likely included Native American^[18] and African on his mother's side, as well as European.^[19] His father was "almost certainly white," as shown by historian David W. Blight in his 2018 biography of Douglass.^[20] He said his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his grand name. After escaping to the North years later, he took the surname Douglass, having already dropped his two middle names.

He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother:

The opinion was ... whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion I know nothing ... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant ... It [was] common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. ... I do not recollect ever seeing my mother by the light of day. ... She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.^[21]

After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother Betsy Bailey, who was a slave, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who was free.^[22] Frederick's mother Harriet Bailey remained on the plantation about 12 miles away, and only visited Frederick a few times before she died when he was seven (his grandmother Betsy Bailey would live until 1849).^[23] At the age of six, Frederick was separated from his grandparents and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer.^[24] After Anthony died in 1826, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas' brother Hugh Auld in Baltimore. Lucretia Auld was essential in creating who Douglass was as she shaped his experiences. She had a special interest in Douglass from the time he was a child and wanted to give him a better life.^[25] Douglass felt that he was lucky to be in the city, where he said slaves were almost freemen, compared to those on plantations.

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When Douglass was about twelve, Hugh Auld's wife Sophia started teaching him the alphabet. From the day he arrived, she saw to it that Douglass was properly fed and clothed, and that he slept in a bed with sheets and a blanket.^[26] Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him "as she supposed one human being ought to treat another".^[27] Hugh Auld disapproved of the tutoring, feeling that literacy would encourage slaves to desire freedom; Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard.^[28] Under her husband's influence, Sophia came to believe that education and slavery were incompatible and one day snatched a newspaper away from Douglass.^[29] She stopped teaching him altogether and hid all potential reading materials, including her Bible, from him.^[26] In his autobiography, Douglass related how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood, and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked.^[30]

Douglass continued, secretly, to teach himself how to read and write. He later often said, "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom."^[31] As Douglass began to read newspapers, pamphlets, political materials, and books of every description, this new realm of thought led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator, an anthology that he discovered at about age twelve, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. The book, first published in 1797, is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches and dialogues, to assist students in learning reading and grammar.

When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly Sunday school. As word spread, the interest among slaves in learning to read was so great that in any week, more than 40 slaves would attend lessons. For about six months, their study went relatively unnoticed. While Freeland remained complacent about their activities, other plantation owners became incensed about their slaves being educated. One Sunday they burst in on the gathering, armed with clubs and stones, to disperse the congregation permanently.

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a]s a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas Auld sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker". He whipped Douglass so regularly that his wounds had little time to heal. Douglass later said the frequent whippings broke his body, soul, and spirit.^[32] The sixteen-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again.^[33] Recounting his beatings at Covey's farm in his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Douglass described himself as "a man transformed into a brute!"^[34] But Douglass came to see his physical fight with Covey as life-transforming; he introduced the story in his autobiography with this sentence: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."^[35]

This t-shirt is everything you've dreamed of and more. It feels soft and lightweight, with the right amount of stretch. It's comfortable and flattering for both men and women.

• 100% combed and ring-spun cotton (Heather colors contain polyester)
• Ash color is 99% combed and ring-spun cotton, 1% polyester
• Heather colors are 52% combed and ring-spun cotton, 48% polyester
• Athletic and Black Heather are 90% combed and ring-spun cotton, 10% polyester
• Heather Prism colors are 99% combed and ring-spun cotton, 1% polyester
• Fabric weight: 4.2 oz (142 g/m2)
• Pre-shrunk fabric
• Shoulder-to-shoulder taping
• Side-seamed

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