Local actor Robert Hughes presents his original two-act play about the early life, struggles, and abuse Frederick Douglass faced while enslaved. The play is set as an interview between an adult Frederick Douglass and his master, reflecting on Douglass’ life during early childhood.

This program is pre-recorded and will be broadcast through Zoom. Registration is free.

“The son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, ‘Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey’ was born in February of 1818 on Maryland’s eastern shore. He spent his early years with his grandparents and with an aunt, seeing his mother only four or five times before her death when he was seven. (All Douglass knew of his father was that he was white.) During this time he was exposed to the degradations of slavery, witnessing firsthand brutal whippings and spending much time cold and hungry. When he was eight he was sent to Baltimore to live with a ship carpenter named Hugh Auld. There he learned to read and first heard the words abolition and abolitionists. “Going to live at Baltimore,” Douglass would later say, “laid the foundation, and opened the gateway, to all my subsequent prosperity.” – pbs.org

A PA Forward program promoting Civic & Social Literacy.