Tuckahoe River Trip - Frederick Douglass Sojourn

In 1995, the centennial year of the death of Frederick Douglass, Ebony magazine urged its readers to plan family vacations so that the kids could see monuments to black history.  They suggested you visit the birthplace of Frederick Douglass. ("How To Celebrate Black History Month 12 Months of the Year", Ebony, Feb. 1995, vol. 50 no. 4)

Great idea, right? One problem:

The only historical marker that commemorates the Douglass birthplace is located six miles from the site.  The sign is on Md Route 328, at the south end of the Tuckahoe River Bridge.

The sign reads:

FREDERICK DOUGLASS
1817-1895
NEGRO PATRIOT

     Attained freedom and devoted his life and talents to the abolition of slavery and the cause of universal suffrage.  Visited England in 1845 and in 1859.  Won many prominent friends abroad and at home. Was U.S. Marshall for the District of Columbia and U.S. Minister to Haiti.

Why is it in the wrong place?  One reason may be that Douglass left few clues in his autobiographies.  He wrote that he was "born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot county, Maryland."

Douglass biographers ever since have cited "Tuckahoe" as the Douglass birthplace. But there is no town or point on the map called Tuckahoe, Maryland.  Douglass was referring to the entire district of Talbot County that lies along the west bank of the Tuckahoe River.

The other clues presented here were first compiled and published in Young Frederick Douglass, by Dickson J. Preston. They were first widely published on the Web by Caroline County student Amanda Barker at www.bluecrab.org/fdouglas in 1996.

In this Story of the Douglass Birthplace, watch for links to chapters from Douglass’s writings about his birth and childhood on the banks of the Tuckahoe River.

Follow the arrows to learn the clues.