LYNN — Tom Dalton believes Lynn does not get enough love in the history of 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
But, says Dalton, author of “Frederick Douglass: The Lynn Years, 1841-1848,” the years he spent here were his most transformative.
“He comes here as an unknown, and left here famous,” said Dalton, a former reporter for both the Daily Item and Salem News. “He comes here as a fugitive slave and leaves here free, and he became an internationalist and an independent while he was here.”
Dalton spoke Thursday night in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Lynn Museum during a program that was part of the festivities to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Douglass’ birth (he was born in February 1818 in Maryland). The address was sponsored by Grant Communications of Lynn.
Douglass’ story is a remarkable one by anyone’s definition. Dalton said that even among those who didn’t sympathize with the abolitionist movement, Douglass commanded respect. He was born into a situation where he never knew who his father was, and only really ever saw his mother at night. That was because she was taken to a different plantation while Douglass was still a boy, and used to walk the 12 miles between houses and sneak in so she could spend nights with him.
“She’d have to leave before sunrise to get back to her plantation,” Dalton said.
Douglass was never taught to read or write, but learned on his own — so much so, Dalton said, that when he was able to buy his own home in Rochester, N.Y., he had an extensive library filled with books “that he actually read, unlike most of us.
“He was a genius,” said Dalton. “Around here, we use the term loosely to describe our football coach. But he really was a genius. He had no schooling, and learned to read and write all by himself.”
He was not born Frederick Douglass. That came at least three iterations after his escape from the Maryland plantation where he was raised in 1838. His first stop was New Bedford, where his last name was changed to Johnson. By then, he’d met his future wife, Anna Douglass.
Because there were so many people named Johnson in the community where he lived, it was suggested that he adopt the name Douglass.
After he delivered an impassioned anti-slavery address, he became a much sought-after speaker on behalf of the abolitionist cause. And that’s what brought him to Lynn.
In 1841, he was offered a job as an agent for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Coalition and he came to Lynn because it was close to Boston, where he could establish contacts with William Lloyd Garrison, among the foremost abolitionists in the country.
‘He probably spent two-thirds of his time away from Lynn,” Dalton said, “as he did a lot of traveling and speaking” on behalf of the movement.
On one of those trips, he went to Ireland, where he said a whole new world opened up for him.
“There, he saw white people without prejudice,” Dalton said. “People treated him nicely.”
Dalton said Douglass wrote his book “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself,” while living on Harrison Court in Lynn, which today is the main walkway to the commuter rail station outside of Central Square (“he always lived near train stations so he could hop on a train and go where he needed to go,” Dalton said).
“It’s not a long book,” said Dalton, “but it’s one of the most important ever written.”
Douglas, he said, “is possibly the most important person of the 19th century. He is the most photographed person from that era, and that’s pretty remarkable when you consider (Abraham) Lincoln and some others.”
Dalton said Douglass used to excoriate Lincoln routinely in his newspaper during the Civil War because of inequities between white and black soldiers fighting for the Union. But then the two met, and developed a respect and a friendship, so much so that Lincoln asked him what he thought of his second inaugural address.
As Douglass got older, he became more outspoken. He broke with Garrison, heretofore a strong ally, and eventually wrote that racism in the North was worse than in the South, and criticized Christian churches for their “Jim Crow pews.”
Dalton’s address touched on many other historical juxtapositions, such as Douglass’ meeting with John Brown (who led the Harpers Ferry raid) and his skepticism that such a raid would work; and his relationship with the Estes Family of Lynn, one of whose members, Lydia eventually married and became Lydia Pinkham.
The committee coordinating the activities surrounding the Douglass bicentennial includes Brenda Reed-Womack; Darrell Murkison, who served as the moderator Thursday; Wendy Joseph, Julia Greene, Dalton, Judith Marshall, Drew Russo (Lynn Museum director) and Roy Rhodes.