Massachusetts city honors its unique connection with abolitionist Frederick Douglass
WORCESTER - Worcester plans to honor the significant role that Frederick Douglass played as a speaker in the city in March. Douglass spoke in various Worcester meeting halls and churches, beginning as a young man shortly after escaping slavery, arguing that slavery must and could be abolished.
"We see Frederick Douglass in 1841. He first arrives...his first meeting that he's mentioned specifically is Oct. 5 of 1841, where they're meeting on this day in West Brookfield in the vestry of the Congregational Meeting House. And you'll see there are people from all over Worcester County present and one of those speakers is...Frederick Douglass."
At the Worcester Historical Museum, Executive Director Bill Wallace turned the pages of a treasured antique book, reading from an entry.
"The Worcester County South District Anti-Slavery Society - it's their manuscript records of all their meetings starting in the late 1830s going well into the 1860s. It's a rare survival of an incredible story of people coming together to...create a better place."
After Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in Maryland in 1838, he came north by train through New York City and settled in New Bedford and traveled to Worcester to speak often.
Because Worcester was the heart of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and an essential train stop on the way to Boston or farther north, everyone passed through Worcester. It was a city filled with a diverse workforce that filled the daily buzz of factories and mills. Owners and laborers belonged to the "Mechanics Association."
Wallace says out of all of Massachusetts, Worcester was radically anti-slavery.
"This is January 5th of 1842, and 'Frederick Douglass, who was once a slave,' is present, and he's introducing a resolution. This says, 'The sectarian organization of Worcester Country called 'Churches' are, in supporting slavery, upholding and sustaining a system of theft, adultery, and murder...it is the duty of abolitionists to expose the true character before the public.'"
This was Douglass pointing out the hypocrisy of local ministers and pastors (to whom those workers looked for spiritual guidance), and telling them that the status quo was not only illegal but immoral.
"He's calling them out," Wallace said.
During the 1830s and 1840s, Worcester's population was only 16,000. The workers were thirsty to know what was going on in their growing country, and the only way to see a prominent speaker was to go hear them at a meeting or local hall.
One of the most popular and prominent was Frederick Douglass, a powerful witness talking in an impressive baritone about the evils of slavery.
Wallace said that his audience in Worcester were "The people with ideas...the people making these products. They're the people he's speaking to, whether it's William T. Merrifield, who owns the factory building, think about Washburn or the people working for them. They are all there for the story. They are all the leaders."
Visitors to the museum are glad to see the history recognized.
"That's interesting to me...it's too bad that it's not more well-known," said Deb Ryan of Plainville.
"I wish that we had more knowledge about that growing up, you know, because it's a great part of our history," said Judy Jackson, who grew up in Northboro.
Douglass had authenticity, Wallace said, because he had been part of the slavery system. "Absolutely, he lived it. He was the voice, and people knew him in Worcester. He had this group of people, of followers already - people who knew he was a good guy, and they wanted to go hear more from this great orator."
When Mechanics Hall was constructed in 1857, one of the very first speakers on the stage was Frederick Douglass, older, appealing to the citizens of Worcester about the immorality of slavery - this time as the country was on the brink of the Civil War.
A portrait of Douglass will be unveiled in Mechanics Hall in Worcester on March 14, marking the historic connection between the great, powerful orator and the city that played such a crucial role in the Abolition Movement.