Thread by @mckensiemack

Do you know the name of Anna-Murray Douglass?

On the fourth of July, we often hear about calls to re-read and re-consider Frederick Douglass' work “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”
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And on the fourth of July, and every other day of the year, we are encouraged not to ask exactly who helped Frederick Douglass get free.

This is Anna-Murray Douglass, abolitionist, member of the Underground Railroad, and Black woman who was born outside of slavery. 2/

Anna's role in American history is often erased or completely eclipsed by the fact that she was the first wife of Frederick Douglass.

Anna Murray, even as a severly oppressed Black woman, helped free Frederick Douglass from slavery. 3/

She got sailor's clothes for him from the laundry work she did. She also gave him money from her own savings and sold one of her beds for him so that he could have the money he needed to build a life after he ran away. 4/

Once Douglass escaped, Anna-Murray joined him in Philadelphia bringing supplies needed to start a home.

But why don't we know about Anna? Why isn't she spoken about as often or even moreso than Douglass himself? 5/

Frederick Douglass doesn't hardly mention Anna in any of his bigraphies. He credits a white woman for teaching him how to read, but does not credit Anna for helping him to escape the conditions that made learning to read while Black life-endangering. 6/

As he ascended into a higher social class, Anna, a highly advanced woman intellectually and morally in the ways of Pro-Blackness, social justice, and the work necessary to dismantle white supremacy was deemed "uneducated" by the standards of whiteness and Douglass... 7/

left her behind. He was reported to have left home for extended periods of time and to have had several relationships outside of their own without her consent. 8/

Many people don't even know Anna-Murray Douglass' name but without her Frederick Douglass' story in the words of his daughter Rosetta would not have been "made possible."

By reading this post, you now have a choice to honor not only his legacy, but to also honor hers. 9/

The fact is that we do get free. We just don't do it alone. Black women, Black femmes, and Black nonbinary people help us get there. The very least we can is lift up their legacies, credit them for their work, and honor their labor every single chance that we can get. 10/

Learn more about Anna-Murray Douglass here: bit.ly/31LFdrq 11/

Some questions for reflection:

1.) How do we set boundaries with the past?

2.) How do we allow the past to teach us the importance of embracing various truths about ourselves and other people?

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3.) How do we tell the stories of those who are most forgotten and erased by white supremacist histories?

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4.) How are we careful not pedestal people? How do we develop an analysis of how people's treatment of Black women (cis and trans) aligns with their stated values and beliefs?

#BoundaryWork

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