New Play Explores the Early Years of an American Hero BALTIMORE, MD (wypr) - A Baltimore museum recently staged a Black History Month play portraying the life of a legendary American with Maryland roots. WYPR's Donna Marie Owens reports.

A plantation work song, the type that black slaves once sang while doing back-breaking field work like picking cotton, isn't typically heard inside a museum.

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But at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park and Museum in Fells Point, history has come alive in a powerful play, called Escape to Freedom, written by the late actor, Ossie Davis.

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IC: "My name's Frederick."

That's Dominic Gladden, 19, the actor who portrays young Frederick Douglass. The famed abolitionist was born a slave named Frederick Bailey on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Under the direction of Randy Smith, an ensemble of talented actors--many associated with Baltimore's Arena Players bring this historic tale to life with period costumes and music.

Museum director, Diane Swann Wright.

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IC: "I think that most people know Fredrick Douglass, as an adult. They know him as fiery orator. They know him as someone who fought against slavery. And this play really talks about how he became that person. And it talks about his childhood growing up here in Baltimore."

Separated from his grandmother at age six, Frederick came to Baltimore in 1826 to live with Sophia and Hugh Auld, relatives of his master.

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When Frederick was about 12, Mrs. Auld broke the law, by teaching him the alphabet. White children in his neighborhood, and others, would help him learn to read and write.

Yet, such education had to be obtained secretly. Listen to this scene from the play.

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IC: "What are you doing? I was just teaching young Frederick here how to No, he wasn't. He wasn't doing no such a thang. Down here in Maryland it's against the law to teach slaves how to read and write."

In 18-33, Frederick left the Auld home and was eventually sent to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer with a reputation for breaking slaves.

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IC: "And drop your eyes when I'm talking to you. That's better.

He would later write in his autobiography of being routinely whipped. Then one day, he fought back.

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IC: "I'm a man now. A man Covey. Just as much of a man as you are, maybe more."

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The pair struggled and Frederick won the fight. The beatings ended.

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During some of his early years in Baltimore, Frederick worked on the docks of Fells Point as a caulker who made wooden ships watertight. Most of his wages had to be turned over to his master.

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Yet Frederick who met many free blacks while in Baltimore, including his future wife Anna--always yearned for freedom. He twice attempted to escape bondage and 1838 was successful.

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Dressed in a sailor's uniform and carrying ID papers from a free black seaman, Frederick boarded a train to Havre de Grace. He then crossed the Susquehanna River by ferry, and eventually made it to Delaware, then Philadelphia and New York.

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IC: "I'm free!

Young Frederick would later become Frederick Douglass. He would go on to become an orator, abolitionist and statesmen who advised U.S. presidents. He died in 1895 at age 77 in Washington, D.C.

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Ben Pressbury, founder of the Living History Group, which helped stage the production, said sharing this history with youth who comprised most of the audiences during the productions' successful run--is key.

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IC: "And what we expect the young people to do is realize that there was things that African Americans did to contribute to the growth of this county before they were born.
Most young people today don't believe that African Americans did anything in this country but bear chains and pick cotton and that's not so."

Indeed, as the play attests, Frederick Douglass became known not only as a great African- American, but simply, a great American.

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I'm Donna Marie Owens, reporting in Fells Point for 88.1, WYPR.
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