Frederick Douglass Study Guide
 Frederick Douglass was a great writer, speaker, and a fighter for civil rights.
 He was born in 1818.
 When he was a child, he was a slave in the house of Hugh and Sophia Auld.
 Sophia Auld started teaching Frederick how to read, but Hugh made her stop. Frederick
then gave poor neighborhood boys bread to teach him what they learned in school.
 Frederick’s knowledge gave him a dream. He wanted liberty, or freedom.
 In the 1830s, the question of whether or not to allow slavery divided the United States.
 In states that allowed slavery, millions of African Americans were forced to work for no
pay. They could be bought and sold like property.
 Most enslaved people lived in bad housing and had no rights. Slave owners were often
cruel to slaves.
 When Douglass was a young man, Auld sent him to work for a shipbuilder in Baltimore
Harbor but he had to give the money he earned to Auld.
 On September 3, 1838, Douglass dressed up as a sailor and got aboard a train heading
north. He made it to New York which was a free state. But he still worried about being
caught by slave-catchers.
 He began giving hundreds of speeches at abolitionist meetings in which he told about
His life as a slave. Audiences were very impressed with how smart and well-spoken he
was. (He used his freedom of expression)
 Douglass went to live in Great Britain for two years in order to escape slave-catchers.
In Great Britain, slavery was illegal.
 On December 5, 1846, a group of his British friends paid Hugh Auld $711.66 to buy
Frederick’s freedom. He then came back to the United States and lived in Rochester, New
York as a free man.
 He started an antislavery newspaper called The North Star.
 Frederick supported women’s rights, too. One of his good friends was Susan B. Anthony.
 Douglass also was a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad and helped slaves
escape to freedom.
Frederick Douglass mostly lived
in the northeastern part of the
United States.
Susan B. Anthony Study Guide
 Susan B. Anthony was born and lived most of her life in the northeastern United States (mainly in
New York).
 She grew up in a time in which only free white males could vote.
 Susan’s family went to a Quaker church where all members were treated equally. This is what
helped her form her beliefs that men and women should be equal.
 Anthony’s first job was as a teacher because it was one of the only jobs a woman could hold at
that time.
 Some of the first people Susan wanted to help were slaves.
 Her father was an abolitionist and wanted to abolish slavery. Susan believed the same thing.
 Susan B. Anthony worked closely with Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Anthony’s main job was to give
speeches that were written by Stanton.
 In 1860, the New York State Legislature passed a law that allowed married women to own property.
This was a very big deal!
 Anthony and Stanton were members of two very important groups: Women’s National Loyal
League and Anti-Slavery Society.
 Suffrage means the right to vote.
 Susan B. Anthony got arrested in 1872 for voting. Officials said it was illegal for women to vote.
She was supposed to pay a fine of $100 (which was A LOT of money back then), but she never
paid it.
 Most people thought Susan was a hero by 1896 but a few still saw her as a troublemaker.
 Anthony died before women won the right to vote in the United States.
 Susan showed diligence by never giving up trying to change the laws in favor of women’s
suffrage. She also showed cooperation when she worked closely with others like Frederick
Douglass and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
 Women won the right to vote across the entire United States in 1920.
Susan B. Anthony mostly lived
in New York and in the northeastern
part of the United States.
Mary McLeod Bethune Study Guide
 Mary was born in 1875 in South Carolina. She was the 15th of 17 children and the first one in
her family that was not a slave.
 White children and black children could not go to school together at the time.
 She was determined to learn how to read and went to school for African American children at
age 11.
 When she couldn’t learn any more in her school, she went to Scotia Seminary in North
Carolina. There she learned table manners and how to clean, bake, study, play music, and
debate. She saw fancy things she was not used to at home.
 Mary went to Moody Bible College in Chicago, Illinois after finishing school at Scotia. She
wanted to be a missionary and go to Africa. She couldn’t go because the churches that sent
missionaries would not send African Americans.
 She became a teacher in Augusta, Georgia and taught African American children.
 Bethune started a school in Daytona Beach, Florida for African American girls. She started the
school in 1904 with only 5 students and people in the community helped her raise money for
her school. Two years later, there were 250 students—boys and girls.
 Mary McLeod Bethune taught children during the day and taught adults at night.
 The school was called Bethune-Cookman College.
 Bethune was in women’s groups but white women and black women couldn’t sit together at
the meetings. Segregation is the system of keeping people of different races apart. She met
Eleanor Roosevelt at some of these meetings!
 Mary respected the authority of the presidents (Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover) so she
was happy to attend meetings of leaders that wanted to help children.
 First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt told her husband, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, how Bethune
wanted justice for all people and how much she cared about children.
 FDR asked her to work in the National Youth Administration (NYA). She had more
responsibility than any other African American person at that time. When she was working at
the NYA, she lived in Washington, DC. In the NYA, she helped young people go to work.
 Mary finally got to go to Africa in 1952 when she was very old. She was honored with the Star of
Africa Award when she went to Liberia.
 Bethune-Cookman college is still in Daytona Beach, Florida.
MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE CONTINUED ON BACK
 Mary McLeod Bethune was the first woman and first African American to be honored with a statue
in a public park in Washington, DC.
 Mary respected authority and showed tolerance and diligence during her lifetime.
Mary McLeod Bethune mostly
lived in South Carolina, Florida,
and in the southeastern part of
the United States. She also spent
time in Washington, D.C.
Unit Vocabulary
1. justice- equal treatment under the law
2. prejudice- a strong feeling or opinion formed unfairly or without knowing all the facts
3. abolitionist- a person who wants to end slavery
4. civil rights- rights of humans that are protected by laws
5. conscience- an inner sense of right or wrong
6. expression- the ability to speak or write
7. slavery- a cruel system in which someone owns or controls another person
8. Underground Railroad- secret network of people and hiding places to help slaves
escape to freedom
9. legislature– a group of people with the power to make or change laws
10. diligence– the attention and care expected or required of a person
11. respect of authority– listening to and accepting decisions made by those in charge
12. suffrage– the right to vote
Name: _________________________________ Date: ________________ #______
Social Studies: Heroes Fight for Rights
(Frederick Douglass, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Susan B. Anthony)
Who Did It? Circle the correct name for each statement.
1. I was born in South Carolina………….Fred
Mary
Susan
2. I was born a slave……………………...Fred
Mary
Susan
3. I was born into a Quaker family……….Fred
Mary
Susan
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4. I learned how to read in school. (circle 2 answers)………….Fred
Mary
Susan
5. I started learning to read when Sophia Auld taught me…….Fred
Mary
Susan
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6. I wanted African American kids to be able to go to school…...Fred
Mary
Susan
7. I mostly thought slavery should end………………………….…Fred
Mary
Susan
8. I mostly thought women should be able to vote……………….Fred
Mary
Susan
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9. My best friend was named Elizabeth Cady Stanton………. Fred
Mary
Susan
10. I wanted to go to Africa and be a missionary………………Fred
Mary
Susan
11. I lived in Great Britain to escape slave-catchers………......Fred
Mary
Susan
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12. I wrote The North Star……………………………….Fred
Mary
Susan
13. I got arrested for voting………………………………Fred
Mary
Susan
14. I started my own school in Florida…………………..Fred
Mary
Susan
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15. I was a teacher (circle 2 answers)………….………Fred
Mary
Susan
16. My friends bought my freedom for $711.66………..Fred
Mary
Susan
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17. I worked with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt…………………………………..Fred
Mary
Susan
18. I was in the Women’s National Loyal League and Anti-Slavery Society…..Fred
Mary
Susan
19. I was a conductor on the Underground Railroad……………………………..Fred
Mary
Susan
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20. How were Frederick, Mary, and Susan all alike? Write using complete sentences.
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