“Will you join us, Frederick Douglass?” he asked.
“Oh, sir, I am a member of the Society in New Bedford,” Frederick answered quickly and proudly. Garrison smiled.
“Of course. But I mean more than that—a lot more. I’m asking you to leave whatever job you have and work with me. The pay is—well—uncertain. They tell me you have a family. I too have a family.”
“Yes, sir. I know,” Frederick said, his eyes like an adoring child’s.
“I am asking you to leave your own family and work for the larger family of God.”
“Yes, sir, I understand. I want to help. But I am ignorant. I was planning to go to school.”
“You will learn as you walk, Frederick Douglass. Your people need your strength now. We all need you.”
So Frederick left his job at the foundry and, as an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, began active work to outlaw slavery in the nation.
Chapter Seven
Jobs in Washington and voting in Rhode Island