Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C. by John Muller

Author:John Muller [Muller, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History
ISBN: 9781609495770
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 16205996
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-10-02T00:00:00+00:00

Postcard of Cedar Hill, circa 1910. Collection of John DeFerrari.

It was in these streets that Frederick Douglass could be found on foot. “Frederick Douglass, in spite of his age, walks about Washington as briskly as a boy,” observed the New York Tribune in early 1884. Approaching seventy years old, Douglass, standing slightly over six feet tall, “weighs more than 200 pounds, his hair is white, and his health is perfect.” Two years earlier, Douglass had told a friend, “I have not felt in better health at any time during the last five years. I now walk every morning from ‘Cedar Hill’ to the City Hall and am less fatigued than when I adopted the practice.”

While holding the office of marshal for the District of Columbia and later as recorder of deeds, Douglass was known to rise before the rooster’s crow. At five o’clock, he would awaken and often walk his property, inspecting the stables, picking up loose branches and taking note of any needed repairs to the two walkways leading to the home. Returning inside, Douglass would then sit at his desk and either answer letters or compose new correspondence. In the fall of 1878, Douglass wrote two letters to the Board of Commissioners on behalf of one of his new neighbors, Francis Allen.

By the late 1870s, Uniontown had begun to see a merchant class develop, with barbers, pharmacists, grocers, carriage builders, coach painters, feed dealers and blacksmiths. These Uniontown business owners were among the many individuals who advocated for a larger police force. While neighborhoods lining L’Enfant’s original plan of Washington, such as Swampoodle, Murder Bay, Hell’s Bottom, Cowtown and Pipetown, contributed many warm bodies to the city jail, with fewer police on the local beat, Uniontown merchants were left more or less defenseless. They wanted protection, too. Francis Allen was known in the community and thought to be an ideal candidate to join the police force. He was born in Maryland in 1845 but had moved into the District during the war, where he served with the D.C. Volunteers for three years before being honorably discharged. He was thirty-two and employed as a streetcar driver when he filled out his initial application in 1877 to join the force.

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