no answer until I prayed with my legs. . He traveled to New York where he worked on whaling ships while avoiding slave catchers. He adopted the surname Douglass on the suggestion of his friend, Nathan Johnson, who was inspired by a character in Sir Walter Scott’s poem The Lady of the Lake. (6) Speaking at the August 1841 convention of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society on Nantucket Island, Douglass garnered the attention of leading abolitionists, catapulting him into a speaking tour of northern states, where he and his fellow speakers often endured verbal and physical abuse. (7) Douglass supported women’s rights. He attended the renowned Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, supporting the inclusion of a landmark resolution that demanded the right for all women to vote. (8) His groundbreaking autobiographies, including Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881), provided detailed accounts of the life of an enslaved individual, the struggles to escape, and the fight for freedom. His abolitionist newspaper, the North Star , promoted freedom for slaves domestically and abroad. These writings not only exposed the brutalities of slavery, but also dispelled myths about African American inferiority. (9) Douglass spoke forcefully about human oppression. On August 3rd, 1857, he delivered an address in Canandaigua, New York, emphasizing the work required to win freedom. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground