Author Notes
A cinquain is a five line poem with syllable count of 2/4/6/8/2. The title is considered a significant sixth line.
Twenty year old Frederick Douglass, a slave in Maryland, had made escape attempts before, but on September 3, 1838, he finally succeeded when he boarded a train North while disguised as a free black seaman. In the years leading to the Civil War, he became one of the most eloquent and well-known voices for abolition, writing books about his experience as a slave and delivering hundreds of speeches that stirred others to freedom's cause. He became known as the lion of the abolition movement and also championed causes such as Women's Suffrage and Irish Home Rule. After the War he continued to fight for the rights of African Americans and all oppressed peoples. If the pen and the spoken word are indeed, mightier than the sword, he was carrying the sword of freedom with him that fateful day when he made his way beyond the boundaries of slavery.
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