Frederick Douglass Dbq

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Suppressing black votes is not only a thing of the past. In the early 1840’s, Frederick Douglass became a registered voter in Massachusetts. He escaped slavery from Maryland travelling to New York and then to New Bedford. Before becoming a public figure in American history, he was had committed voter fraud, using an assumed name. Being an illegal immigrant and a fugitive slave in Massachusetts, it was necessary for him to be registered under a new name as it is against the law. He owned only two “legal” documents and his address to prove that he is eligible to vote. Douglass said that a fugitive slave had to change names from to time to stay survive and honesty was out of the question. There were only 5 states in the North that allowed “free”

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