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What is the Frederick Douglass Isaac Myers Maritime Park?
The Maritime Park is a national heritage site that highlights
- African American maritime history
- The saga of Frederick Douglass’s life in Baltimore as an enslaved child and young man
- The life of Isaac Myers, a free born African American who became a national leader
- The founding of the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company
- The establishment of the African American Community in Baltimore during the 1800’s
- Shipbuilding traditions of the Chesapeake bay
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What can I do at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park?
Almost 5, 000 square feet of gallery space, divided into permanent and temporary galleries and interactive learning centers where an engaging visitor experience is created through
- Historic maps and images
- Artistic Renderings
- Audio Components
- Historic artifacts
- Archaeological findings
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Did you know?
Did you know... The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park is where history actually happened?
- Frederick Douglass lived and worked on the Baltimore docks
- He purchased his first book a block away
- He met and courted his wife in the Fell’s Point community
Did you know... The First African American owned and operated shipyard was only a few yards from this historic warehouse door?
Did you know... The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park combines living history and interactive activities?
- You can see, learn, participate and make memories here
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What is the Douglass-Myers Maritime Park site logo?
The Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park is represented by the sankofa (sang-ko-fah) bird along with a ship, the Living Classrooms Foundation symbol
Fast facts about the Sankofa bird and Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park logo
- The sankofa symbol is drawn from an actual bird that lived in West Africa centuries ago
- The sankofa bird walked forward while looking back to acknowledge where it had been
- In the modern day the sankofa bird is a widely recognized West African Adrinkra symbol, which translated means “return and get it”
- It is a symbol of learning from the past
- At the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park—visitors are encouraged to understand past challenges and obstacles as learning tools, which will equip them to master the future
- The ship in the center of the sankofa bird is a Living Classrooms Foundation symbol recognizing schooner Lady Maryland. It represents opportunities where people of all ages are invited to “Learn By Doing,” The Living Classroom Foundation mission for the past twenty-one years
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About Frederick Douglass
| February |
1818 |
Born Frederick Bailey near Easton, Maryland |
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1824 |
Works for Captain Aaron Anthony |
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1826 |
Travels to Baltimore, Maryland to work for Hugh Auld |
| March |
1833 |
Returns to Anthony farm to work for Thomas Auld |
| January |
1834 |
Works for Edward Covey |
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1835 |
Works for William Freeland |
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1836 |
First escape plan fails; is imprisoned; sent back to Hugh |
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1837 |
Meets Anna Murray |
| September |
1838 |
Escapes to New York; sends for and marries Anna Murray; changes name to Frederick Douglass |
| August |
1841 |
Asked to speak at American Anti-Slavery Society meeting;invited to go on lecture tour |
| May |
1845 |
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is published; Douglass begins tour of England |
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1847 |
Returns to the United States and begins lecture tour |
| December |
1847 |
Begins printing the North Star |
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1848 |
Attends first women's rights convention |
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1850 |
Becomes involved in the underground railroad |
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1851 |
Breaks with William Garrison |
| November |
1859 |
Sails to England to begin lecture tour |
| May |
1860 |
Returns to the United States |
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1863 |
Meets with President Abraham Lincoln to discuss the treatment of black soldiers during the Civil War |
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1864 |
Meets with Lincoln to formulate plans to lead blacks out of the South in case of a Union defeat |
| February |
1866 |
Meets with President Andrew Johnson to discuss black suffrage. |
| July |
1867 |
Declines Johnson's offer to head Freedman's Bureau |
| May |
1870 |
The Fifteenth Amendment is adopted and blacks are granted the right to vote; becomes editor of the New National Era
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1874 |
Becomes president of the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company |
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1877 |
Becomes U.S. Marshal |
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1880 |
Appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, D.C. |
| August |
1882 |
Anna Douglass dies |
| January |
1884 |
Douglass marries Helen Pitts of Rochester |
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1889 |
Accepts post of American consul-general to Haiti |
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1891 |
Resigns post and returns home |
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1895 |
Dies in Washington, D.C. |
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About Isaac Myers
| 1835 |
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, to free parents |
| 1851 |
Apprentices as a ship caulker to James Jackson |
| 1855 |
Hired to supervise one of the largest shipyards in Baltimore’s harbor
Marries Emma V. (full name unknown), the mother of his three children |
| 1860 |
Begins work as a shipping clerk and chief porter for Woods, Bridges and Company, a wholesale grocery firm |
| 1864 |
Runs his own store |
| 1865 |
Returns to the shipyards and experiences a strike protesting black labor in the maritime industry
Helps form a union of “colored mechanics”
Serves as president of the Baltimore’s Colored Caulker’s Trade Union Society [BCCTUA]; works to better the BCCTUA’s relationship with white labor organizations |
| 1866 |
Myers and 15 other well-known Afro-American men convene at the Sharp Street UM auxiliary hall; they work together to form the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Company [CRDDC] (first known as the Maryland Mutual Joint Stock Company and the John Smith Company) |
| 1868 |
The Chesapeake Railway and Dry Dock Marina [CRDDM] is chartered and continues to function through 1884 |
| 1869 |
Myers is one of nine black delegates to attend the National Labor Movement Convention
Creates the Colored National Labor Union and is elected as the first president |
| 1870 |
Becomes the second Afro-American in Maryland’s history to receive federal appointment as a messenger to the customs service in Baltimore |
| 1872 |
Becomes supervisor for the Postal office in the South |
| 1879 |
Myers returns to Baltimore and opens a coal yard |
| 1882 |
Founds the small weekly newspaper The Colored Citizen |
| 1888 |
Serves as Secretary of the Baltimore Republican Campaign Committee
Elected president of the Colored Business Association of Baltimore, and of the Colored Building and Loan Association, as well as president of the “Aged Ministers’ Home” of the Bethel AME Church and the Maryland Colored State Industrial Fair Association
Serves as grand master of a Masonic order and the superintendent of the Bethel AME Church
Publishes a three-act drama entitled “The Missionary” |
| 1891 |
Myers dies in Baltimore |
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Frequently Asked Questions
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