Turning Point Reaction In August 1841, at an abolitionist meeting in New Bedford, the 23-year-old Douglass saw his hero and his “true friend”, William Lloyd Garrison, for the first time. A few days later, Douglass spoke before the crowd attending the annual meeting of the Massachusetts branch of the American Anti-Slavery Society. Garrison immediately recognized Douglass's potential as a speaker, and hired him to be an agent for the society. As a traveling lecturer accompanying other …showed first 75 words of 514 total…

…showed last 75 words of 514 total…traveled with other abolitionists to lectures through Massachusetts. Introduced as "a piece of property" or "a graduate from that peculiar institution, with his diploma written on his back," he launched into telling stories of his vivid memories of the years in slavery. Many of his friends in New Bedford thought that the publicity was dangerous for him, but he was careful to omit details that would identify him as the fugitive slave Frederick Baily (Douglass).