Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Summary Label

Self-emancipated abolitionist writer, public speaker, and diplomat.

Frederick Douglass was a freedman abolitionist born from Maryland, who ultimately fled slavery to New York. Douglass was an accomplished writer and was often praised for his powerful speeches about the evils of slavery.

Title

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

Date of Birth

February 1818

Date of Death

February 20th, 1895

gender

Male

Hometown or Region

Baltimore, Maryland

Freedom Status

Transition

Occupation

Abolitionist, Public Speaker & United States Minister Resident to Haiti

Biography

Frederick Douglass was born in Talbot County, Maryland as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. Today Douglass is known as anti-slavery abolitionist, writer and government official for the United States. He was separated by his family at the age of six to live and work on the Wye House plantation, owned by the Aulds. It wasn’t until later in his life that he would fall in love with a freedwoman, Anna Murray, who supported him in escaping freedom. Douglass would board a train heading for Havre de Grace, Maryland. Using a sailor's clothes and papers, he crossed the Susquehanna River, to get to Philadelphia (considered to be starkly anti-slavery) and from there he would primarily live in New York. He would then become an accomplished writer and public speaker, criticizing the institution of slavery and retelling his story as an enslaved man. Douglass joined abolitionists groups active in the underground railroad and would host a station in his own home. He wrote multiple autobiographies, leading to book tours across England and Ireland, and owned a publishing house for his anti-slavery newspaper The North Star. During the years of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass encouraged African Americans to fight in the war due to its root being in the question of slavery. He met with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 to address the issues regarding the treatment of black soldiers who fought with the Union. In his later years of life, Douglass would be appointed the resident minister to the Republic of Haiti.

Click here to review the map on Frederick Douglass

Connected Historical Actor(s)

William Lloyd Garrison, Harriet Tubman, John Brown & Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Student Researcher

Zhuri Price