Navigation

1818-1895

The son of a slave woman and an unknown white man, “Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey” was born in Maryland in 1818. In his early years, he witnessed firsthand the dreadful conditions of slavery and experienced whippings, cold, and hunger. At age eight, he was sent to Baltimore, where he learned to read, and heard the word “abolitionist” for the first time. After seven relatively comfortable years in Baltimore, he was sent to a “slavebreaker” in the country where he was whipped daily and broken in body and spirit.

He eventually escaped from Maryland, and married under the name Frederick Douglass to Anna Murray, a free African-American. He settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he joined a black church, attended abolitionist meetings, and subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison's weekly journal, the Liberator. Douglass became a lecturer for three years with the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, a move which began his life long career. He also participated in the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, the birth place of the American feminist movement.

Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, in 1845. The book became an immediate best-seller and is still his most famous work. In addition to two other versions of his autobiography, Douglass edited the abolitionist newspaper, The North Star, from 1847 to 1851.

In 1851, Douglass announced his view that the U.S. Constitution was not a pro-slavery document and could “be wielded in behalf of emancipation.” He supported maintaining the Union, as he believed its dissolution would isolate slaves in the South. He conferred with President Lincoln during the war on the treatment of black soldiers and recruited blacks from the north for the Union Army. After the War, Douglass continued to work for the rights of women and African Americans.

Photo – Public Domain: Frederick Douglas