After escaping fromslavery in Maryland in 1838, Douglass became a national leader of theabolitionist movement inMassachusetts andNew York and gained fame for his oratory[5] and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to claims by supporters of slavery that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.[6]Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.[7]
Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as an enslaved person in hisNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book,My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). Following theCivil War, Douglass was an active campaigner for the rights of freed slaves and wrote his last autobiography,Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, the book covers his life up to those dates. Douglass also actively supportedwomen's suffrage, and he held several public offices. Without his knowledge or consent, Douglass became the first African American nominated for vice president of the United States,as the running mate ofVictoria Woodhull on theEqual Rights Party ticket.[8]
Douglass believed indialogue and in making alliances across racial and ideological divides, as well as, after breaking withWilliam Lloyd Garrison, in theanti-slavery interpretation of theU.S. Constitution.[9] When radical abolitionists, under the motto "No Union with Slaveholders", criticized Douglass's willingness to engage in dialogue with slave owners, he replied: "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."[10]
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born intoslavery on theEastern Shore of theChesapeake Bay inTalbot County, Maryland. Theplantation was betweenHillsboro andCordova;[11] his birthplace was likely his grandmother's cabin[b] east of Tappers Corner and west ofTuckahoe Creek.[12][13][14] In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it."[15] In successive autobiographies, he gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817.[11] However, based on the extant records of Douglass's former owner, Aaron Anthony, historian Dickson J. Preston determined that Douglass was born in February 1818.[3] Though the exact date of his birth is unknown, he chose to celebrate February 14 as his birthday, remembering that his mother called him her "LittleValentine".[1][16]
Douglass's enslaved mother was ofAfrican descent and his father, who may have been her master, was apparently of European descent;[17] in hisNarrative (1845), Douglass wrote: "My father was a white man."[11] According toDavid W. Blight's 2018 biography of Douglass, "For the rest of his life he searched in vain for the name of his true father."[18] Douglass's genetic heritage likely also included Native American.[19] Douglass said his mother Harriet Bailey gave him his name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and, after he escaped to the North in September 1838, he took the surnameDouglass, having already dropped his two middle names.[20]
He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother:[21]
The opinion was also whispered that my master was my father; but of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing. ... My mother and I were separated when I was but an infant. ... It is a common custom, in the part of Maryland from which I ran away, to part children from their mothers at a very early age. ... I do not recollect of ever seeing my mother by the light of day. She was with me in the night. She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone.
After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with hismaternal grandmother Betsy Bailey, who was also enslaved, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who wasfree.[22] Betsy would live until 1849.[23] Frederick's mother remained on the plantation about 12 miles (19 km) away, visiting Frederick only a few times before her death when he was 7 years old.
Returning much later, about 1883, to purchase land in Talbot County that was meaningful to him, he was invited to address "a colored school":
I once knew a little colored boy whose mother and father died when he was six years old. He was a slave and had no one to care for him. He slept on a dirt floor in a hovel, and in cold weather would crawl into a meal bag head foremost and leave his feet in the ashes to keep them warm. Often he would roast an ear of corn and eat it to satisfy his hunger, and many times has he crawled under the barn or stable and secured eggs, which he would roast in the fire and eat.
That boy did not wear pants like you do, but a tow linen shirt. Schools were unknown to him, and he learned to spell from an old Webster's spelling-book and to read and write from posters on cellar and barn doors, while boys and men would help him. He would then preach and speak, and soon became well known. He became Presidential Elector, United States Marshal, United States Recorder, United States diplomat, and accumulated some wealth. He wore broadcloth and didn't have to divide crumbs with the dogs under the table. That boy was Frederick Douglass.[24]
At the age of 6, Douglass was separated from his grandparents and moved to theWye Houseplantation, where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer[14] andEdward Lloyd was his unofficial master.[25] After Anthony died in 1826, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas's brother Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia Auld inBaltimore. From the day he arrived, Sophia saw to it that Douglass was properly fed and clothed, and that he slept in a bed with sheets and a blanket.[26] Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him "as she supposed one human being ought to treat another."[27] Douglass felt that he was lucky to be in the city, where he said enslaved people were almostfreemen, compared to those on plantations.
When Douglass was about 12, Sophia Auld began teaching him thealphabet. Hugh Auld disapproved of the tutoring, feeling thatliteracy would encourage enslaved people to desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedlyantislavery lecture" he had ever heard. "'Very well, thought I,'" wrote Douglass. "'Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.' I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom."[28]
Under her husband's influence, Sophia came to believe that education and slavery were incompatible and one day snatched a newspaper away from Douglass.[29] She stopped teaching him altogether and hid all potential reading materials, including her Bible, from him.[26] In his autobiography, Douglass related how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked.[30]
Douglass continued, secretly, to teach himself to read and write. He later often said, "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom."[31] As Douglass began to read newspapers, pamphlets, political materials, and books of every description, this new realm of thought led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass creditedThe Columbian Orator, an anthology that he discovered at about age 12, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. First published in 1797, the book is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches, and dialogues, to assist students in learning reading and grammar. He later learned that his mother had also been literate, about which he would later declare:
I am quite willing, and even happy, to attribute any love of letters I possess, and for which I have got—despite of prejudices—only too much credit,not to my admitted Anglo-Saxon paternity, but to the native genius of my sable, unprotected, and uncultivatedmother—a woman, who belonged to a race whose mental endowments it is, at present, fashionable to hold in disparagement and contempt.[32]
When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he "gathered eventually more than thirty male slaves on Sundays, and sometimes even on weeknights, in a Sabbath literacy school."[33]
In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a]s a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker". Hewhipped Douglass so frequently that his wounds had little time to heal. Douglass later said the frequent whippings broke his body, soul, and spirit.[34] The 16-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again.[35][36]
Recounting his beatings at Covey's farm inNarrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass described himself as "a man transformed into a brute!"[37] Still, Douglass came to see his physical fight with Covey as life-transforming, and he introduced the story in his autobiography as such: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."[38]
Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him from his owner, but was unsuccessful. In 1837, Douglass met and fell in love withAnna Murray, afree black woman in Baltimore about five years his senior. Her free status strengthened his belief in the possibility of gaining his own freedom. Murray encouraged him and supported his efforts by aid and money.[39]
On September 3, 1838, Douglass successfully escaped by boarding a northbound train of thePhiladelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad in Baltimore.[40] The area where he boarded was formerly thought to be a short distance east of the train depot, in a recently developed neighborhood between the modern neighborhoods ofHarbor East andLittle Italy. This depot was at President and Fleet Streets, east of"The Basin" of theBaltimore harbor, on the northwest branch of thePatapsco River. Research cited in 2021, however, suggests that Douglass in fact boarded the train at the Canton Depot of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad on Boston Street, in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore, further east.[41][42][43]
Douglass reachedHavre de Grace, Maryland, inHarford County, in the northeast corner of the state, along the southwest shore of theSusquehanna River, which flowed into theChesapeake Bay. Although this placed him only some 20 miles (32 km) from the Maryland–Pennsylvania state line, it was easier to continue by rail through Delaware, another slave state. Dressed in a sailor'suniform provided to him by Murray, who also gave him part of her savings to cover his travel costs, he carried identification papers andprotection papers that he had obtained from a free black seaman.[39][44][45]
Douglass crossed the wide Susquehanna River by the railroad's steam-ferry at Havre de Grace toPerryville on the opposite shore, inCecil County, then continued by train across the state line toWilmington, Delaware, a large port at the head of theDelaware Bay. From there, because the rail line was not yet completed, he went bysteamboat along theDelaware River farther northeast to the "Quaker City" ofPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, an anti-slavery stronghold. He continued to the safe house of abolitionistDavid Ruggles inNew York City. His entire journey to freedom took less than 24 hours.[46] Douglass later wrote of his arrival in New York City:
I have often been asked, how I felt when first I found myself on free soil. And my readers may share the same curiosity. There is scarcely anything in my experience about which I could not give a more satisfactory answer. A new world had opened upon me. If life is more than breath, and the 'quick round of blood,' I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. It was a time of joyous excitement which words can but tamely describe. In a letter written to a friend soon after reaching New York, I said: 'I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions.' Anguish and grief, like darkness and rain, may be depicted; but gladness and joy, like the rainbow, defy the skill of pen or pencil.[47]
Once Douglass had arrived, he sent for Murray to follow him north to New York. She brought the basic supplies for them to set up a home. They were married on September 15, 1838, by a blackPresbyterian minister, just eleven days after Douglass had reached New York.[46] At first they adopted Johnson as their married name, to divert attention.[39]
As a child, Douglass was exposed to a number of religious sermons, and in his youth, he sometimes heard Sophia Auld reading theBible. In time, he wanted to learn to read; he began copying bible verses, and he eventuallyconverted to Christianity.[48][49] He described this approach in his last biography,Life and Times of Frederick Douglass:
I was not more than thirteen years old when, in my loneliness and destitution, I longed for some one to whom I could go, as to a father and protector. The preaching of a white Methodist minister, named Hanson, was the means of causing me to feel that in God I had such a friend. He thought that all men, great and small, bond and free, were sinners in the sight of God: that they were but natural rebels against his government; and that they must repent of their sins, and be reconciled to God through Christ. I cannot say that I had a very distinct notion of what was required of me, but one thing I did know well: I was wretched and had no means of making myself otherwise. I consulted a good coloured man named Charles Lawson, and in tones of holy affection he told me to pray, and to "cast all my care upon God." This I sought to do; and though for weeks I was a poor, broken-hearted mourner, traveling through doubts and fears, I finally found my burden lightened, and my heart relieved. I loved all mankind, slaveholders not excepted, though I abhorred slavery more than ever. I saw the world in a new light, and my great concern was to have everybody converted. My desire to learn increased, and especially did I want a thorough acquaintance with the contents of the Bible.[50][51]
Douglass was mentored by Rev. Charles Lawson, and, early in his activism, he often included biblical allusions and religious metaphors in his speeches. Although a believer, he strongly criticized religious hypocrisy[52] and accused slaveholders of "wickedness", lack of morality, and failure to follow theGolden Rule. In this sense, Douglass distinguished between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of America" and considered religious slaveholders and clergymen who defended slavery as the most brutal, sinful, and cynical of all who represented "wolves in sheep's clothing".[49][53]
InWhat to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, an oration Douglass gave in 1852 at the Corinthian Hall of Rochester,[54] he sharply criticized the attitude of religious people who kept silent about slavery, and he charged that ministers committed a "blasphemy" when they taught it as sanctioned by religion. He considered that a law passed to support slavery was "one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty" and said that pro-slavery clergymen within the American Church "stripped the love of God of its beauty, and leave the throne of religion a huge, horrible, repulsive form", and "an abomination in the sight of God".[52]
Of ministers like John Chase Lord, Leonard Elijah Lathrop,Ichabod Spencer, andOrville Dewey, he said that they taught, against the Scriptures, that "we ought to obey man's law before the law of God". He further asserted, "in speaking of the American church, however, let it be distinctly understood that I mean the great mass of the religious organizations of our land. There are exceptions, and I thank God that there are. Noble men may be found, scattered all over these Northern States ...Henry Ward Beecher of Brooklyn,Samuel J. May of Syracuse, and my esteemed friend [Rev. R. R. Raymond]".[52]
He maintained that "upon these men lies the duty to inspire our ranks with high religious faith and zeal, and to cheer us on in the great mission of the slave's redemption from his chains". In addition, he called religious people to embrace abolitionism, stating, "let the religious press, the pulpit, the Sunday school, the conference meeting, the great ecclesiastical, missionary, Bible and tract associations of the land array their immense powers against slavery and slave-holding; and the whole system of crime and blood would be scattered to the winds."[52]
During his visits to the United Kingdom between 1846 and 1848, Douglass asked British Christians never to support American churches that permitted slavery,[55] and he expressed his happiness to know that a group of ministers in Belfast had refused to admit slaveholders as members of the Church.
On his return to the United States, Douglass founded theNorth Star, a weekly publication with the motto "Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren."[56] In his 1848 "Letter to Thomas Auld", Douglass denounced his former slaveholder for leaving Douglass's family illiterate:
Your wickedness and cruelty committed in this respect on your fellow-creatures, are greater than all the stripes you have laid upon my back, or theirs. It is an outrage upon the soul—a war upon the immortal spirit, and one for which you must give account at the bar of our common Father and Creator.[57]
Sometimes considered a precursor of anon-denominationalliberation theology,[58][59] Douglass was a deeply spiritual man, as his home continues to show. The fireplace mantle features busts of two of his favorite philosophers,David Friedrich Strauss, author ofThe Life of Jesus, andLudwig Feuerbach, author ofThe Essence of Christianity. In addition to several Bibles and books about various religions in the library, images of angels and Jesus are displayed, as well as interior and exterior photographs of Washington'sMetropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church.[60] Throughout his life, Douglass had linked that individual experience with social reform, and, according toJohn Stauffer, he, like other Christian abolitionists, "tried to live righteously, abstaining from tobacco, alcohol and other perceived sins that corrupted body and soul".[61] Douglass stated himself that he was ateetotaler.[62] According toDavid W. Blight, however, "Douglass loved cigars" and received them as gifts fromOttilie Assing.[63]
Douglass praised theagnostic oratorRobert G. Ingersoll, whom Douglass met inPeoria, Illinois, stating, "Genuine goodness is the same, whether found inside or outside the church, and that to be an 'infidel' no more proves a man to be selfish, mean and wicked than to be evangelical proves him to be honest, just and human. Perhaps there were Christian ministers and Christian families in Peoria at that time by whom I might have been received in the same gracious manner ... but in my former visits to this place I had failed to meet them".[64]
Anna Douglass remained a loyal supporter of her husband's public work. His relationships withJulia Griffiths andOttilie Assing, two women with whom he was professionally involved, caused recurring speculation and scandals.[65] Assing was a journalist recently immigrated from Germany, who first visited Douglass in 1856 seeking permission to translateMy Bondage and My Freedom into German. Until 1872, she often stayed at his house "for several months at a time" as his "intellectual and emotional companion".[66]
Assing held Anna Douglass "in utter contempt" and was vainly hoping that Douglass would separate from his wife. Douglass biographer David W. Blight concludes that Assing and Douglass "were probably lovers".[66] Though Douglass and Assing are widely believed to have had an intimate relationship, the surviving correspondence contains no proof of such a relationship.[67]
Anna died in 1882. In 1884, Douglass marriedHelen Pitts, a white suffragist and abolitionist fromHoneoye, New York. Pitts was the daughter of Gideon Pitts Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass's. A graduate ofMount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary), Pitts worked on a radical feminist publication namedAlpha while living in Washington, D.C. She later worked as Douglass's secretary.[68]
Assing, who had depression and was diagnosed with incurable breast cancer, committed suicide in France in 1884 after hearing of the marriage.[69] Upon her death, Assing bequeathed Douglass a $13,000trust fund (equivalent to $455,000 in 2024), a "large album", and his choice of books from her library.[70]
The marriage of Douglass and Pitts provoked a storm of controversy, since Pitts was both white and nearly 20 years younger. Many in her family stopped speaking to her; his children considered the marriage a repudiation of their mother. But feministElizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the couple.[71] Douglass responded to the criticisms by saying that his first marriage had been to someone the color of his mother, and his second to someone the color of his father.[72]
Frederick Douglass andAnna Murray Douglass settled inNew Bedford, Massachusetts (anabolitionist center, full of former enslaved people), in 1838, moving toLynn, Massachusetts, in 1841.[73] After meeting and staying withNathan and Mary Johnson, they adopted Douglass as their married name.[39] Douglass had grown up using his mother's surname of Bailey; after escaping slavery he had changed his surname first to Stanley and then to Johnson. In New Bedford, the latter was such a common name that he wanted one that was more distinctive, and asked Nathan Johnson to choose a suitable surname. Nathan suggested "Douglass", after having read the poemThe Lady of the Lake byWalter Scott, in which two of the principal characters have the surname "Douglas".[74][75]
Thehome and meetinghouse of the Johnsons, where Douglass and his wife lived in New Bedford, Massachusetts
Douglass also joined several organizations in New Bedford and regularly attended abolitionist meetings. He subscribed toWilliam Lloyd Garrison's weekly newspaper,The Liberator. He later said that "no face and form ever impressed me with such sentiments [of the hatred of slavery] as did those of William Lloyd Garrison." So deep was this influence that in his last autobiography, Douglass said "his paper took a place in my heart second only toThe Bible."[78]
Although Garrison's ideas shaped Douglass's early activism, Douglass soon developed his own political views. Charles H. T. Lesch has shown that Douglass created a theory, which Lesch calls "natural rights from below", based on the experiences of enslaved people.[79] Instead of relying on ideas from European philosophers, Douglass argued that, in order to understand freedom and equality, they must be seen from the perspective of those to whom they had been denied.
Douglass's activism extended beyond abolition. He supported equal rights not only for African Americans but also for women, immigrants and poor people. His speeches and writings called for fairness and dignity for everyone which shows his belief in universal human rights, as it is shown in studies like "Frederick Douglass, Supporter of Equal Rights for All People."
In many of his speeches, Douglass exposed the gap between America's promises of freedom and the reality of slavery and racism. Scholars likeEduardo Cadava have made connections between Douglass's work to modern criticism of human rights, which shows how he challenged the ways the ways powerful groups such as American Democracy sometimes use rights to hide injustice.
Garrison was likewise impressed with Douglass and had written about his anti-colonization stance inThe Liberator as early as 1839. Douglass first heard Garrison speak in 1841, at a lecture that Garrison gave in Liberty Hall, New Bedford. At another meeting, Douglass was unexpectedly invited to speak. After telling his story, Douglass was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. A few days later, Douglass spoke at theMassachusetts Anti-Slavery Society's annual convention, inNantucket. Then 23 years old, Douglass conquered his nervousness and gave an eloquent speech about his life as a slave.
While living in Lynn, Douglass engaged in an early protest against segregated transportation. In September 1841, atLynn Central Square station, Douglass and his friendJames N. Buffum were thrown off anEastern Railroad train because Douglass refused to sit in the segregated railroad coach.[73][80][81][82]
In 1843, Douglass joined other speakers in theAmerican Anti-Slavery Society's "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month tour at meeting halls throughout theeastern andmidwestern United States. During this tour, slavery supporters frequently accosted Douglass. At a lecture inPendleton, Indiana, an angry mob chased and beat Douglass before a local Quaker family, the Hardys, rescued him. His hand was broken in the attack; it healed improperly and bothered him for the rest of his life.[83] A stone marker in Falls Park in thePendleton Historic District commemorates this event.
In 1847, Douglass explained to Garrison, "I have no love for America, as such; I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I? The Institutions of this Country do not know me – do not recognize me as a man."[84]
Douglass's best-known work is his first autobiography,Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written during his time inLynn, Massachusetts[85] and published in 1845. At the time, some skeptics questioned whether a black man could have produced such an eloquent piece of literature. The book received generally positive reviews and became an immediate bestseller. Within three years, it had been reprinted nine times, with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States. It was also translated into French andDutch and published in Europe.
Douglass published three autobiographies during his lifetime (and revised the third of these), each time expanding on the previous one. The 1845Narrative was his biggest seller and probably allowed him to raise the funds to gain his legal freedom the following year, as discussed below. In 1855, Douglass publishedMy Bondage and My Freedom. In 1881, in his sixties, Douglass publishedLife and Times of Frederick Douglass, which he revised in 1892.
Plaque to Frederick Douglass, West Bell St., Dundee, ScotlandDouglass in 1847, around 29 years of age33 Gilmore Place inEdinburgh, where Douglass lived in 1846
Douglass's friends and mentors feared that the publicity would draw the attention of his ex-owner, Hugh Auld, who might try to get his "property" back. They encouraged Douglass to tour Ireland, as many former slaves had done. Douglass set sail on theCambria forLiverpool, England, on August 16, 1845. He traveled in Ireland as theGreat Famine was beginning.
Eleven days and a half gone, and I have crossed three thousand miles of the perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft, grey fog of the Emerald Isle [Ireland]. I breathe, and lo! the chattel [slave] becomes a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab—I am seated beside white people—I reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown into the same parlor—I dine at the same table—and no one is offended.... I find myself regarded and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people. When I go to church, I am met by no upturned nose and scornful lip to tell me,'We don't allow niggers in here!'
Still, Douglass was astounded by the extreme levels of poverty he encountered in Dublin, much of it reminding him of his experiences in slavery. In a letter toWilliam Lloyd Garrison, Douglass wrote "I see much here to remind me of my former condition, and I confess I should be ashamed to lift up my voice against American slavery, but that I know the cause of humanity is one the world over. He who really and truly feels for the American slave, cannot steel his heart to the woes of others; and he who thinks himself an abolitionist, yet cannot enter into the wrongs of others, has yet to find a true foundation for his anti-slavery faith."[87]
Douglass spent two years in Ireland and Great Britain, lecturing in churches and chapels. His draw was such that some facilities were "crowded to suffocation". One example was his hugely popularLondon Reception Speech, which Douglass delivered in May 1846 atAlexander Fletcher'sFinsbury Chapel. Douglass remarked that in England he was treated not "as a color, but as a man".[92]
In 1846, Douglass met withThomas Clarkson, one of the last living Britishabolitionists, who had persuaded Parliament to abolish slavery in Great Britain's colonies.[93] During this trip Douglass became legally free, as British supporters led byAnna Richardson and her sister-in-law Ellen ofNewcastle upon Tyne raised funds to buy his freedom from his American owner Thomas Auld.[92][94] Many supporters tried to encourage Douglass to remain in England but, with his wife still in Massachusetts and three million of his black brethren in bondage in the United States, he returned to America in the spring of 1847,[92] soon after the death of Daniel O'Connell.[95]
In the 21st century, historical plaques were installed on buildings inCork andWaterford, Ireland, and London to celebrate Douglass's visit: the first is on the Imperial Hotel in Cork and was unveiled on August 31, 2012; the second is on the façade of Waterford City Hall, unveiled on October 7, 2013. It commemorates his speech there on October 9, 1845.[96] The third plaque adornsNell Gwynn House,South Kensington in London, at the site of an earlier house where Douglass stayed with the British abolitionistGeorge Thompson.[97] On July 31, 2023, the first statue of him in Europe was unveiled in High Street inBelfast.[98]
Douglass spent time in Scotland and was appointed "Scotland's Antislavery agent".[99] He made anti-slavery speeches and wrote letters back to the US. He considered the city of Edinburgh to be elegant, grand and very welcoming. Maps of the places in the city that were important to his stay are held by the National Library of Scotland.[100][101] A plaque and a mural at 33 Gilmore Place inEdinburgh mark his stay there in 1846.
"A variety of collaborative projects are currently [in 2021] underway to commemorate Frederick Douglass's journey and visit to Ireland in the 19th century."[102]
Return to the United States; the abolitionist movement
After returning to the U.S. in 1847, using £500 (equivalent to $57,716 in 2023) given to him by English supporters,[92] Douglass started publishing his first abolitionist newspaper, theNorth Star, from the basement of the Memorial AME Zion Church inRochester, New York.[103] Originally,Pittsburgh journalistMartin Delany was co-editor but Douglass didn't feel he brought in enough subscriptions, and they parted ways.[104][page needed] TheNorth Star's motto was "Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren."[105] The AME Church andNorth Star joined in the freedmen community's vigorous opposition to the mostly whiteAmerican Colonization Society and its proposal tosend free black people to Africa. Douglass also participated in theUnderground Railroad. He and his wife provided lodging and resources in their home to more than four hundred fugitive slaves.[105]
Douglass also soon split with Garrison, whom he found unwilling to support actions against American slavery.[106] Earlier Douglass had agreed with Garrison's position that the Constitution was pro-slavery, because ofthe Three-Fifths Clause, the compromise that provided that 60 percent of the number of enslaved people would be added to "the whole Number of free Persons"[107] for the purpose of apportioning congressional seats; and protection of the international slave trade through 1807. Garrison had burned copies of the Constitution to express his opinion. However,Lysander Spooner publishedThe Unconstitutionality of Slavery (1846), which examined theUnited States Constitution as an antislavery document. Douglass's change of opinion about the Constitution and his splitting from Garrison around 1847 became one of the abolitionist movement's most notable divisions. Douglass angered Garrison by saying that the Constitution could and should be used as an instrument in the fight against slavery.[108]
On July 24, 1851, "shortly after his announced change of opinion", Douglass delivered a speech titled, "Is the United States Constitution For or Against Slavery".[109] He expressed his changed views again in an 1860 speech in Glasgow, Scotland, titled, "The Constitution of the United States: is it pro-slavery or anti-slavery?". In that speech, he said, "When I escaped from slavery, and was introduced to the Garrisonians, I adopted very many of their opinions.... I was young, had read but little, and naturally took some things on trust. Subsequent reading and experience", however, "brought me to other conclusions". He now believed that "dissolution of the American Union", which Garrison advocated, "would place the slave system more exclusively under the control of the slaveholding States...." In addition, "Mr. Garrison and his friends tell us that while in the Union we are responsible for slavery.... I deny that going out of the Union would free us from that responsibility.... The American people in the Northern States have helped to enslave the black people. Their duty will not be done till they give them back their plundered rights."[110]
In September 1848, on the tenth anniversary of his escape, Douglass published an open letter addressed to his former master, Thomas Auld, berating him for his conduct, and inquiring after members of his family still held by Auld.[111][112] In the course of the letter, Douglass adeptly transitions from formal and restrained to familiar and then to impassioned. At one point he is the proud parent, describing his improved circumstances and the progress of his own four young children. But then he dramatically shifts tone:
Oh! sir, a slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children. It is then that my feelings rise above my control. ... The grim horrors of slavery rise in all their ghastly terror before me, the wails of millions pierce my heart, and chill my blood. I remember the chain, the gag, the bloody whip, the deathlike gloom overshadowing the broken spirit of the fettered bondman, the appalling liability of his being torn away from wife and children, and sold like a beast in the market.[57]
In a graphic passage, Douglass asked Auld how he would feel if Douglass had come to take away his daughter Amanda into slavery, treating her the way he and members of his family had been treated by Auld.[111][112] Yet in his conclusion Douglass shows his focus and benevolence, stating that he has "no malice towards him personally," and asserts that, "there is no roof under which you would be more safe than mine, and there is nothing in my house which you might need for comfort, which I would not readily grant. Indeed, I should esteem it a privilege, to set you an example as to how mankind ought to treat each other."[57]
In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of the government of the world.[116]
After Douglass's powerful words, the attendees passed the resolution.[116][117]
In the wake of the Seneca Falls Convention, Douglass wrote an editorial inThe North Star to press the case for women's rights. He recalled the "marked ability and dignity" of the proceedings and briefly conveyed several arguments of the convention and feminist thought of the time.[citation needed]
On the first count, Douglass acknowledged the "decorum" of the participants in the face of disagreement. In the remainder, he discussed the primary document that emerged from the conference, a Declaration of Sentiments, and the "infant" feminist cause. He criticized opponents of women's rights: "A discussion of the rights of animals would be regarded with far more complacency by many of what are called thewise and thegood of our land, than would be a discussion of the rights of woman."[118] He also noted the link between abolitionism and feminism, the overlap between the communities.
His opinion as the editor of a prominent newspaper carried weight, and he stated the position of theNorth Star explicitly: "We hold woman to be justly entitled to all we claim for man." This letter, written a week after the convention, reaffirmed the first part of the paper's slogan, "right is of no sex."
Memorial Rock at AME Zion, Newburgh, New York
After theCivil War, when the15th Amendment giving black men the right to vote was being debated, Douglass split with the Stanton-led faction of the women's rights movement. Douglass supported the amendment, which would grant suffrage to black men. Stanton opposed the 15th Amendment because it limited the expansion of suffrage to black men; she predicted its passage would delay for decades the cause for women's right to vote. Stanton argued that American women and black men should band together to fight foruniversal suffrage, and opposed any bill that split the issues.[119] Douglass and Stanton both knew that there was not yet enough male support for women's right to vote, but that an amendment giving black men the vote could pass in the late 1860s. Stanton wanted to attach women's suffrage to that of black men so that her cause would be carried to success.[120]
Douglass thought such a strategy was too risky, that there was barely enough support for black men's suffrage. He feared that linking the cause of women's suffrage to that of black men would result in failure for both. Douglass argued that white women, already empowered by their social connections to fathers, husbands, and brothers, at least vicariously had the vote. Black women, he believed, would have the same degree of empowerment as white women once black men had the vote.[120] Douglass assured the American women that at no time had he ever argued against women's right to vote.[121]
Frederick Douglass in 1856, around 38 years of age
In 1850, Douglass was elected the vice president of theAmerican League of Colored Laborers, the first black labor union in the United States, which he had also helped found.[122] Meanwhile, in 1851, he merged theNorth Star withGerrit Smith's Liberty Party paper to formFrederick Douglass' Paper,[123] which was published until 1859.[124]
On July 5, 1852, Douglass delivered an address inCorinthian Hall at a meeting organized by the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. This speech eventually became known as "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?"; one biographer called it "perhaps the greatest antislavery oration ever given."[125] In 1853, he was a prominent attendee of the radical abolitionist National African American Convention in Rochester. Douglass was one of five people whose names were attached to the address of the convention to the people of the United States published under the title,The Claims of Our Common Cause. The other four wereAmos Noë Freeman,James Monroe Whitfield,Henry O. Wagoner, andGeorge Boyer Vashon.[126]
Like many abolitionists, Douglass believed that education would be crucial for African Americans to improve their lives; he was an early advocate forschool desegregation. In the 1850s, Douglass observed that New York's facilities and instruction for African American children were vastly inferior to those for European Americans. Douglass called for court action to open all schools to all children. He said that full inclusion within the educational system was a more pressing need for African Americans than political issues such as suffrage.
On March 12, 1859, Douglass met with radical abolitionistsJohn Brown,George DeBaptiste, and others at William Webb's house in Detroit to discuss emancipation.[127] Douglass met Brown again when Brown visited his home two months before leadingthe raid on Harpers Ferry. Brown penned hisProvisional Constitution during his two-week stay with Douglass. Also staying with Douglass for over a year wasShields Green, a fugitive slave whom Douglass was helping, as he often did.
Shortly before the raid, Douglass, taking Green with him, travelled from Rochester, via New York City, toChambersburg, Pennsylvania, Brown's communications headquarters. He was recognized there by black people, who asked him for a lecture. Douglass agreed, although he said his only topic was slavery. Green joined him on the stage; Brown,incognito, sat in the audience. A white reporter, referring to "Nigger Democracy", called it a "flaming address" by "the notorious Negro Orator".[128]
There, in an abandoned stone quarry for secrecy, Douglass and Green met with Brown andJohn Henri Kagi, to discuss the raid. After discussions lasting, as Douglass put it, "a day and a night", he disappointed Brown by declining to join him, considering the mission suicidal. To Douglass's surprise, Green went with Brown instead of returning to Rochester with Douglass. Anne Brown said that Green told her that Douglass promised to pay him on his return, butDavid Blight called this "much more ex post facto bitterness than reality".[129]
Almost all that is known about this incident comes from Douglass. It is clear that it was of immense importance to him, both as a turning point in his life—not accompanying John Brown—and its importance in his public image. The meeting was not revealed by Douglass for 20 years. He first disclosed it in his speech on John Brown atStorer College in 1881, trying unsuccessfully to raise money to support a John Brown professorship at Storer, to be held by a black man. He again referred to it stunningly in his lastAutobiography.
After the raid, which took place between October 16 and 18, 1859, Douglass was accused both of supporting Brown and of not supporting him enough.[130] He was nearly arrested on a Virginia warrant,[131][132][133] and fled for a brief time to Canada before proceeding onward to England on a previously planned lecture tour, arriving near the end of November.[134] During his lecture tour of Great Britain, on March 26, 1860, Douglass delivered a speech before the Scottish Anti-Slavery Society inGlasgow, "The Constitution of the United States: is it pro-slavery or anti-slavery?", outlining his views on the American Constitution.[135] That month, on the 13th, Douglass's youngest daughter Annie died inRochester, New York, at age 10. Douglass sailed back from England the following month, traveling through Canada to avoid detection.
Years later, in 1881, Douglass shared a stage at Storer College inHarpers Ferry withAndrew Hunter, the prosecutor who secured Brown's conviction and execution. Hunter congratulated Douglass.[136]
Douglass considered photography very important in ending slavery and racism, and believed that the camera would not lie, even in the hands of a racist white person, as photographs were an excellent counter to many racist caricatures, particularly inblackfaceminstrelsy. He was the most photographed American of the 19th century, consciously using photography to advance his political views.[137][138] He never smiled, specifically so as not to play into the racist caricature of a happy enslaved person. He tended to look directly into the camera and confront the viewer with a stern look.[139][140]
By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country, known for his orations on the condition of the black race and on other issues such aswomen's rights. His eloquence gathered crowds at every location. His reception by leaders in England and Ireland added to his stature.
He had been seriously proposed for the congressional seat of his friend and supporterGerrit Smith, who declined to run again after his term ended in 1854.[141][142] Smith recommended to him that he not run, because there were "strenuous objections" from members of Congress.[143] The possibility "afflicted some with convulsions, others with panic, more with an astonishing flow of exceedingly select and nervous language", "giving vent to all sorts of linguistic enormities."[144] If the House agreed to seat him, which was unlikely, all the Southern members would walk out, so the country would finally be split.[142][145] No black person would serve in Congress until 1870, just after the passage of theFifteenth Amendment.
1863 broadsideMen of Color to Arms!, written by Douglass
Douglass and the abolitionists argued that because the aim of the Civil War was to end slavery, African Americans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass publicized this view in his newspapers and several speeches. After Lincoln had finally allowed black soldiers to serve in the Union army, Douglass helped the recruitment efforts, publishing his famous broadsideMen of Color to Arms! on March 21, 1863.[146] His eldest son, Charles Douglass, joined the54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, but was ill for much of his service.[77] Lewis Douglass fought at the Battle ofFort Wagner.[147] Another son, Frederick Douglass Jr., also served as a recruiter.
With the North no longer obliged to return slaves to their owners in the South, Douglass fought for equality for his people. Douglass conferred with PresidentAbraham Lincoln in 1863 on the treatment of black soldiers[148] and on plans to move liberated slaves out of the South.
President Lincoln'sEmancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. (Slaves in Union-held areas were not covered because the proclamation was deemed permissible under the Constitution only as a war measure; they were freed with the adoption of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865.) Douglass described the spirit of those awaiting the proclamation: "We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky ... we were watching ... by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day ... we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries."[149]
During theU.S. Presidential Election of 1864, Douglass supportedJohn C. Frémont, who was the candidate of the abolitionistRadical Democratic Party. Douglass was disappointed that President Lincoln did not publicly endorse suffrage for black freedmen. Douglass believed that since African American men were fighting for the Union, they deserved the right to vote.[150]
The postwar ratification of the13th Amendment, on December 6, 1865, outlawed slavery, "except as a punishment for crime." The14th Amendment provided for birthright citizenship and prohibited the states from abridging the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States or denying any "person" due process of law or equal protection of the laws. The15th Amendment protected all citizens from being discriminated against in voting because of race.[119] After Lincoln had been assassinated, Douglass conferred with PresidentAndrew Johnson on the subject of blacksuffrage.[151]
The keynote speaker at the unveiling of theEmancipation Memorial, Douglass wrote a critique of the depiction of the black man "still on his knees".
On April 14, 1876, Douglass delivered the keynote speech at the unveiling of theEmancipation Memorial in Washington's Lincoln Park. He spoke frankly about the complex legacy of Lincoln, noting what he perceived as both positive and negative attributes of the late President.[152] Calling Lincoln "the white man's President", Douglass criticized Lincoln's tardiness in joining the cause of emancipation, noting that Lincoln initially opposed the expansion of slavery but did not support its elimination: "He had been ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the humanity of the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people. Lincoln was neither our man or our model".[152] But Douglass also asked, "Can any colored man, or any white man friendly to the freedom of all men, ever forget the night which followedthe first day of January 1863, when the world was to see if Abraham Lincoln would prove to be as good as his word?"[153] He also said: "Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery...." Most famously, he added: "Viewed from the genuine abolition ground, Mr. Lincoln seemed tardy, cold, dull, and indifferent; but measuring him by the sentiment of his country, a sentiment he was bound as a statesman to consult, he was swift, zealous, radical, and determined."[152]
The crowd, roused by his speech, gave Douglass a standing ovation. Lincoln's widowMary Lincoln supposedly gave Lincoln's favoritewalking-stick to Douglass in appreciation. That walking stick still rests in his final residence, "Cedar Hill" in Washington, D.C., now preserved as theFrederick Douglass National Historic Site.
After delivering the speech, Douglass immediately wrote to the National Republican newspaper in Washington (which published his letter five days later, on April 19), criticizing the statue's design and suggesting the park could be improved by more dignified monuments of free black people. "The negro here, though rising, is still on his knees and nude," Douglass wrote. "What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the negro, not couchant on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man."[154]
Frederick Douglass in 1876, around 58 years of age
After the Civil War, Douglass continued to work for equality for African Americans and women. Due to his prominence and activism during the war, Douglass received several political appointments. He served as president of theReconstruction-eraFreedman's Savings Bank.[155]
Meanwhile, white insurgents had quickly arisen in the South after the war, organizing first as secretvigilante groups, including theKu Klux Klan. Armed insurgency took different forms. Powerful paramilitary groups included theWhite League and theRed Shirts, both active during the 1870s in the Deep South. They operated as "the military arm of the Democratic Party", turning out Republican officeholders and disrupting elections.[156] Starting 10 years after the war, Democrats regained political power in every state of the former Confederacy and began to reassertwhite supremacy. They enforced this by a combination of violence, late 19th-century laws imposingsegregation and a concerted effort todisfranchise African Americans. New labor and criminal laws also limited their freedom.[157]
To combat these efforts, Douglass supported the presidential campaign ofUlysses S. Grant in1868. In 1870, Douglass started his last newspaper, theNew National Era, attempting to hold his country to its commitment to equality.[77] President Grant sent a congressionally sponsored commission, accompanied by Douglass, on a mission to the West Indies to investigate whether the annexation of Santo Domingo would be good for the United States. Grant believed annexation would help relieve the violent situation in the South by allowing African Americans their own state. Douglass and the commission favored annexation, but Congress remained opposed to annexation. Douglass criticized SenatorCharles Sumner, who opposed annexation, stating that if Sumner continued to oppose annexation he would "regard him as the worst foe the colored race has on this continent."[158]
Douglass's former residence in theU Street Corridor of Washington, D.C. He built 2000–2004 17th Street,NW, in 1875.
After the midterm elections, Grant signed theCivil Rights Act of 1871 (also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act) and the second and thirdEnforcement Acts. Grant used their provisions vigorously, suspendinghabeas corpus in South Carolina and sending troops there and into other states. Under his leadership over 5,000 arrests were made. Grant's vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular among many whites but earned praise from Douglass. A Douglass associate wrote that African Americans "will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of [Grant's] name, fame and great services."
In 1872, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States, asVictoria Woodhull's running mate on theEqual Rights Party ticket. He was nominated without his knowledge. Douglass neither campaigned for the ticket nor acknowledged that he had been nominated.[8] In that year, he waspresidential elector at large for theState of New York, and took that state's votes to Washington, D.C.[159]
However, in early June of that year, Douglass's third Rochester home, on South Avenue, burned down; arson was suspected. There was extensive damage to the house, its furnishings, and the grounds; in addition, sixteen volumes of theNorth Star andFrederick Douglass' Paper were lost. Douglass then moved to Washington, D.C.[160]
Throughout the Reconstruction era, Douglass continued speaking, emphasizing the importance of work, voting rights and actual exercise of suffrage. His speeches for the twenty-five years following the war emphasized work to counter the racism that was then prevalent in unions.[161] In a November 15, 1867, speech he said:
A man's rights rest in three boxes. The ballot box, jury box, and the cartridge box. Let no man be kept from the ballot box because of his color. Let no woman be kept from the ballot box because of her sex.[162]
In an 1869 speech entitled "Our Composite Nationality,"[163] Douglass spoke in defense ofChinese immigration to the United States, their admission "as witnesses in our courts of law", their naturalization as citizens, and their right to vote and to hold office. This was at a time when even many fellow Republicans expressedanti-Chinese sentiment and opposed their immigration and the other rights that Douglass named.[164] Describing the freedom to immigrate as ahuman right, Douglass argued, "I hold that a liberal and brotherly welcome to all who are likely to come to the United States is the only wise policy which this nation can adopt."[163]
In 1881, atStorer College inHarpers Ferry, West Virginia, Douglass delivered a speech praising John Brown and revealing unknown information about their relationship, including their meeting in an abandoned stone quarry near Chambersburg shortly before the raid.[136]
In 1877 Frederick Douglass bought a house in Washington, D.C., that included a big yard, as well as a studio where he did most of his work; he lived in this house from 1878 until his death in 1895, and it was named the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.[165]
The Freedman's Savings Bank went bankrupt on June 29, 1874, just a few months after Douglass became its president in late March.[166] During that same economic crisis, his final newspaper,The New National Era, failed in September.[167] When RepublicanRutherford B. Hayes was elected president, he named DouglassUnited States Marshal for theDistrict of Columbia, making him the first person of color to be so named. TheUnited States Senate voted to confirm him on March 17, 1877.[168] Douglass accepted the appointment, which helped assure his family's financial security.[77] During his tenure, Douglass was urged by his supporters to resign from his commission, since he was never asked to introduce visiting foreign dignitaries to the President, which is one of the usual duties of that post. However, Douglass believed that nocovert racism was implied by the omission and stated that he was always warmly welcomed in presidential circles.[169][170]
In 1877, Douglass visited his former enslaver Thomas Auld on his deathbed, and the two men reconciled. Douglass had met Auld's daughter, Amanda Auld Sears, some years prior. She had requested the meeting and had subsequently attended and cheered one of Douglass's speeches. Her father complimented her for reaching out to Douglass. The visit also appears to have brought closure to Douglass, although some criticized his effort.[111]
That same year, Douglass bought the house that was to be the family's final home in Washington, D.C., on a hill above theAnacostia River. He and Anna named itCedar Hill (also spelledCedarHill). They expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and included a china closet. One year later, Douglass purchased adjoining lots and expanded the property to 15 acres (61,000 m2). The home is now preserved as theFrederick Douglass National Historic Site.
In 1881, Douglass published the final edition of his autobiography,The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, which he updated in 1892. In 1881, he was appointedRecorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. His wife Anna Murray Douglass died in 1882, leaving the widower devastated. After a period of mourning, Douglass found new meaning from working with activistIda B. Wells. He remarried in 1884, as mentioned above.
Douglass also continued his speaking engagements and travel, both in the United States and abroad. With new wife Helen, Douglass toured the UK[171] including Wales (possibly by invitation from abolitionistJessie Donaldson), Ireland, France, Italy, Egypt, and Greece from 1886 to 1887. He became known for advocatingIrish Home Rule and supportedCharles Stewart Parnell in Ireland.
Many African Americans, calledExodusters,[citation needed] escaped the Klan and racially discriminatory laws in the South by moving toKansas, where some formed all-black towns to have a greater level of freedom and autonomy. Douglass favored neither this nor theBack-to-Africa movement. He thought the latter resembled theAmerican Colonization Society, which he had opposed in his youth. In 1892, at an Indianapolis conference convened by BishopHenry McNeal Turner, Douglass spoke out against the separatist movements, urging African Americans to stick it out.[77] He made similar speeches as early as 1879 and was criticized both by fellow leaders and some audiences, who even booed him for this position.[174] Speaking in Baltimore in 1894, Douglass said, "I hope and trust all will come out right in the end, but the immediate future looks dark and troubled. I cannot shut my eyes to the ugly facts before me."[175]
PresidentHarrison appointed Douglass as the United States's minister resident andconsul-general to theRepublic of Haiti andChargé d'affaires forSanto Domingo in 1889,[176] but Douglass resigned the commission in July 1891 when it became apparent that the American President was intent upon gaining permanent access to Haitian territory regardless of that country's desires.[177] In 1892, Haiti made Douglass a co-commissioner of its pavilion at theWorld's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.[178]
On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and received a standing ovation. Shortly after he returned home, Douglass died of a heart attack.[181] Because the exact date of his birth is unclear, he would have been either 76 or 77 — 76 if he were born after February 20, 1818, or 77 if he were born before or on February 20th, 1818.
His funeral was held at theMetropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Although Douglass had attended several churches in the nation's capital, he had a pew here and had donated two standing candelabras when this church had moved to a new building in 1886. He also gave many lectures there, including his last major speech, "The Lessons of the Hour".[182][60]
Thousands of people passed by his coffin to show their respect. United States senators and Supreme Court justices werepallbearers.Jeremiah Rankin, president ofHoward University, delivered "a masterly address". A letter fromElizabeth Cady Stanton was read. The Secretary of the Haitian Legation "expressed the condolence of his country in melodious French."[183]
Douglass's coffin was transported toRochester, New York, where he had lived for 25 years, longer than anywhere else in his life. His body was received in state at City Hall, flags were flown at half mast, and schools adjourned.[184] He was buried next to Anna in the Douglass family plot ofMount Hope Cemetery.[185] Helen was also buried there, in 1903. His grave is, with that ofSusan B. Anthony, the most visited in the cemetery.[185] A marker, erected by theUniversity of Rochester and other friends, describes him as "escaped slave, abolitionist, suffragist, journalist and statesman. Founder of thecivil rights movement in America".[185]
1853. "The Heroic Slave." pp. 174–239 inAutographs for Freedom, edited byJulia Griffiths. Boston:Jewett and Company. Also inSpeeches & Writings volume ofThe Frederick Douglass Collection: A Library of America Boxed Set (2023). Published by itself in aDover Thrift Edition (2019).
1847–1851.The North Star, an abolitionist newspaper founded and edited by Douglass. He merged the paper with another, creatingFrederick Douglass' Paper.
1950–1955.The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (5 volumes, edited byPhilip S. Foner). New York: International Publishers. Supplementary volume 5 published in 1975.
2023.The Frederick Douglass Collection: A Library of America Boxed Set, includingAutobiographies, edited byHenry Louis Gates andSpeeches & Writings, edited byDavid W. Blight,Library of America, two volumes, 2,097 pages.
1847. "Liberty", an eight-line poem, was written by Douglass in his notebook on September 13, 1847, in Cleveland, Ohio. Since mid-August he and William Lloyd Garrison, on a Western tour for the abolitionist movement, had been traveling through Ohio, where their receptions ranged from hospitable to enthusiastic. This raised Douglass's spirits considerably after he had faced an onslaught of "rotten eggs and all manner of stones and brickbats" while speaking a few weeks earlier in the courthouse at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.[191] As a result of his receptions in Ohio, he was moved to write poetry on at least one other occasion in that state after he had written the poem "Liberty". The handwritten poem is now held in theXavier University of Louisiana, Archives & Special Collections.[192]
BiographerDavid Blight states that Douglass "played a pivotal role in America's Second Founding out of the apocalypse of the Civil War, and he very much wished to see himself as a founder and a defender of the Second American Republic."[193]
The most influential African American of the nineteenth century, Douglass made a career of agitating the American conscience. He spoke and wrote on behalf of a variety of reform causes: women's rights, temperance, peace, land reform, free public education, and the abolition of capital punishment. But he devoted the bulk of his time, immense talent, and boundless energy to ending slavery and gaining equal rights for African Americans. These were the central concerns of his long reform career. Douglass understood that the struggle for emancipation and equality demanded forceful, persistent, and unyielding agitation. And he recognized that African Americans must play a conspicuous role in that struggle. Less than a month before his death, when a young black man solicited his advice to an African American just starting out in the world, Douglass replied without hesitation: ″Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!″
The Episcopal Church remembers Douglass with aLesser Feast[195][196] annually on itsliturgical calendar for February 20,[197] the anniversary of his death. Many public schools have also been named in his honor. Douglass still has living descendants today, such as Ken Morris, who is also a descendant ofBooker T. Washington.[198] Other honors and remembrances include:
In 1895, the first hospital for black people in Philadelphia, PA, was named the Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital. Black medical professionals, excluded from other facilities, were trained and employed there. In 1948, it merged to form Mercy-Douglass Hospital.[200]
In 1921, members of theAlpha Phi Alpha fraternity (the first African-American intercollegiate fraternity) designated Frederick Douglass as an honorary member. Douglass thus became the only man to receive an honorary membership posthumously.[203]
TheFrederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, sometimes referred to as the South Capitol Street Bridge, just south of theUS Capitol in Washington, D.C., was built in 1950 and named in his honor.
On June 12, 2011, Talbot County, Maryland, installed a seven-foot (2-meter) bronze statue of Douglass on the lawn of the county courthouse inEaston, Maryland.[208]
On September 15, 2014, under the leadership of GovernorMartin O'Malley a portrait of Frederick Douglass was unveiled at his official residence inAnnapolis, MD. This painting, by artistSimmie Knox, is the first African-American portrait to grace the walls of Government House. Commissioned byEddie C. Brown, founder of Brown Capital Management, LLC,[211] the painting was presented at a reception by the Governor.
On January 7, 2015, in honor of GovernorMartin O'Malley's last Board of Public Works meeting, a portrait of Frederick Douglass was presented to him byPeter Franchot.[212] Two editions of this artwork, by artistBenjamin Jancewicz, were purchased from Galerie Myrtis by Peter Franchot and his wife Ann both as a gift for the Governor as well as to add to their own collection. The Governor's edition now hangs in his office.[213][non-primary source needed]
On October 18, 2016, theCouncil of the District of Columbia voted that the city's new name as a State is to be "Washington, D.C.", and that "D.C." is to stand for "Douglass Commonwealth."[215]
On May 20, 2018, Douglass was awarded an honorary law degree from theUniversity of Rochester. The degree, which was accepted by Douglass's great-great-great-grandson, was the first posthumous honorary degree that the university had granted.[217][218]
Douglass gave his last public lecture on February 1, 1895, atWest Chester University, 19 days before his death. Today, there is a statue of him on the university campus commemorating this event. TheFrederick Douglass Institute has a West Chester University program for advancing multicultural studies across the curriculum and for deepening the intellectual heritage of Douglass.[219][220]
In New York State there is the "Let's Have Tea" sculpture of Douglass andSusan B. Anthony.[221]
On September 30, 2019,Newcastle University opened the 'Frederick Douglass Centre', a key teaching component for their School of Computing and Business School. Frederick Douglass stayed inNewcastle upon Tyne in 1846 on a street adjacent to the new university campus.[222]
A statue of Douglass located in Rochester, New York'sMaplewood Park was vandalized and torn down over the weekend of July 4, 2020.[223][224]
In 2020, Douglas Park in Chicago, which was named for U.S. SenatorStephen A. Douglas, was renamedDouglass Park, in honor of Frederick and Anna Douglass. In the 1850s the senator had promoted "popular sovereignty" as a middle position on the slavery issue and made "blatant assertions of white superiority."[225] The name change was the result of a multi-year student-led campaign to rename the park.[226]
A plaque on Gilmore Place inEdinburgh, Scotland marks his stay there in 1846. In 2020 a mural of his image was added nearby.
On June 19, 2021, on Boston Street in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, two panels were unveiled at the spot where, as it had shortly before been discovered, Douglass had boarded the train that took him to his freedom from enslavement.[41][42][43]
On August 18, 2021, the Frederick Douglass Park inLynn, Massachusetts was dedicated, directly across the street from the site of theCentral Square railroad depot where Douglass was forcibly removed from the train in 1841. The park features a bronzebas-relief sculpture of Douglass.[227]
In October 2023, it was announced that a plaque commemorating one of Douglass's visits to Liverpool would be placed outside theEveryman Theatre onHope Street.[229] The theater was built on the original site of Hope Hall, a chapel where Douglass spoke on January 19, 1860.
A 2021 instructional video from theNational Archives and Records Administration for young learners starring Phil Darius Wallace, an actor who regularly portrays Douglass in performances and recitations
On February 23, 2022, HBO released a one-hour documentary titledFrederick Douglass: In Five Speeches, based on David W. Blight'sFrederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.[234]
Douglass is the protagonist of Richard Bradbury's novelRiversmeet (Muswell Press, 2007), a fictionalized account of Douglass's 1845 speaking tour of theBritish Isles.[238]
In 1938–39, African-American artistJacob Lawrence createdThe Frederick Douglass series of narrative paintings. They were part of the historical series started by Lawrence in 1937, which included painted panels about prominent Black historical figures such asToussaint Louverture andHarriet Tubman. During his preparatory work, Lawrence conducted research at theSchomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, drawing primarily from the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass:Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) andLife and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881).[242] For this series the artist used a multipanel-plus-caption format that allowed him to develop a serial narrative that was not possible to convey by means of traditional portrait orhistory painting.[243] Instead of reproducing Douglass's original narratives verbatim, Lawrence constructed his own visual and textual narrative in the form of 32 panels painted intempera and accompanied with Lawrence's own captions. The structure of the painting series is linear and consists of three parts (the slave, the fugitive, the free man) which offer an epic chronicle of Douglass's transformation from slave to leader in the struggle for the liberation of black people.[244]The Frederick Douglass series is currently in theHampton University Museum.
In 2024, theReginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore put upa mural by artist Adam Himoff portraying Douglass "posed in a slim, European-cut suit, high-top white Converse sneakers, and an oversized wristwatch".[245] The mural is a "hand-carved linocut print ... acquired by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as part of their permanent art collection in their NYC headquarters and later transformed into a 21-foot mural displayed in Easton, MD (the birthplace of Frederick Douglass)."[246] Specifically, in 2023, the mural was put up on a "wall outside of the Out of the Fire restaurant" inEaston, Maryland.[247]
In August 2022, "American Prophet: Frederick Douglass in His Own Words," a musical starringCornelius Smith Jr. as Douglass, was performed atArena Stage in Washington, D.C.[250]
His life is retold in the 1948 two-part radio drama "The Making of a Man" and "The Key to Freedom", presented byDestination Freedom, written byRichard Durham.[251]
^Douglass estimated that he was born in February 1817.[1] InFrederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, p. 9,David W. Blight writes that "a handwritten inventory of slaves, kept by his owner at birth, Aaron Anthony, recorded 'Frederick Augustus, son of Harriet, Feby. 1818.'"[2] This fact was originally revealed in 1980 by Dickson J. Preston inYoung Frederick Douglass, p. 36.[3] Douglass celebrated his birthday on February 14, a date now observed as Douglass Day.[4]
^"The old cabin, with its rail floor and rail bedsteads up stairs, and its clay floor down stairs, and its dirt chimney, and windowless sides ... was MY HOME – the only home I ever had; and I loved it, and all connected with it. The old fences around it, and the stumps in the edge of the woods near it, and the squirrels that ran, skipped, and played upon them, were objects of interest and affection. There, too, right at the side of the hut, stood the old well...."Douglass, Frederick (1855).My Bondage and My Freedom. RetrievedNovember 3, 2017.
^Stewart, Roderick M. (1999). "The Claims of Frederick Douglass Philosophically Considered."Frederick Douglass: A Critical Reader, B.E. Lawson and F.M. Kirkland, eds., pp. 155–156. Wiley-Blackwell.ISBN978-0-631-20578-4."Moreover, though he does not make the point explicitly, again the very fact that Douglass is ably disputing this argument on this occasion celebrating a select few's intellect and will (or moral character)—this fact constitutes a living counterexample to the narrowness of the pro-slavery definition of humans."
^Matlack, James. 1979. "The Autobiographies of Frederick Douglass."Phylon (1960–) 40(1):15–28.doi:10.2307/274419.JSTOR274419. p. 16: "He spoke too well. ... Since he did not talk, look, or act like a slave (in the eyes of Northern audiences), Douglass was denounced as an imposter."
^abTrotman, C. James (2011).Frederick Douglass: A Biography. Penguin Books. pp. 118–119.ISBN978-0-313-35036-8.
^Foner, Philip; Taylor, Yuval, eds. (1999).Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings. Chicago Review Press. p. 629.ISBN1-55652-349-1.Archived from the original on December 21, 2020. RetrievedOctober 9, 2020.let us have liberty, law, and justice first. Let us have the Constitution, with its thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments, fairly interpreted, faithfully executed, and cheerfully obeyed in the fullness of their spirit and the completeness of their letter.
^Frederick Douglass (1855).The Anti-Slavery Movement, A Lecture by Frederick Douglass before the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society. Press of Lee, Mann & Company, Daily American Office. p. 33. RetrievedOctober 6, 2025.My point here is, first, the Constitution is, according to its reading, an anti-slavery document; and, secondly, to dissolve the Union, as a means to abolish slavery, is about as wise as it would be to burn up this city, in order to get the thieves out of it. But again, we hear the motto, 'no union with slave-holders;' and I answer it, as the noble champion of liberty,N. P. Rogers, answered it with a more sensible motto, namely—'No union with slave-holding.' I would unite with anybody to do right; and with nobody to do wrong.
^Barker, Amanda. [1996]. "The Search for Frederick Douglass' BirthplaceArchived December 7, 2014, at theWayback Machine.Choptank River Heritage. Retrieved June 14, 2020.Although Barker's website devoted to the Douglass birthplace states that it could not be found with tour books and guides, that is no longer the case.
^Frederick Douglass (1845).Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself. Forgotten Books.Archived from the original on December 17, 2019. Frederick Douglass began his own story thusly: "I was born in Tuckahoe, near Hillsborough, and about twelve miles from Easton, in Talbot County, Maryland." (Tuckahoe is not a town; it refers to the area west ofTuckahoe Creek in Talbot County.) In successive autobiographies, Douglass gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817.
^Douglass, Frederick (1845).Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office. p. 63.
^Douglass, Frederick (1845).Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office. pp. 65–66.
^abcdKeita, Michelle Nzadi; Jones, James (2010). "Murray-Douglass, Anna (1813–1882)". In Thompson, Julius E.; Conyers, James L. Jr.; Dawson, Nancy J. (eds.).The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 124.ISBN978-0-313-31988-4.
^Phillips, Ivory (2010). "Christianity". In Thompson, Julius E.; Conyers, James L. Jr.; Dawson, Nancy J. (eds.).The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. pp. 34–35.ISBN978-0-313-31988-4.
^abFinkelman, Paul (2006).Encyclopedia of African American History, 1619–1895: From the Colonial Period to the Age of Frederick Douglass Three-volume Set. Oxford University Press. p. 129.
^In the Citadel Press facsimile edition (Kensington Publishing Corp., 1983), the quotation is on pp. 82-83. In this version, in the first sentence, the first comma is before rather than after "when", and "coloured" is spelled "colored".
^Prinsloo, Oleta (2010). "Abolitionists". In Thompson, Julius E.; Conyers, James L. Jr.; Dawson, Nancy J. (eds.).The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 2.ISBN978-0-313-31988-4.
^abcDouglass, Fredrick (September 3, 1848)."Letter to Thomas Auld". glc.yale.edu.Archived from the original on October 29, 2020. RetrievedOctober 24, 2020.
^Lee, Maurice S., ed. (2009).The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass.Cambridge University Press. p. 69.
^Davis, Reginald F. (2005).Frederick Douglass: A Precursor of Liberation Theology. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press.ISBN978-0-86554-925-8.
^Keita, Michelle Nzadi; Jones, James (2010). "Murray-Douglass, Anna (1813–1882)". In Thompson, Julius E.; Conyers, James L. Jr.; Dawson, Nancy J. (eds.).The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 125.ISBN978-0-313-31988-4.
^Lovett Douglass, Marilyn D. (2010). "Helen Pitts (1838–1903)". In Thompson, Julius E.; Conyers, James L. Jr.; Dawson, Nancy J. (eds.).The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 46.ISBN978-0-313-31988-4.
^Frederick Douglass letter toWilliam Lloyd Garrison quoted in Christine Kinealy ed. (2018),Frederick Douglass and Ireland: In His Own Words, Volume II. Routledge, New York.ISBN978-0-429-50505-8. pp. 67–72.
^Robert Fanuzzi, "Frederick Douglass' 'Colored Newspaper': Identity Politics in Black and White," inThe Black Press: New Literary and Historical Essays, Todd Vogel, ed. (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2001), pp. 65–69.
^Watkins, Valetha (2010). "National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA)". In Thompson, Julius E.; Conyers, James L. Jr.; Dawson, Nancy J. (eds.).The Frederick Douglass Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO. p. 138.ISBN978-0-313-31988-4.
^Douglass, Frederick (March 7, 1874)."John Brown".Shepherdstown Register.Shepherdstown, West Virginia. p. 1.Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. RetrievedMarch 18, 2021 – via VirginiaChronicle.
^George C. Rable.But There Was No Peace: The Role of Violence in the Politics of Reconstruction, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1984, p. 132.
^Louis Martin Sears (May 1941). "Frederick Douglass and the Mission to Haiti, 1889–1891".The Hispanic American Historical Review.21 (2):222–238.doi:10.2307/2507394.JSTOR2507394.
^Bernier, Celeste-Marie; Durkin, Hannah, eds. (2016).Visualising Slavery: Art Across the African Diaspora. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. p. 132.ISBN978-1-78138-429-9.
^"Frederick Douglass Bill is Approved by President: Bill making F Douglass home, Washington, D.C., part of natl pk system signed".The New York Times. September 6, 1962.
^"The Making of a Man"(mp3). Destination Freedom – via Internet Archive Digital Library. &"The Key to Freedom"(mp3). Destination Freedom – via Internet Archive Digital Library.
Gregory, James Monroe (1893).Frederick Douglass the Orator: Containing an Account of His Life; His Eminent Public Services; His Brilliant Career as Orator; Selections from His Speeches and Writings. Willey Book Company.
Bromell, Nick (2021).The Powers of Dignity: The Black Political Philosophy of Frederick Douglass. Duke University Press.
Buccola, Nicholas.The Political Thought of Frederick Douglass: In Pursuit of American Liberty (NYU Press, 2013).online
Chaffin, Tom (2014).Giant's Causeway: Frederick Douglass's Irish Odyssey and the Making of an American Visionary. Charlottesville, VA:University of Virginia Press.
Chesebrough, David B. (1998).Frederick Douglass: Oratory from Slavery. Greenwood.
Foster, A. Kristen. "'We Are Men!' Frederick Douglass and the Fault Lines of Gendered Citizenship."Journal of the Civil War Era 1.2 (2011): 143–175.
Fought, Leigh (2017).Women in the World of Frederick Douglass. Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0199782376[1]
Golden, Timothy J. (2021).Frederick Douglass and the Philosophy of Religion: An Interpretation of Narrative, Art, and the Political. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
Julien, Isaac and Cora Gilroy-Ware, with Vladimir Seput, eds. (2021).Lessons of the Hour: Frederick Douglass. New York: DelMonico Books.ISBN978-1636810393.
Kilbride, Daniel. "What did Africa Mean to Frederick Douglass?".Slavery & Abolition 36.1 (2015): 40–62.online
Levine, Robert S. (2016).The Lives of Frederick Douglass. Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press.
Levine, Robert S. (2021).The Failed Promise: Reconstruction, Frederick Douglass, and the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson. New York:W.W. Norton & Company.
McClure, Kevin R. "Frederick Douglass' use of comparison in his Fourth of July oration: A textual criticism."Western Journal of Communication 64.4 (2000): 425–444.online
McMillen, Sally Gregory (2008).Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement.Oxford University Press.
Mieder, Wolfgang (2001)."No Struggle, No Progress": Frederick Douglass and His Proverbial Rhetoric for Civil Rights. Peter Lang Pub Incorporated.
Mindich, David T. Z. "Understanding Frederick Douglass: Toward a New Synthesis Approach to the Birth of Modern American Journalism."Journalism History 26.1 (2000): 15–22.online
Myers, Peter C. (2008).Frederick Douglass: Race and the Rebirth of American Liberalism. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas.ISBN978-0700615728
Oakes, James (2007).The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Preston, Dickson J. (2018) [1980].Young Frederick Douglass: The Maryland Years. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. The 2018 edition has a foreword by David W. Blight.
Quarles, Benjamin (1948).Frederick Douglass. Washington: Associated Publishers.
Ramsey, William M. "Frederick Douglass, Southerner."Southern Literary Journal 40.1 (2007): 19–38.
Ray, Angela G. "Frederick Douglass on the Lyceum Circuit: Social Assimilation, Social Transformation?"Rhetoric & Public Affairs 5.4 (2002): 625–647.summary
Selby, Gary S. "The limits of accommodation: Frederick Douglass and the Garrisonian abolitionists."Southern Journal of Communication 66.1 (2000): 52–66.
Sundstrom, Ronald. (2017)."Frederick Douglass". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.).The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
Sweeney, Fionnghuala (2007).Frederick Douglass and the Atlantic World. Liverpool University Press.online.
Vogel, Todd, ed. (2001).The Black Press: New Literary and Historical Essays. New Brunswick:Rutgers University Press.
Wallace, Maurice O. and Smith, Shawn Michelle, eds. (2012).Pictures and Progress: Early Photography and the Making of African American Identity. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Washington, Booker T. (1906).Frederick Douglass. London, UK:Hodder & Stoughton.Online HistorianJohn Hope Franklin wrote that Washington's biography of Douglass "has been attributed largely to Washington's friend, S. Laing Williams". Introduction toThree Negro Classics, New York: Avon Books (1965), p. 17.
Webber, Thomas L. (1978).Deep Like the Rivers: Education in the Slave Quarter Community, 1831–1865. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Woodson, C. G. (1915).The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861: A History of the Education of the Colored People of the United States from the Beginning of Slavery to the Civil War. New York:G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Prince, April Jones. 2014.Who Was Frederick Douglass? Penguin Workshop.
Walker, David F.; Smyth, Damon; Louise, Marissa. 2018.The Life of Frederick Douglass: A graphic narrative of a slave's journey from bondage to freedom.Ten Speed Press.
Weidt, Maryann N. 2001.Voice of Freedom: A Story about Frederick Douglass, illustrated by J. Reeves.Lerner publications.
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