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Abolitionist · Writer · Statesman · c. 1818–1895
Frederick Douglass: The Voice of Freedom
Born into slavery in Maryland, he taught himself to read, escaped to the North at 20, and became the most powerful voice against slavery in America. He pushed Lincoln to make the Civil War a war for freedom, and spent the rest of his life fighting for equal rights.
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Frederick Douglass, about 1879
Quick facts
Frederick Douglass at a glance
| Born | February 1818 (he chose February 14 as his birthday), in Talbot County, Maryland, as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey | |
| Died | February 20, 1895, at Cedar Hill, his home in Washington, D.C., aged about 77 | |
| Escape | September 3, 1838, from Baltimore to New York, disguised as a free Black sailor | |
| Books | Three autobiographies: Narrative (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Life and Times (1881, revised 1892) | |
| Newspaper | The North Star, founded in Rochester, New York, in 1847 | |
| Civil War | Recruited Black soldiers for the 54th Massachusetts; met with President Lincoln at the White House | |
| Offices | U.S. Marshal for D.C. (1877), Recorder of Deeds for D.C. (1881), U.S. minister to Haiti (1889–1891) | |
| Wives | Anna Murray (married 1838, died 1882); Helen Pitts (married 1884) | |
| Children | Five with Anna: Rosetta, Lewis, Frederick Jr., Charles and Annie | |
| Buried | Mount Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York |
The big picture in 30 seconds
Why he matters
- His Narrative proved to Northern readers what slavery was really like, in the words of a man who had lived it.
- He was the most famous Black American of the 19th century and one of its greatest speakers.
- He urged Lincoln to free enslaved people and to let Black men fight, and both happened.
- He supported women's right to vote from the Seneca Falls convention of 1848 onward.
- He was the most photographed American of his century, using portraits to show Black dignity.
20
his age when he escaped from slavery
3
autobiographies, all bestsellers in their day
160+
surviving photographs of Douglass, more than of Lincoln
16 years
publishing his own antislavery newspapers, 1847–1863
Early years
Learning to read was the road to freedom
Frederick Bailey was born on a plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He barely knew his mother, Harriet Bailey, who was hired out to a farm miles away and died when he was about seven. His father was a white man, possibly his owner.
At about eight he was sent to Baltimore to work for Hugh and Sophia Auld. Sophia began teaching him the alphabet until her husband stopped her, saying learning would make him unfit to be a slave. Frederick took the lesson to heart and taught himself, trading bread to white boys in the street for reading lessons and secretly buying a schoolbook of famous speeches, The Columbian Orator.
Fighting back
At 16 he was sent to Edward Covey, a farmer known for breaking the spirit of enslaved people with beatings. After months of abuse, Douglass fought back and won. Covey never whipped him again. Douglass later wrote that the fight was the turning point of his life.
Abolitionist
A voice that shook the nation
Anna Murray, a free Black woman from Baltimore who had helped pay for his escape, joined him in New York, and they married on September 15, 1838. They settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he took the last name Douglass to hide from slave catchers.
In 1841 he spoke at an antislavery meeting on Nantucket, and William Lloyd Garrison’s Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society hired him as a lecturer on the spot. He was so polished that some audiences refused to believe he had ever been enslaved.
The Narrative
To answer the doubters he published the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass in 1845, naming his owners and the places he had lived. It sold thousands of copies, but it also put him in danger of recapture, so he left for a speaking tour of Ireland and Britain. British friends raised money to buy his freedom legally in 1846, and he came home a free man.
The North Star
In 1847 he moved to Rochester, New York, and founded his own newspaper, The North Star. His home there was a stop on the Underground Railroad. In 1848 he was one of the few men at the Seneca Falls women’s rights convention, where he spoke for women’s right to vote.
The Civil War, 1861–1865
Making it a war for freedom
When the war began, Lincoln said it was about saving the Union, not ending slavery. Douglass argued from the start that the two could not be separated, and that Black men should be allowed to fight.
1863
Men of Color, to Arms!
After the Emancipation Proclamation, Douglass recruited Black soldiers for the 54th Massachusetts. His sons Lewis and Charles were among the first to enlist.
August 10, 1863
Meeting Lincoln
He went to the White House to protest that Black soldiers got lower pay and no protection if captured. Lincoln listened, and Douglass left impressed. They met again in 1864.
July 18, 1863
Fort Wagner
The 54th’s heroic assault on Fort Wagner near Charleston proved Black troops’ courage. Lewis Douglass, a sergeant major, survived it.
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
Frederick Douglass
Speech on West India Emancipation, Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857
After the war
A statesman for equal rights
Slavery ended with the 13th Amendment in 1865, but Douglass kept fighting for the vote and equal treatment under the law. He backed the 14th and 15th Amendments and campaigned for Republican candidates. In 1874 he became president of the Freedman’s Savings Bank, which collapsed soon after.
President Hayes named him U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia in 1877. He later served as the District’s Recorder of Deeds and, from 1889 to 1891, as the U.S. minister to Haiti. He bought Cedar Hill, a house on a hill in Anacostia overlooking the Capitol, in 1877.
Later life
Anna died in 1882. In 1884 Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white activist, a marriage that caused an uproar. He spoke out against lynching and the loss of Black voting rights in the South until the end. On February 20, 1895, after attending a women’s rights meeting, he died of a heart attack at Cedar Hill.
His life at a glance
Life timeline
People
Who's who in Douglass's story
Anna Murray Douglass
First wife
A free Black woman who helped fund his escape, ran their household for 44 years, and supported the Underground Railroad.
William Lloyd Garrison
Mentor, then rival
The abolitionist editor who launched Douglass’s career. They split when Douglass decided the Constitution could be used against slavery.
President
Douglass criticized him often but came to admire him. Lincoln called him his friend at the 1865 inaugural reception.
John Brown
Friend
Asked Douglass to join the raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. Douglass refused, but had to flee abroad when the raid failed.
Susan B. Anthony
Ally
Fellow Rochester reformer. They worked together for decades, though they disagreed over the 15th Amendment.
Lewis Douglass
Son
Sergeant major in the 54th Massachusetts who survived Fort Wagner and later became a newspaper editor.
Visit
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site
Cedar Hill, in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., is run by the National Park Service. The house looks much as it did when Douglass lived there, with his books, his desk and the view across the river to the Capitol.
Go deeper
Sources and further reading
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845)
- Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight (2018)
- My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass (1855)