"I have made up my mind wherever I go, I shall go as a man, and not as a slave. I shall always aim to be courteous and mild in deportment towards all with whom I come in contact, at the same time firmly and constantly endeavoring to assert my equal right as a man and a brother."
Frederick Douglas, the son of a slave woman and an unknown white man—likely his first owner—was born in Talbot County, Maryland, near Easton, around 1818. After enduring the brutal conditions of slavery, he escaped to New York in September 1838 before finally settling in Massachusetts. Having broken the law by learning to read while a slave, he continued reading after his daring escape and began attending abolitionist meetings. William Lloyd Garrison was present for Douglas's first address at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society on August 11, 1841. He recalled, "As soon as he had taken his seat, filled with hope and admiration, I rose, and declared that Patrick Henry, of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in the cause of liberty, than the one we had just listened to from the lips of that hunted fugitive." Douglass's participation in these meetings launched him into a career as an acclaimed activist, advocating for racial and gender equality in the United States and Europe.
Brilliant and bold, Douglass was one of America’s most powerful voices against slavery and perhaps the most influential American human rights advocate of the 19th century. He published a series of autobiographies, the first of which, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), was a bestselling and influential aid in the abolitionists' cause. Douglass was forced to leave the United States following publication of this explosive volume. After a speaking tour of England, Ireland, and Scotland, he returned to the States, founded, and edited his first antislavery newspaper, The North Star, in 1847.
The former slave also petitioned the Lincoln Administration to press for emancipation before and during the Civil War. He conferred with Abraham Lincoln during the War and recruited northern black men, including his own sons, for the Union Army. He obviously made a strong impression on Lincoln, who called him the most meritorious man of the nineteenth century. Following the North's victory, Douglass observed, “The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion. What that thing is, we have been taught to our cost. It remains now to be seen whether we have the needed courage to have that cause entirely removed from the Republic.”
A giant and incisive intellect, Douglass was an advisor and resource to several presidents. Among other things, he served as U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia during Rutherford B. Hayes' administration, was appointed District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds by James Garfield, was appointed U.S. minister to Haiti by Benjamin Harrison, and was appointed secretary of the commission of Santo Domingo by Ulysses S. Grant. Though he was never a serious candidate for President of the United States, Douglass also holds the distinction of being the first African American to receive nominations to be a candidate for the high office. The abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman died on February 20, 1895, in Washington, DC. His home there is a national historic site.
Read more about Frederick Douglass here and here
Read selections of Frederick Douglass's writings here
Watch a brief video about Frederick Douglass