Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in February 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. He never knew his exact birth date. Separated from his mother as an infant, he was raised by his grandmother. At age 8, he was sent to Baltimore, where the wife of his enslaver began teaching him the alphabet. When her husband forbade it, saying literacy would make an enslaved person unfit for slavery, young Frederick realized that education was the path to freedom. He secretly taught himself to read and write, trading bread to white children in the neighborhood in exchange for lessons.

In 1838, at age 20, Douglass escaped slavery by disguising himself as a free Black sailor and boarding a train to New York. He settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and took the last name Douglass. In 1841, he gave his first public speech at an anti-slavery convention, and his powerful words stunned the audience. He became a leading voice for the American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1845, he published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which became a bestseller and proved that an enslaved person could be as intelligent and eloquent as any white person. He founded The North Star newspaper in 1847, using it to argue for abolition and equal rights.

During the Civil War, Douglass advised President Abraham Lincoln and helped recruit Black soldiers for the Union Army, including the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment. After the war, he continued fighting for civil rights during Reconstruction. He served as U.S. Marshal for the District of Columbia and as Minister to Haiti. Douglass was the most photographed American of the 19th century. He deliberately used photography to present a dignified image of Black Americans. He died on February 20, 1895. His life story, from enslaved child to advisor to presidents, remains one of the most remarkable in American history.