Frederick Douglass

Born enslaved on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Frederick Douglass (b. February 1818–d. 20 February 1895) became the most prominent African American of the 19th century. Although he escaped slavery under his own volition at the age of twenty, he has been often remembered as the nation’s most famous former slave. This is partly due to the sustained popularity of his first autobiography (of three), which became a “best seller” when it was first published in 1845. Even today it remains the most widely read narrative of enslavement. Douglass lived and strove for justice for fifty-seven years after reaching freedom. Just over two years after escaping to the North, he began his career as an antislavery lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. By 1847, he was widely recognized as an internationally known orator, abolitionist, and advocate for black freedom in America. That same year, Douglass began publishing his own weekly abolitionist paper and soon after moved his family to Rochester, New York, where he resided until 1872. By 1851 he parted ways with the radical Garrisonians, adopting the belief that the US Constitution was indeed an antislavery document. During the Civil War and after, he formed a staunch attachment to the Republican Party, while maintaining an active lecture and editing career pushing for African American suffrage and civil rights. He met with several presidents and held minor Republican posts. Eventually he served as US minister to Haiti from 1889 to 1891. Famous in his own time, Douglass was an exceptional American who remains representative of his 19th-century world and helps modern historians and ordinary citizens see the past more clearly. He was the most photographed American of the 19th century, and certainly he remains today the most quoted African American. Because of his outstanding record of achievements obtained in his lifetime, and the timeless resonance of his life and his words, Douglass remains one of the most studied figures in American history and culture.