Famous 19th century writer and speaker Frederick Douglas was a major human rights leader in the anti-slavery movement and the first African American citizen to hold a high position in the US government.

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Frederick Douglass Biography Wiki, Biography, Age, Career, Contact & Information Wiki, Biography, Family & Information
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Frederick Douglass Biography Wiki, Biography, Age, Career, Contact & Biography Information.

Wiki, age, family, relationship

Career

Physical statistics & & more

Favorite points

Contact details

Frederick Douglass Biography Wiki, Biography, Age, Career, Contact & Biography Information

Who Was Frederick Douglass?

Abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass was born into slavery sometime 1818 in Talbot County, Maryland. He became one of the most famous intellectuals of his day, advising presidents and lecturing to thousands on a variety of topics including women’s rights and Irish household rule.

Douglass’s writings include several autobiographies eloquently describing his experiences in slavery and his life after the Civil War, including the well-known work Tale of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave . He died on February 20, 1895. ADVERTISEMENT Thank you for watching! Visit the website
“Tale of Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave” He also subscribed to William Lloyd Garrison’s weekly diary The Liberator .

At Garrison’s urging, Douglass wrote and published his first autobiography, Tale of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave The book was a bestseller in the United States and has been translated into several European languages. ADVERTISEMENT Thank you for watching! Visit the ADVERTISING website Thank you for watching! Visit the website

Though Douglass’s work earned many fans, some critics expressed doubts that a former slave without formal training could have produced such elegant prose.

Other books by Frederick Douglass

Douglass published three versions of his autobiography during his lifetime, revising and expanding his work each time. My Servitude and Freedom was published in 1855. In 1881, Douglass published the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass , which he revised in 1892.

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When was Frederick Douglass born?

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland, around 1818. The exact year and date of his birth is unknown, although later in life he decided to celebrate it on February 14th.

family

Douglass initially lived with his maternal grandmother, Betty Bailey. At a young age, Douglass was chosen to live in the home of the plantation owners, one of whom may have been his father.

His mother, who was present at times in his life, died when he was around 10 years old.

Learn to read and write

Despite a ban on teaching slaves to read and write, the Baltimore slave owner’s wife Hugh Auld taught Sophia Frederick Douglass the alphabet when he was about 12 years old. When Auld forbade his wife to offer more classes, Douglass continued to learn from white children and others in the neighborhood.

It was through reading that Douglass’ ideological opposition to slavery took shape. He read newspapers eagerly, searching for political writing and literature as much as possible. In later years, Douglass did well The Colombian Orator for clarifying and defining his views on human rights.

Douglass shared his newfound knowledge with other enslaved people. He was rented to William Freeland and taught other slaves on the plantation to read the New Testament at a weekly church service.

The interest was so great that more than 40 slaves attended classes each week. Although Freeland did not interfere with the class, other local slaveholders were less understanding. Armed with clubs and stones, they dispersed the community permanently.

When Douglass switched between the Aulds, he later had to work for Edward Covey, who had a reputation for being a “slave breaker”. Covey’s constant abuse almost broke 16-year-old Douglass mentally. Eventually, however, Douglass struggled in a scene that was powerfully portrayed in his first autobiography.

After losing a physical confrontation with Douglass, Covey never hit him again. Douglass tried twice to escape slavery before he succeeded.

Frederick Douglass: Wife and Children

Frederick Douglass married Anna Murray, a free black woman, on September 15, 1838. Douglass had fallen in love with Murray, who was helping him on his last attempt to escape slavery in Baltimore.

On September 3, 1838, Douglass shift via train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Murray had given him some of her savings and a sailor’s uniform. He was wearing identification papers that he had received from a free black seaman. Douglass made his way to abolitionist David Ruggles’ safe home in New York in less than 24 hours.

When he arrived, Douglass sent Murray to New York to meet him where they married and took the name Johnson to hide Douglass’ identity. Anna and Frederick then settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where there was a thriving free black community. There they took Douglass as their married name.

Frederick and Anna Douglass had five children together: Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., Charles Redmond, and Annie, who died at the age of 10. Charles and Rosetta helped their father produce his newspaper, The North Star . Anna remained a loyal supporter of Friedrich’s public work, despite the marital conflict caused by his relationships with several other women.

After Anna’s death, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York. Pitts was the daughter of Gideon Pitts Jr., an abolitionist colleague. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, Pitts worked on a radical feminist publication and shared many of Douglass’ moral principles.

Their marriage caused considerable controversy as Pitts was white and nearly 20 years younger than Douglass. Douglass’ children were particularly unhappy with the relationship. Douglass and Pitts remained married 11 years later until his death.

Abolitionist

After settling in New Bedford as a free man with his wife Anna in 1838, Frederick Douglass was eventually asked to tell his story at abolitionist meetings, and he became a regular lecturer on slavery.

Impressed by Douglass’ strength and rhetorical skills, founder of The Liberator William Lloyd Garrison wrote about him in his newspaper. A few days after the story was published, Douglass gave his first speech at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s annual meeting in Nantucket.

Crowds have not always been hospitable to Douglass. While attending a Midwestern lecture tour in 1843, Douglass was followed and beaten by an angry mob before being rescued by a local Quaker family.

After the publication of his first autobiography in 1845, Douglass traveled overseas to avoid the reconquest. He sailed for Liverpool on August 16, 1845, and finally came to Ireland at the start of the famine. He stayed in Ireland and Britain for two years, speaking to large crowds about the evils of slavery.

During this time, Douglass’s British supporters raised money to gain his legal liberty. In 1847 the famous writer and orator returned to the United States as a free man.

North Star

Upon his return, Douglass produced several abolitionist newspapers: The North Star , Frederick Douglass Weekly , Frederick Douglass ‘Paper , Douglass’ Monthly, and New National Era . The North Star’s motto was “Right has no gender – Truth has no color – God is the Father of us all and we are all brothers.”

READ ARTICLE: “Frederick Douglass at 200: Bringing the Thunder” on History.com

Women’s rights

In addition to the abolition, Douglass became an outspoken advocate of women’s rights. In 1848 he was the only African American to attend the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton called on the congregation to pass a resolution setting out the goal of women’s suffrage. Many participants rejected the idea.

Douglass stood up and spoke out eloquently, arguing that he could not accept the right to vote as a black man unless women could also claim that right. The decision was made. However, Douglass later came into conflict with women’s rights activists for supporting the Fifteenth Amendment, which banned racial discrimination while respecting gender restrictions.

Civil War and Reconstruction

At the time of the Civil War, Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country. He used his status to influence the role of African Americans in the war and their status in the country. In 1863, Douglass spoke with President Abraham Lincoln about the treatment of black soldiers and later with President Andrew Johnson on the issue of black suffrage.

President Lincoln’s Declaration of Emancipation, which went into effect January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate territory. Despite this victory, Douglass supported John C. Frémont in the 1864 election over Lincoln, citing his disappointment that Lincoln did not publicly advocate the right to vote for black freedmen.

Slavery was later outlawed throughout the United States with the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

Douglass was appointed to various political positions after the war. He was President of Freedman’s Savings Bank and Chargé d’affaires of the Dominican Republic.

After two years, he resigned from his embassy over objections to the specifics of US government policy. He was later appointed Minister and Consul General of the Republic of Haiti, an office he held between 1889 and 1891.

In 1877, Douglass visited one of its previous owners, Thomas Auld. Douglass had met with Auld’s daughter, Amanda Auld Sears, years ago. The visit had a personal meaning for Douglass, although some criticized him for the reconciliation.

Vice presidential candidate

Douglass was the first African American to be named Vice President of the United States in 1872 as Victoria Woodhull’s run mate for the Equal Rights Party ticket.

Douglass was nominated without his knowledge or consent and has never launched a campaign. Still, his nomination was the first time an African American had appeared in a presidential election.

When did Frederick Douglass die?

Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart attack or stroke on February 20, 1895, shortly after returning from a National Women’s Council meeting in Washington, DC. He was buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.