During the winter of
1844–45, Douglass
wrote the first of
three autobiographies.
Friends advised him
to destroy the manuscript
for fear of it leading to his
re-enslavement but
Douglass was determined.
The book was published
in 1845, the first 5,000
copies selling out. It was a
powerful indictment of the brutality
and corruption that slavery inflicted
on slaves, owners, and society. As sales
increased, so did the danger, and
Douglass fled to England, where he
remained for two years, until two
Englishmen “purchased” his freedom
by paying his former master. Aged 28,
he was now free to travel without fear.
Douglass moved his family west to
Rochester, New York, and set up a
weekly anti-slavery newspaper, the
North Star. Its slogan read, “Right is of
no sex—Truth is of no color—God is
the Father of us all, and we are all
Brethren.” The paper advocated
women’s rights as well as abolition.
Fighting for freedom
In 1847, Douglass met the
radical abolitionist John
Brown, who convinced him
that liberty should come at
any price, whatever the
consequences. Douglass began
sheltering runaway slaves, and
his home became a “station”
on the Underground Railroad,
a system of safe houses and
hidden routes for fugitives.
During this time, Douglass
questioned Garrison’s
argument that the Constitution
was a pro-slavery document.
By 1851, the North Star (soon to
merge with the Liberty Party Paper) was
urging readers to fight through politics.
Douglass’s Fourth of July speech in
FREDERICK DOUGLASS■ February 1818 Born Frederick Bailey, a slave,
in Tuckahoe, Maryland. His mother is a slave and
his father a white man, rumored to be his
master, Aaron Anthony.
■ 1826–27 Sent to Baltimore to Hugh and Sophia
Auld. Sophia Auld teaches Frederick to read.
■ January 1834 Auld sends Frederick to work for
“slave-breaker” Edward Covey.
■ 1836 Makes first failed escape attempt. Frederick
is returned to Baltimore where he is hired out to
a shipyard. Plans another breakout.
■ September 1838 Escapes from slavery and
changes his last name to Douglass. Moves to
New Bedford and marries Anna Murray.
■ August 1841 Speaks at an American Anti-Slavery
Society meeting. Begins lecturing for the
Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society.
■ May 1845 His first autobiography, Narrative of
the Life of Frederick Douglass, is published. He
flees to England, where English supporters
“purchase” his freedom for $711.66.
■ 1847 Buys a printing press and begins
publishing the North Star in Rochester, New York.
■ 1848 Attends first women’s rights convention.
Meets John Brown. Begins sheltering slaves
fleeing north on the Underground Railroad.
■ 1851 Merges North Star with Gerrit Smith’s Liberty
Party Paper to form Frederick Douglass’ Paper.
■ 1855 Publishes his second autobiography,
My Bondage and My Freedom.
■ 1861 Urges recruitment of black soldiers
and a proclamation of freedom for the slaves
to undermine the Confederate war effort.
■ 1863 Becomes a recruiter for the 54th
Massachusetts Infantry, the first regiment of
African-American soldiers; his sons enlist.
■ 1864 Meets with President Abraham Lincoln to
formulate plans to lead African Americans out of
the South in case of a Union defeat.
■ 1872 The Equal Rights Party nominates him for
the vice-presidential candidacy. Douglass declines.
■ 1877 Buys Cedar Hill, a mansion in southeast
Washington, D.C., which becomes his home.
■ 1881 Publishes his final autobiography, The Life
and Times of Frederick Douglass.
■ 1889–91 Accepts post of U.S. minister resident
and consul general to Haiti.
■ February 20, 1895 Dies in
Washington after giving a
speech to the National
Council of Women.TIMELINEDOUGLASS’S WRITING DESK, CEDAR HILLRochester in 1852 attacked the hypocrisy
of a nation half free, and called slavery
“the great sin and shame of America.”
In 1859, John Brown asked Douglass
to join the slave revolt he was planning
in Virginia. Believing the plan would
fail, Douglass declined. After Brown
and his men were executed for the
Harpers Ferry raid, letters implicating
Douglass were found at a nearby farm.
On learning this, Douglass escaped to
Canada; he was not charged.
In the 1860 presidential election
Douglass backed Abraham Lincoln, but
was disheartened by the Republican
Party’s attempts to appease the South.
The new president promised to uphold
the fugitive slave laws and not to
interfere with slavery in the slavestates. Then, in the spring of 1861, the
first shots of the Civil War rang out at
Fort Sumter.
Douglass had always hoped that a
“liberating army” of black men would
march south and “raise the banner of
emancipation.” In the wake of the Battle
of Antietam, when Union armies forced
a Confederate retreat, Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation on New
Year’s Day, 1863. This declared that all
slaves in the Confederate states were
free—the end of slavery was now the
war’s objective.
Congress authorized black enlistments
in the Union Army, and Douglass
helped with the recruitment, writing a
call to arms for the Massachusetts 54th
Regiment, the first black unit. Overall,
more than 180,000 blacks enlisted in
the Union army and navy. In March,
Douglass attended Lincoln’s second
inaugural address. Yet prejudice was
never far away; he was barred, along
with others, from the reception in the
White House. Douglass sent word of
this to Lincoln, who ordered that he be
admitted, then warmly greeted him
with, “Here comes my friend Douglass.”A changing land
War’s end brought the passage of
the Thirteenth Amendment, ending
slavery forever. As a backlash in the
South unfolded, Douglass began to
focus on black rights. During the 1868
presidential contest, he campaigned
for Ulysses S. Grant, who was the
Republican candidate. With Grant in
office, Congress passed the Fifteenth
Amendment guaranteeing all men
the right to vote, regardless of race.
In 1870, Douglass and his family
moved to Washington, D.C., where he
continued to lecture and write. The
Equal Rights Party nominated him for
vice president in the 1872 election but
he declined. In 1889, he became U.S.
minister resident to Haiti, and died of
a heart attack six years later.Slavery unmasked
Douglass’s first autobiography was one of many that
exposed the horrors of a life enslaved. It silenced his
critics and helped to pave the way for abolition.Abolitionist assembly
In 1850, Douglass attended the
Fugitive Slave Law Convention in
Upstate New York to protest against
proposals to tighten the Fugitive
Slave Act. Douglass called upon the
town’s men and women to “awake,
arise, and do their duty.”
“This Fourth of July is yours, not
mine. You may rejoice, I must
mourn ...What, to the slave, is
your Fourth of July? A sham.”
FREDERICK DOUGLASS SPEAKING AT ROCHESTER, NEW YORK, JULY 5, 1852