Frederick Douglass

1818-1895

Biography

Frederick Douglass was born in a slave cabin, in February 1818. He was born on the Eastern Shore of Maryland near the town of Easton. His mother was a slave. His father is uncertain, probably his master or a family member.

He was taken from his mother a few weeks after he was born. His grandmother raised him until he was six years old. Then she took him to the plantation house for him to begin his duties as a slave.

Two years later he was sent to Baltimore to live as a houseboy. His new mistress taught him the alphabet. When her husband found out, he made her stop. It was against the law to teach slaves how to read. But Frederick loved to read. He loved the ideas he learned from reading.

At fifteen, Douglass returned to the Eastern Shore as a field hand. There he experienced most of the horrifying conditions of slavery. He was sent to a slave breaker. But he fought back and was sent home. It took him two attempts to escape from slavery, but in 1838 he made it to the north.

Frederick went to Massachusetts, where he found work. He went to anti-slavery lectures. Frederick was interested in ending slavery. He became an abolitionist and began to tell people about his experiences as a slave. He traveled anwhere people wanted to hear him. He also wrote about the evils of slavery in his own newspaper, The North Star.

He wrote three autobiographies. After his first autobiography was published, he fled to England to escape being re-captured by his old master. Friends in England paid his master for Douglass to insure his freedom when he returned to the United States.

Frederick Douglass was internationally recognized as an abolitionist, a worker for justice and equal opportunity, and a defender of women's rights. He became a trusted advisor to Abraham Lincoln. Later he was the United States Marshall for the District of Columbia and held other important government positions in Washington.

Frederick Douglass was married twice. When he first arrived in Massachusetts, he sent for his fiancee. Douglass and Anna Murry were married in 1838 and had four children.

Anna died in 1882. Two years later, Frederick married Helen Pitts.

Frederick said his two wives, one black and one white, reflected his parentage of black mother and white father.

Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart attack at the age of 77 at his home, Cedar Hill.