Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, about February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American activist, abolitionist, speaker, writer, and leader. He was the most important leader of the movement to end slavery and fight for African-American rights in the 19th century.

After escaping slavery in Maryland in 1838, Douglass became a leader in the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York. He became famous for his speeches and powerful writing against slavery. Abolitionists of his time said Douglass proved that enslaved people could be intelligent and capable of living as independent American citizens. Many Northerners were surprised to learn that such a skilled speaker had once been enslaved. Because of this surprise, Douglass wrote his first autobiography.

Douglass wrote three autobiographies. His first book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), became very popular and helped spread the message against slavery. His second book, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), also supported the abolitionist cause. After the Civil War, Douglass worked to protect the rights of freed slaves and wrote his final autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and updated in 1892, the book covered his life up to that time. Douglass also supported the right of women to vote and held several public positions. Without his knowledge, Douglass was the first African American to be nominated for vice president of the United States, as the running mate of Victoria Woodhull on the Equal Rights Party ticket.

Douglass believed in working with people of all races and ideas. He supported the idea that the U.S. Constitution could be used to fight slavery, even after he disagreed with William Lloyd Garrison. When some abolitionists criticized Douglass for talking to slave owners, he said, "I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."

Early life and slavery

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay in Talbot County, Maryland. The plantation was between Hillsboro and Cordova; his birthplace was likely his grandmother's cabin east of Tappers Corner and west of Tuckahoe Creek. In his first autobiography, Douglass stated: "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it." In later autobiographies, he gave more precise estimates of when he was born, his final estimate being 1817. However, based on the existing records of Douglass's former owner, Aaron Anthony, historian Dickson J. Preston determined that Douglass was born in February 1818. Though the exact date of his birth is unknown, he chose to celebrate February 14 as his birthday, remembering that his mother called him her "Little Valentine."

Douglass's enslaved mother was of African descent and his father, who may have been her master, was apparently of European descent; in his Narrative (1845), Douglass wrote: "My father was a white man." According to David W. Blight's 2018 biography of Douglass, "For the rest of his life he searched in vain for the name of his true father." Douglass's genetic heritage likely also included Native American. Douglass said his mother, Harriet Bailey, gave him his name Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey and, after he escaped to the North in September 1838, he took the surname Douglass, having already dropped his two middle names.

He later wrote of his earliest times with his mother:

After separation from his mother during infancy, young Frederick lived with his maternal grandmother Betsy Bailey, who was also enslaved, and his maternal grandfather Isaac, who was free. Betsy would live until 1849. Frederick's mother remained on the plantation about 12 miles (19 km) away, visiting Frederick only a few times before her death when he was 7 years old.

Returning much later, about 1883, to purchase land in Talbot County that was meaningful to him, he was invited to address "a colored school":

At the age of 6, Douglass was separated from his grandparents and moved to the Wye House plantation, where Aaron Anthony worked as overseer and Edward Lloyd was his unofficial master. After Anthony died in 1826, Douglass was given to Lucretia Auld, wife of Thomas Auld, who sent him to serve Thomas's brother Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia Auld in Baltimore. From the day he arrived, Sophia saw to it that Douglass was properly fed and clothed, and that he slept in a bed with sheets and a blanket. Douglass described her as a kind and tender-hearted woman, who treated him "as she supposed one human being ought to treat another." Douglass felt that he was lucky to be in the city, where he said enslaved people were almost freemen, compared to those on plantations.

When Douglass was about 12, Sophia Auld began teaching him the alphabet. Hugh Auld disapproved, feeling that literacy would encourage enslaved people to desire freedom. Douglass later referred to this as the "first decidedly antislavery lecture" he had ever heard. "'Very well,' thought I," wrote Douglass. "'Knowledge unfits a child to be a slave.' I instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the direct pathway from slavery to freedom."

Under her husband's influence, Sophia came to believe that education and slavery were incompatible and one day snatched a newspaper away from Douglass. She stopped teaching him altogether and hid all potential reading materials, including her Bible, from him. In his autobiography, Douglass related how he learned to read from white children in the neighborhood and by observing the writings of the men with whom he worked.

Douglass continued, secretly, to teach himself to read and write. He later often said, "knowledge is the pathway from slavery to freedom." As Douglass began to read newspapers, pamphlets, political materials, and books of every description, this new realm of thought led him to question and condemn the institution of slavery. In later years, Douglass credited The Columbian Orator, an anthology that he discovered at about age 12, with clarifying and defining his views on freedom and human rights. First published in 1797, the book is a classroom reader, containing essays, speeches, and dialogues, to assist students in learning reading and grammar. He later learned that his mother had also been literate, about which he would later declare:

When Douglass was hired out to William Freeland, he "gathered eventually more than thirty male slaves on Sundays, and sometimes even on weeknights, in a Sabbath literacy school."

In 1833, Thomas Auld took Douglass back from Hugh ("[a]s a means of punishing Hugh," Douglass later wrote). Thomas sent Douglass to work for Edward Covey, a poor farmer who had a reputation as a "slave-breaker." He whipped Douglass so frequently that his wounds had little time to heal. Douglass later said the frequent whippings broke his body, soul, and spirit. The 16-year-old Douglass finally rebelled against the beatings, however, and fought back. After Douglass won a physical confrontation, Covey never tried to beat him again.

Recounting his beatings at Covey's farm in Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass described himself as "a man transformed into a brute!" Still, Douglass came to see his physical fight with Covey as life-transforming, and he introduced the story in his autobiography as such: "You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."

Escape from slavery

In 1835, Hugh Auld sent Douglass to work as a ship caulker for William Gardiner in a shipyard in Fell's Point, Baltimore. White workers harmed him because they were worried about working with enslaved people.

Douglass first tried to escape from Freeland, who had hired him from his owner, but he failed. In 1837, Douglass met Anna Murray, a free Black woman in Baltimore who was about five years older than him. Her freedom made Douglass believe that he could also gain his own freedom. Murray supported him by giving him money and help.

On September 3, 1838, Douglass escaped by boarding a northbound train of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad in Baltimore. Earlier, people thought he boarded near the train depot in a neighborhood between Harbor East and Little Italy. However, research in 2021 showed that he actually boarded at the Canton Depot on Boston Street in the Canton neighborhood of Baltimore.

Douglass traveled to Havre de Grace, Maryland, in Harford County, which is in the northeast corner of the state. This location is along the Susquehanna River, which flows into the Chesapeake Bay. Although Havre de Grace was only about 20 miles from the Maryland–Pennsylvania border, it was easier to continue by train through Delaware, another slave state. Murray gave Douglass a sailor’s uniform and part of her savings for travel. He also carried identification and protection papers from a free Black seaman.

Douglass crossed the Susquehanna River using a steam ferry operated by the railroad to Perryville in Cecil County. He then took a train across the state line to Wilmington, Delaware, a large port at the head of the Delaware Bay. Because the rail line was not yet completed, he traveled by steamboat along the Delaware River to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a place known for opposing slavery. From there, he went to the home of abolitionist David Ruggles in New York City. His entire journey to freedom took less than 24 hours. Douglass later wrote about arriving in New York City:

After arriving, Douglass sent for Murray to join him in New York. She brought supplies for them to start a home. They married on September 15, 1838, in New York City, just 11 days after Douglass reached the city. A Black Presbyterian minister performed the ceremony. At first, they used the name Johnson to avoid drawing attention.

Religious views

Frederick Douglass was exposed to religious sermons as a child and sometimes heard Sophia Auld read the Bible. He wanted to learn to read and began copying Bible verses. Eventually, he became a Christian. He described this experience in his final biography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

Douglass was guided by Rev. Charles Lawson. Early in his activism, he often used Bible references and religious metaphors in his speeches. Though he believed in Christianity, he strongly criticized religious hypocrisy and accused slaveholders of "wickedness," moral failure, and not following the Golden Rule. He made a clear difference between the "Christianity of Christ" and the "Christianity of America," calling religious slaveholders and clergymen who supported slavery the most cruel and sinful people, comparing them to "wolves in sheep's clothing."

In his 1852 speech What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?, Douglass sharply criticized religious people who remained silent about slavery. He called it "blasphemy" when ministers taught that slavery was supported by religion. He said laws that protected slavery were "one of the grossest infringements of Christian Liberty" and claimed that pro-slavery clergymen "stripped the love of God of its beauty" and left religion "a huge, horrible, repulsive form," calling it "an abomination in the sight of God."

Douglass criticized ministers like John Chase Lord, Leonard Elijah Lathrop, Ichabod Spencer, and Orville Dewey for teaching that people should obey human laws before the laws of God, which he said went against the Bible. He also noted that most religious groups in the United States supported slavery, though he acknowledged exceptions, such as Henry Ward Beecher, Samuel J. May, and Rev. R. R. Raymond.

Douglass believed that religious leaders had a duty to inspire people with strong faith and support the fight to free enslaved individuals. He urged religious people to join the abolitionist movement, saying that if religious groups used their influence against slavery, the system would collapse.

During his visits to the United Kingdom between 1846 and 1848, Douglass asked British Christians not to support American churches that allowed slavery. He was happy to learn that some ministers in Belfast refused to let slaveholders join their church.

After returning to the United States, Douglass started the North Star, a weekly newspaper with the motto, "Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and all we are Brethren." In his 1848 letter to Thomas Auld, Douglass criticized his former slaveholder for keeping his family unable to read.

Douglass was deeply spiritual, as seen in his home, which has busts of philosophers David Friedrich Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach, along with Bibles, religious books, and images of angels and Jesus. His library includes books about various religions, and photos of Washington's Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church are displayed. Douglass connected his personal faith with social reform and avoided tobacco, alcohol, and other "sins." Though some claimed he loved cigars, he received them as gifts from Ottilie Assing.

Douglass admired the agnostic orator Robert G. Ingersoll, whom he met in Peoria, Illinois. He said, "Genuine goodness is the same, whether found inside or outside the church," and noted that being an "infidel" did not make someone selfish or wicked, just as being "evangelical" did not automatically make someone honest or kind. He also mentioned that he had not met enough Christian ministers in Peoria during his previous visits to be welcomed in the same way.

Family life

Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray had five children: Rosetta Douglass, Lewis Henry Douglass, Frederick Douglass Jr., Charles Remond Douglass, and Annie Douglass (who died at age ten). Charles and Rosetta helped with the production of his newspapers.

Anna Douglass supported her husband’s public work throughout her life. His relationships with Julia Griffiths and Ottilie Assing, two women he worked with professionally, caused many people to talk and create problems. Assing was a journalist from Germany who first visited Douglass in 1856 to ask for permission to translate his book My Bondage and My Freedom into German. From 1856 until 1872, Assing often stayed at Douglass’s home for several months at a time. During this time, she served as his intellectual and emotional companion.

Assing did not respect Anna Douglass and hoped Douglass would leave his wife. A writer who studied Douglass’s life, David W. Blight, believes Assing and Douglass were likely in a romantic relationship. However, no letters or documents prove they had such a relationship.

Anna Douglass died in 1882. In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white woman who worked for women’s rights and the end of slavery. Pitts was the daughter of Gideon Pitts Jr., a friend and colleague of Douglass. Pitts graduated from Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary) and worked on a feminist publication called Alpha while living in Washington, D.C. Later, she worked as Douglass’s secretary.

Assing, who had depression and was diagnosed with a disease that could not be cured, committed suicide in France in 1884 after learning about Douglass’s marriage to Pitts. Before her death, Assing left Douglass a trust fund worth about $466,000 in today’s money, a “large album,” and a selection of books from her library.

Douglass’s marriage to Pitts caused controversy because Pitts was white and nearly 20 years younger than Douglass. Many in Pitts’s family stopped speaking to her, and Douglass’s children saw the marriage as a rejection of their mother. However, feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton praised the couple. Douglass responded to critics by saying his first marriage was to someone with the same skin color as his mother, and his second marriage was to someone with the same skin color as his father.

Career

Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray Douglass moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1838. New Bedford was a place where many people worked to end slavery. They later moved to Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1841. After meeting Nathan and Mary Johnson, Douglass adopted their last name, "Douglass." Before this, Douglass used his mother’s surname, Bailey. After escaping slavery, he first changed his name to Stanley and then to Johnson. In New Bedford, the name Johnson was very common, so he asked Nathan Johnson to suggest a different name. Nathan chose "Douglass" after reading a poem by Walter Scott, in which two characters had the surname "Douglas."

Douglass considered joining a white Methodist Church but was disappointed to find it was segregated, meaning people were separated based on race. He later joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, a church for Black people that had been started in New York City. This church had members like Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman. In 1839, Douglass became a licensed preacher, which helped him improve his speaking skills. He held roles such as steward, Sunday-school superintendent, and sexton. In 1840, Douglass gave a speech in Elmira, New York, a stop on the Underground Railroad. Years later, a Black congregation formed there and became the region’s largest church by 1940.

Douglass joined groups in New Bedford and attended meetings against slavery. He read William Lloyd Garrison’s newspaper, The Liberator, and said no one impressed him more with their hatred of slavery than Garrison. Douglass later wrote that The Liberator held a place in his heart second only to the Bible.

Although Garrison influenced Douglass’s early activism, Douglass developed his own ideas. He created a theory called "natural rights from below," based on the experiences of enslaved people. He believed freedom and equality should be understood from the perspective of those who had been denied them, rather than relying on ideas from European philosophers.

Douglass’s activism included supporting equal rights for African Americans, women, immigrants, and poor people. His speeches and writings promoted fairness and dignity for all, showing his belief in universal human rights, as noted in studies about his work.

In many speeches, Douglass highlighted the difference between America’s promises of freedom and the reality of slavery and racism. Scholars have linked his work to modern discussions about human rights, showing how he challenged powerful groups like American Democracy to address injustice.

Garrison admired Douglass and wrote about his opposition to colonization in The Liberator as early as 1839. Douglass first heard Garrison speak in 1841 at a lecture in New Bedford. At another meeting, Douglass was invited to speak. After sharing his story, he was encouraged to become an anti-slavery lecturer. A few days later, he spoke at the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society’s annual convention in Nantucket. At 23, he gave a powerful speech about his life as a slave.

While living in Lynn, Douglass protested segregated transportation. In September 1841, he and his friend James N. Buffum were thrown off a train at Lynn Central Square station because Douglass refused to sit in the segregated coach.

In 1843, Douglass joined the American Anti-Slavery Society’s "Hundred Conventions" project, a six-month tour across the eastern and midwestern United States. During this time, slavery supporters often attacked him. At a lecture in Pendleton, Indiana, an angry mob chased and beat Douglass. A local Quaker family, the Hardys, saved him. His hand was broken in the attack and healed improperly, causing him pain for the rest of his life. A stone marker in Falls Park in Pendleton commemorates this event.

In 1847, Douglass told Garrison, "I have no love for America, as such; I have no patriotism. I have no country. What country have I? The Institutions of this Country do not know me – do not recognize me as a man."

Douglass’s most famous work is his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, written in Lynn, Massachusetts, and published in 1845. Some people doubted a Black man could write such a powerful book. It received positive reviews and became a bestseller. Within three years, it was reprinted nine times, with 11,000 copies sold in the United States. It was also translated into French and Dutch and published in Europe.

Douglass wrote three autobiographies during his lifetime, expanding on each one. The 1845 Narrative was his best-selling work and likely helped him raise money to gain his legal freedom the following year. In 1855, he published My Bondage and My Freedom. In 1881, he published Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, which he revised in 1892.

Douglass’s friends and mentors worried that publicity might draw attention from his ex-owner, Hugh Auld, who might try to reclaim him as "property." They encouraged Douglass to tour Ireland, as many former slaves had done. Douglass sailed to Liverpool, England, on August 16, 1845, during the start of the Irish Famine.

Douglass was amazed by the freedom he felt in England, where he was treated as a man rather than based on his race. However, he was shocked by the extreme poverty in Dublin, which reminded him of his experiences in slavery. In a letter to William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass wrote, "I see much here to remind me of my former condition, and I confess I should be ashamed to lift up my voice against American slavery, but that I know the cause of humanity is one the world over."

He also met Daniel O’Connell, an Irish nationalist and abolitionist, who inspired him. Douglass spent two years in Ireland and Great Britain, giving speeches in churches and chapels. His talks were so popular that some places were "crowded to suffocation." One famous speech was his London Reception Speech in May 1846 at Finsbury Chapel. Douglass noted that in England, he was treated "not as a color, but as a man."

In 1846, Douglass met Thomas Clarkson, a British abolitionist who had helped end slavery in British colonies. During this trip, British supporters raised money to buy Douglass’s freedom from his American owner, Thomas Auld. Many people encouraged Douglass to stay in England, but he wanted to return to Massachusetts, where his wife and three million Black Americans lived.

Civil War years

By the time of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was one of the most well-known Black men in the United States. He was famous for giving powerful speeches about the struggles of Black people and other issues, like the rights of women. His speeches drew large crowds wherever he went. Leaders in England and Ireland welcomed him, which increased his influence.

Douglass was seriously considered for a seat in Congress by his friend Gerrit Smith, who had served until 1854. Smith advised Douglass not to run because some members of Congress strongly opposed the idea. People reacted strongly to the possibility of Douglass being elected. Some became very sick, others were extremely nervous, and many used very unusual and intense language. If Congress had agreed to let Douglass serve, which was unlikely, many Southern members would have left, causing a major division in the country. No Black person would serve in Congress until 1870, after the Fifteenth Amendment was passed.

Douglass and other abolitionists believed that since the Civil War aimed to end slavery, Black people should be allowed to fight for their freedom. He shared this view in his newspapers and speeches. After President Lincoln allowed Black soldiers to join the Union army, Douglass helped recruit soldiers. He published a famous message titled Men of Color to Arms! on March 21, 1863. His sons Charles and Lewis joined the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, led by Robert Gould Shaw. Charles was often sick during his service, but Lewis fought at Fort Wagner. Another son, Frederick Douglass Jr., worked as a recruiter.

With the North no longer required to return escaped slaves to the South, Douglass pushed for equal rights for Black people. In 1863, he met with President Lincoln to discuss how Black soldiers were treated. In 1864, he advised Lincoln on how to encourage enslaved people in Confederate states to help the Union war effort.

President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, which began on January 1, 1863, declared freedom for all enslaved people in Confederate states. Slaves in Union-controlled areas were not freed at the same time because the proclamation was allowed only as a wartime action. They were later freed by the 13th Amendment, passed in 1865. Douglass described the hope people felt as they waited for the proclamation: “We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky… we were watching… by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day… we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries.”

During the 1864 presidential election, Douglass supported John C. Frémont, the candidate of the abolitionist Radical Democratic Party. He was disappointed that President Lincoln did not publicly support voting rights for Black people. Douglass believed that since Black men fought for the Union, they should have the right to vote.

The 13th Amendment, passed in 1865, banned slavery except as a punishment for crimes. The 14th Amendment guaranteed birthright citizenship and protected people from unfair treatment by states. The 15th Amendment ensured that no one could be denied the right to vote based on race. After Lincoln was killed, Douglass met with President Andrew Johnson to discuss voting rights for Black people.

On April 14, 1876, Douglass gave a speech at the unveiling of the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C. He spoke honestly about President Lincoln’s mixed legacy. He called Lincoln “the white man’s President” and criticized Lincoln for being slow to support the end of slavery. However, Douglass also acknowledged Lincoln’s efforts to end slavery, saying, “Though Mr. Lincoln shared the prejudices of his white fellow-countrymen against the Negro, it is hardly necessary to say that in his heart of hearts he loathed and hated slavery.”

After the speech, the crowd gave Douglass a standing ovation. It is said that Lincoln’s widow gave him Lincoln’s favorite walking stick as a gift. The stick is now displayed at Douglass’s final home, “Cedar Hill,” which is now a historic site.

After the speech, Douglass wrote to a newspaper criticizing the design of the statue. He suggested that the park should include more respectful monuments of free Black people. He wrote, “What I want to see before I die is a monument representing the negro, not couchant on his knees like a four-footed animal, but erect on his feet like a man.”

Reconstruction era

After the Civil War, Frederick Douglass continued to fight for equality for African Americans and women. Because of his fame and activism during the war, Douglass was given several important government jobs. He became the president of the Freedman's Savings Bank during the Reconstruction era.

At the same time, groups of white people in the South formed secret organizations after the war, such as the Ku Klux Klan. These groups used violence and organized military-like teams, including the White League and the Red Shirts, to challenge African American rights. These groups supported the Democratic Party and worked to remove Republican leaders from office and stop elections. Beginning about 10 years after the war, Democrats regained control in all former Confederate states and worked to enforce white supremacy. They used violence, laws that separated races, and rules that prevented African Americans from voting. New labor and criminal laws also limited African American freedom.

To fight these actions, Douglass supported Ulysses S. Grant’s 1868 presidential campaign. In 1870, Douglass started his final newspaper, the New National Era, to remind the country of its promise to ensure equality. President Grant sent a government team, including Douglass, to the West Indies to study whether the United States should take over Santo Domingo. Grant believed this might help African Americans in the South by giving them their own state. Douglass and the team supported the idea, but Congress did not agree. Douglass criticized Senator Charles Sumner for opposing the plan, saying that if Sumner continued to block it, he would be "the worst enemy the colored race has on this continent."

After the 1872 midterm elections, Grant passed the Civil Rights Act of 1871 (also called the Ku Klux Klan Act) and other laws to stop the Klan. Grant used these laws to arrest thousands of people, including suspending a legal right called habeas corpus in South Carolina and sending troops to other states. Under Grant’s leadership, over 5,000 arrests were made. These actions made Grant unpopular with many white people but earned praise from Douglass. A friend of Douglass wrote that African Americans would always remember Grant’s efforts with gratitude.

In 1872, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States as Victoria Woodhull’s running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket. He was not aware of the nomination and did not campaign for the ticket. That year, Douglass also served as a presidential elector for New York and delivered the state’s votes to Washington, D.C.

However, in early June 1872, Douglass’s third home in Rochester, New York, burned down. Arson was suspected, and the fire caused serious damage to the house, its contents, and the surrounding area. Sixteen issues of the North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper were also lost. Douglass then moved to Washington, D.C.

During the Reconstruction era, Douglass continued to speak publicly, emphasizing the importance of work, voting rights, and the right to vote. His speeches over the next 25 years focused on fighting racism in unions. In a speech on November 15, 1867, he said:

In an 1869 speech titled "Our Composite Nationality," Douglass defended the rights of Chinese immigrants to come to the United States, to be treated as witnesses in court, to become citizens, and to vote and hold office. This was a time when many Republicans also opposed Chinese immigration and the rights Douglass supported. Douglass argued that allowing people to immigrate freely was a human right, saying, "I hold that a liberal and brotherly welcome to all who are likely to come to the United States is the only wise policy which this nation can adopt."

Douglass gave speeches at many colleges, including Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in 1873.

In 1881, Douglass spoke at Storer College in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where he praised John Brown and shared new details about their relationship, including their meeting near Chambersburg before the raid.

Final years in Washington, D.C.

The Freedman's Savings Bank ran out of money on June 29, 1874, just a few months after Frederick Douglass became its president in late March. During the same economic crisis, his final newspaper, The New National Era, stopped publishing in September. When Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was elected president, he named Douglass United States Marshal for the District of Columbia, making him the first person of color to hold that position. The United States Senate voted to confirm him on March 17, 1877. Douglass accepted the appointment, which helped ensure his family's financial stability. During his time in the role, Douglass was encouraged by supporters to resign because he was never asked to introduce visiting foreign leaders to the president, a common duty of the position. However, Douglass believed the omission did not mean there was hidden racism, and he said he was always welcomed in presidential circles.

In 1877, Douglass visited his former enslaver, Thomas Auld, on his deathbed, and the two men reconciled. Douglass had met Auld’s daughter, Amanda Auld Sears, years earlier. She had asked for the meeting and later attended and cheered at one of Douglass’s speeches. Her father praised her for reaching out to Douglass. The visit seemed to bring closure to Douglass, though some people criticized his decision.

That same year, Douglass bought a house in Washington, D.C., that would be his family’s final home. The house sat on a hill above the Anacostia River. He and his wife, Anna, renamed it Cedar Hill (also spelled CedarHill). They expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and added a china closet and a studio where he worked. One year later, Douglass purchased nearby land and expanded the property to 15 acres (61,000 square meters) with a large yard. The home is now preserved as the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

In 1881, Douglass published the final edition of his autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, and updated it in 1892. That same year, he was appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. His wife, Anna Murray Douglass, died in 1882, which deeply saddened him. After a time of mourning, Douglass found new purpose by working with activist Ida B. Wells. He remarried in 1884, as noted earlier.

Douglass continued giving speeches and traveling in the United States and abroad. With his new wife, Helen, he toured the UK, including Wales (possibly invited by abolitionist Jessie Donaldson), Ireland, France, Italy, Egypt, and Greece from 1886 to 1887. He supported Irish Home Rule and backed Charles Stewart Parnell in Ireland.

At the 1888 Republican National Convention, Douglass became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States in a major party’s roll call vote. That year, he spoke at Claflin College, a historically Black college in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and the state’s oldest such institution.

Many African Americans, called Exodusters, left the South to escape the Ku Klux Klan and unfair laws by moving to Kansas, where some created all-Black towns for more freedom and independence. Douglass did not support this movement or the Back-to-Africa movement, which he compared to the American Colonization Society he had opposed earlier in life. In 1892, at a conference in Indianapolis led by Bishop Henry McNeal Turner, Douglass spoke against separatist movements, urging African Americans to remain in the United States. He made similar speeches as early as 1879 and faced criticism from some leaders and audiences, who even booed him for this position. Speaking in Baltimore in 1894, Douglass said, “I hope and trust all will come out right in the end, but the immediate future looks dark and troubled. I cannot shut my eyes to the ugly facts before me.”

President Harrison appointed Douglass as the United States minister resident and consul-general to Haiti and Chargé d’affaires for Santo Domingo in 1889. However, Douglass resigned in July 1891 when it became clear that the American president wanted to gain permanent access to Haitian territory without Haiti’s agreement. In 1892, Haiti named Douglass a co-commissioner of its pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

In 1892, Douglass built rental housing for Black people, now called Douglass Place, in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. The complex still exists and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.

Death

On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. During the meeting, he was brought to the platform and received a standing ovation. Shortly after returning home, Douglass died of a heart attack. Since his exact birth date is not known, he would have been either 76 or 77 years old. He would have been 76 if born after February 20, 1818, or 77 if born before or on that date.

His funeral took place at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church. Although Douglass had attended other churches in Washington, D.C., he had a reserved seat at this church. He also donated two standing candelabras when the church moved to a new building in 1886. He gave many speeches there, including his final major speech, "The Lessons of the Hour."

Thousands of people viewed his coffin to show respect. United States senators and Supreme Court justices carried his coffin. Jeremiah Rankin, president of Howard University, gave a speech. A letter from Elizabeth Cady Stanton was read aloud. The Secretary of the Haitian Legation spoke in French, expressing his country’s sympathy.

Douglass’s coffin was taken to Rochester, New York, where he had lived for 25 years, the longest time of his life. His body was received in a formal ceremony at City Hall, with flags at half-mast and schools closed. He was buried next to his wife, Anna, in the Douglass family plot at Mount Hope Cemetery. His daughter, Helen, was later buried there in 1903. His grave, along with Susan B. Anthony’s, is the most visited in the cemetery. A marker, placed by the University of Rochester and others, describes Douglass as "escaped slave, abolitionist, suffragist, journalist, and statesman. Founder of the civil rights movement in America."

Works

• 1845. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (first autobiography).
• 1853. "The Heroic Slave," pp. 174–239 in Autographs for Freedom, edited by Julia Griffiths. Published by Jewett and Company in Boston. Also included in Speeches & Writings volume of The Frederick Douglass Collection: A Library of America Boxed Set (2023). A separate version was published in Dover Thrift Edition (2019).
• 1855. My Bondage and My Freedom (second autobiography).
• 1881 (revised 1892). Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (third and final autobiography).
• 1847–1851. The North Star, an abolitionist newspaper started and edited by Douglass. He later combined it with another newspaper to create Frederick Douglass' Paper.
• 1886. Three Addresses on the Relations Subsisting between the White and Colored People of the United States, available at Gutenberg.org.
• 1950–1955. The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (5 volumes, edited by Philip S. Foner). Published by International Publishers in New York. A supplementary volume 5 was published in 1975.
• 2012. In the Words of Frederick Douglass: Quotations from Liberty's Champion, edited by John R. McKivigan and Heather L. Kaufman. Published by Cornell University Press in Ithaca. ISBN 978-0-8014-4790-7.
• 2023. The Frederick Douglass Collection: A Library of America Boxed Set, including Autobiographies (edited by Henry Louis Gates) and Speeches & Writings (edited by David W. Blight). Published by Library of America in two volumes, totaling 2,097 pages.

• 1841. "The Church and Prejudice"
• 1852. "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" In 2020, National Public Radio created a video where descendants of Douglass read parts of this speech.
• 1859. Self-Made Men
• 1863, July 6. "Speech at National Hall, for the Promotion of Colored Enlistments."
• 1869. "Our Composite Nationality"
• 1881. John Brown: An Address by Frederick Douglass, delivered at the Fourteenth Anniversary of Storer College.

• 1847. "Liberty," an eight-line poem, was written by Douglass in his notebook on September 13, 1847, in Cleveland, Ohio. During a Western tour for the abolitionist movement, Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison traveled through Ohio, where people welcomed them warmly. This improved Douglass’s mood after he had been attacked with rotten eggs and stones during a speech in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He wrote "Liberty" and another poem in Ohio during this time. The handwritten poem is now in the Archives & Special Collections at Xavier University of Louisiana.

Legacy and honors

Biographer David Blight says that Frederick Douglass "played an important role in America's Second Founding after the Civil War, and he wanted to see himself as a founder and protector of the Second American Republic."

Roy Finkenbine explains that in his later years, Douglass spoke against separate schools for Black children. He believed that separate schools kept Black children unequal and went against the goal of ending slavery. Douglass thought that good education was necessary for African Americans to become full citizens and take part in democracy. He believed that learning to read and write was not just a personal goal but a right that everyone should share. His ideas about education influenced many future Black teachers and civil rights leaders who also saw education as important for fighting racial injustice.

The Episcopal Church remembers Douglass with a special celebration called a Lesser Feast every year on February 20, the day he died. Many public schools are named after him. Douglass has living descendants today, such as Ken Morris, who is also a descendant of Booker T. Washington. Other honors and remembrances include:

• In 1871, a statue of Douglass was placed at Sibley Hall, University of Rochester.
• In 1895, the first hospital for Black people in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was named Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital. Black doctors who were not allowed in other hospitals were trained and worked there. In 1948, it became part of Mercy-Douglass Hospital.
• In 1899, a statue of Frederick Douglass was placed in Rochester, New York, making him the first African-American to be honored with a statue in the United States.
• In 1921, members of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity (the first African-American college group) gave Douglass an honorary membership. He was the only person to receive this honor after his death.
• The Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge, sometimes called the South Capitol Street Bridge, was built in 1950 and named after him. It is located near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
• In 1962, Douglass’s home in Anacostia, Washington, D.C., became part of the National Park System. In 1988, it was named the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
• In 1965, the U.S. Postal Service honored Douglass with a stamp in the Prominent Americans series. Additional stamps were later released in 1995 and 2024.
• In 1999, Yale University created the Frederick Douglass Book Prize for books about the history of slavery and abolition. The prize is given every year and is managed by the Gilder Lehrman Institute and the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale.
• In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante named Frederick Douglass to his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.
• In 2003, Douglass Place, a group of rental homes Douglass built in Baltimore in 1892 for Black people, was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
• In 2005, Douglass was added to the National Abolition Hall of Fame in Peterboro, New York.
• In 2007, the Troup–Howell Bridge in Rochester, New York, was renamed the Frederick Douglass – Susan B. Anthony Memorial Bridge.
• In 2010, a statue of Douglass was placed at Frederick Douglass Circle in New York City’s Central Park.
• In 2010, Douglass was added to the New York Writers Hall of Fame.
• In 2011, a seven-foot bronze statue of Douglass was placed on the lawn of the Talbot County courthouse in Easton, Maryland.
• In 2013, a statue of Douglass by artist Steven Weitzman was placed in the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center as part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. This was the first statue from the District of Columbia to be displayed there.
• In 2014, a portrait of Douglass was placed in the official residence of the governor of Maryland, Annapolis. This painting was the first African-American portrait in the governor’s office.
• In 2015, a portrait of Douglass was given to Governor Martin O’Malley by Peter Franchot. Two copies of the artwork were also added to Franchot’s personal collection.
• In 2015, the University of Maryland created Frederick Douglass Plaza, an outdoor space with quotes about Douglass and a bronze statue of him.
• In 2016, the city of Washington, D.C., voted to change its name to “Washington, D.C.,” with “D.C.” standing for “Douglass Commonwealth.”
• In 2017, the U.S. Mint released quarters with an image of Douglass on the back. The Frederick Douglass National Historic Site is shown in the background.
• In 2018, Douglass was given an honorary law degree by the University of Rochester. His great-great-great-grandson accepted the degree on his behalf.
• In 1895, Douglass gave his last public speech at West Chester University, 19 days before he died. A statue of him now stands on the university campus. The Frederick Douglass Institute at the university works to teach about Douglass’s life and ideas.
• In New York State, there is a sculpture called “Let’s

In popular culture

• In episode 12 of the 1964-1965 TV series Profiles in Courage, Robert Hooks plays Frederick Douglass. The series is based on a book by John F. Kennedy from 1956.
• In the 1985 TV miniseries North and South (Season 1, episode 3), Robert Guillaume portrays Douglass giving a speech about the American slave trade.
• The 1989 movie Glory includes Douglass, played by Raymond St. Jacques, as a friend of Francis George Shaw.
• In Ken Burns’ 1990 documentary The Civil War, actor Morgan Freeman provides the voice for Douglass.
• The 2004 mockumentary film C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America includes Douglass in an alternate version of history.
• In the 2006 movie Akeelah and the Bee, characters talk about Douglass near a bronze statue of him made by sculptor Tina Allen.
• The 2008 documentary Frederick Douglass and the White Negro tells about Douglass’s time in Ireland and the relationship between African and Irish Americans during the Civil War.
• In the movie Freedom, Douglass is played by Byron Utley.
• In the 2015 documentary The Gettysburg Address, actor Laurence Fishburne voices Douglass.
• A 2020 TV miniseries based on the book The Good Lord Bird by James McBride features Douglass, played by Daveed Diggs. In this story, Douglass is shown in a negative way.
• On February 23, 2022, HBO released a one-hour documentary called Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches, based on the book Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight.
• In the 2024 Apple TV+ miniseries Manhunt, Douglass is played by Elvis Nolasco.
• In the 2025 Netflix miniseries Death by Lightning, Douglass is portrayed by Vondie Curtis-Hall.

• The 1946 book A Star Pointed North by Edmund Fuller describes Douglass’s life.
• In the 1988 book Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson, an alternate history is told where enslaved people free themselves in a large revolt. In this story, Douglass and Harriet Tubman are leaders of a Black state in the South.
• In the 1997 book How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove, Douglass is a main character in a story where the Confederacy wins the Civil War. Douglass continues his fight against slavery into the 1880s.
• Douglass appears in the 1994 book Flashman and the Angel of the Lord by George MacDonald Fraser.
• In the 2002 book Douglass’ Women by Jewell Parker Rhodes, Douglass, his wife, and Ottilie Assing (his alleged mistress) are the main characters.
• In the 2007 book Riversmeet by Richard Bradbury, Douglass is the main character. The story is about his 1845 speaking tour in the British Isles.
• In the 2013 book TransAtlantic by Colum McCann, Douglass’s time in Ireland is described.
• In the 2013 book The Good Lord Bird by James McBride, Douglass is shown in a humorous way.
• In 2019, David W. Blight won a Pulitzer Prize for his book Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.
• In the 2024 book The Secrets of Blythswood Square by Sara Sheridan, Douglass is a character in a story set in 1846 in Glasgow.

• Between 1938 and 1939, African-American artist Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings about Douglass. These paintings were part of a larger series about important Black figures, such as Toussaint Louverture and Harriet Tubman. Lawrence studied Douglass’s autobiographies at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. His series includes 32 panels with captions, showing Douglass’s life in three parts: as a slave, a runaway, and a free man. The paintings are now in the Hampton University Museum.
• In 2024, the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Maryland displayed a mural of Douglass by artist Adam Himoff. The mural shows Douglass wearing a European-style suit, white sneakers, and a large wristwatch. The mural was first made as a print, then turned into a 21-foot artwork in Easton, Maryland, where Douglass was born.

• In the 2008 video game Civilization Revolution, Douglass is shown as a Great Humanitarian.
• On May 30, 2016, a video from Epic Rap Battles of History featured Douglass and Thomas Jefferson. The video had 34 million views on YouTube by February 2026.
• In 2019, an art exhibition called Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass by British artist Isaac Julien was held in New York.
• In August 2022, a musical called American Prophet: Frederick Douglass in His Own Words was performed in Washington, D.C. Cornelius Smith Jr. played Douglass in the show.
• In 1948, a two-part radio drama called The Making of a Man and The Key to Freedom was broadcast. It was written by Richard Durham and presented by Destination Freedom.
• A drawing of Douglass appeared on the cover of Ebony magazine in September 1963.