biography
| name: |
Douglass, Frederick
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originally Frederick Augustus Washington Baily
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (c.1817–95)
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| biography:
| Abolitionist, writer, and public official, born near Tuckahoe, Maryland, USA. Born into slavery (his father was white, his mother was part American Indian), he was taught to read as a household servant but at age 16 was sent out to work as a field hand. In 1836 he was apprenticed to a shipyard in Baltimore, MD but he escaped (1838) and settled in New Bedford, MA, where he assumed the name by which he became known. After he made a speech before the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society (1841), he was hired as an agent and he lectured throughout the North. Because his intelligence and speaking abilities led some to question whether he had been a slave, he published Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). Then, fearing for his freedom, he fled to England, where he lectured with such effect that the British contributed a generous sum of money that, together with money contributed by Americans, helped him buy his freedom when he returned to the USA (1847). He went to Rochester, NY, where he co-founded (with Martin Delany) the abolitionist periodical North Star, which he edited for 16 years (the Frederick Douglass's Paper from 1851). In 1859 he took refuge in Canada for a short time because he was falsely accused of aiding John Brown. He took a more gradualist approach to ending slavery but never wavered as the leading voice of African-Americans' call for freedom and equality. During the Civil War he urged President Lincoln to emancipate the slaves, and he helped recruit African-American troops. After the war he spoke out for other social reforms such as women's suffrage. He also held a series of government posts, including assistant secretary to the Santo Domingo Commission, marshal of the District of Columbia (1877–81), district recorder of deeds (1881–6), and ambassador to Haiti (1889–91). In 1881 he issued a final revision of his autobiography as Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. |
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