Activist for Equality: Frederick Douglass at 200

After escaping from slavery in 1838, Douglass wrote his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, in 1845. His story furthered the abolition movement and shattered the myth of racial inferiority. An eloquent and moving indictment of slavery, Douglass’s Narrative is a classic of American literature.

Shortly after publishing his autobiography, Douglass fled to the British Isles to escape capture by slave hunters. In this 1846 letter, Douglass urges abolitionists to take action: Do Something is my Motto. ... Let something be done.”

On July 5, 1852, Douglass spoke in Rochester, New York, stating, “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?... a day that reveals to [the slave], more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”

Douglass the activist emerges powerfully in 1857. In his remarks on the Dred Scott decision, he calls for “prejudice to be overcome,” and stresses the need for “a deep, radical change ... in the mind and heart of the whole nation.”

With the Thirteenth Amendment, African Americans won their freedom, but lacked the crucial right to vote. In January 1867, Douglass wrote “The fundamental and unanswerable argument in favor of the enfranchisement of the negro is found in the undisputed fact of his manhood. He is a man.”

On Decoration Day (now known as Memorial Day) in 1871, Douglass delivered an address at Arlington National Cemetery. He urged his audience to remember the difference between “those who fought for slavery and those who fought against it.”

In 1870, Douglass was invited to participate in a lecture series at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Douglass refused when he learned the venue was segregated. In this letter, Douglass condemns northern racism and segregation, conveying his disgust at the “intensity of [Philadelphia’s] wolfish hate and snobbish pride of race.”

Douglass knew that education was the key to freedom and greater equality. In this 1887 letter, he remarks, “My own observation has been that white teachers of Colored Schools in the southern states, show but little interest in their pupils.”

In December 1888, Douglass protested the disenfranchisement of black southern voters, refuting the notion held by anxious white southerners that African American suffrage engendered “negro supremacy.” In Douglass’s emphatic words, the idea is “all humbug—There is nothing in it.”

In 1881, Douglass published his final autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. It illustrates Douglass’s ongoing activism, including for women’s rights. He finds “no foundation ... for woman's exclusion from the right of choice in the selection of the persons who should frame the laws.”

Douglass became the first African American to be confirmed by the Senate as a US Marshal. When he was tapped for a minor role in the inauguration of James Garfield, he refused: “It has been usual on former Inaugural occasions for the United States Marshal and his officers to be assigned a prominent part.”

After the Civil War, Douglass was appointed to several government positions. In this short statement, he summarizes his life: “A slave 1837. Free man 1838. Took refuge in England from slave hunters in 1845. Ransomed 1846,” ending with “Appointed Minister and Consul General to Hayti, by President Harrison 1889.”

In March 1894, Douglass wrote to Benjamin Auld, the son of his former master. Douglass was still haunted by the fact that he did not know his birthdate. A year before his death, Douglass writes: “I have always been troubled by the thought of having no birth day.”