Frederick Douglass

Biography

• Born 1818 into slavery in Maryland, on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake

Bay.

• “I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record

containing it.”

• Separated from his mother at an early age; lives with his maternal

grandmother on a plantation – the Wye House Plantation.

• Begins to learn the alphabet at 12 years old.

Portrait of Frederick

Douglass, Age 29.

Wye House Plantation

Publication of Narrative

• Published in 1845, Narrative of the Life of

Frederick Douglass, an American Slave became an

immediate bestseller.

• William Lloyd Garrison, a Northern

abolitionist and publisher of The Liberator,

mentors Douglass.

• Douglass begins touring, giving abolition

speeches at conventions across the Northeast.

Douglass Travels to Ireland

• "Eleven days and a half gone and I have crossed three thousand miles of the

perilous deep. Instead of a democratic government, I am under a monarchical

government. Instead of the bright, blue sky of America, I am covered with the soft,

grey fog of the Emerald Isle [Ireland]. I breathe, and lo! the chattel [slave] becomes

a man. I gaze around in vain for one who will question my equal humanity, claim me

as his slave, or offer me an insult. I employ a cab—I am seated beside white

people—I reach the hotel—I enter the same door—I am shown into the same

parlour—I dine at the same table—and no one is offended... I find myself regarded

and treated at every turn with the kindness and deference paid to white people.”

Douglass on Women’s Rights

• “In this denial of the right to participate in

government, not merely the degradation of

woman and the perpetuation of a great

injustice happens, but the maiming and

repudiation of one-half of the moral and

intellectual power of the government of the

world.” – Seneca Falls Convention

Douglass on Lincoln

• "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...."

Frederick Douglass House, D.C.

Douglass on America

• "Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of

the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting.

America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself

to be false to the future.“

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of

July?

I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross

injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration

is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness,

swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your

denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and

equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and

thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere

bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes

which would disgrace a nation of savages.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July?