Frederick Douglass was one of the foremost abolitionist speakers and writers of the 19 century.
Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 in Maryland and learned to read and write as a young house slave. After some time working in fields and being returned to Baltimore, he escaped at age 20.
Douglass became a writer and speaker following his escape. He eventually wrote three autobiographies over the course of his life: “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave,” “My Bondage and My Freedom,” and “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.”
These books are considered American classics and important to the understanding of life as a slave in Douglass’s time.
Douglass also gave went on numerous speaking tours in both the northern United States and Great Britain to promote abolition and published his own newspaper, “The North Star.”
After the Civil War, he moved to Washington D.C. and was made U.S. Marshall for the District of Columbia and representative to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He continued to fight for civil rights for blacks and women until his death in 1895.