Life of Douglass

Frederick Douglass (1818?-1895) was the leading spokesman of African Americans in the 1800's. Born a slave, Douglass became a noted reformer, author, and orator. He devoted his life to the abolition of slavery and the fight for black rights.

Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in Tuckahoe, Maryland, near Easton. At the age of 8, he was sent to Baltimore to work for one of his master's relatives. There, helped by the wife of his new master, he began to educate himself. He later worked in a shipyard, where he caulked ships, making them watertight.

In 1838, the young man fled from his master and went to New Bedford, Massachusetts. To avoid capture, he dropped his two middle names and changed his last name to Douglass. He got a job as a caulker, but the other men refused to work with him because he was black. Douglass then held unskilled jobs, among them collecting rubbish and digging cellars.

In 1845, Douglass published his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. He feared that his identity as a runaway slave would be revealed when the book was published, so he went to England.

Douglass served as recorder of deeds in the District of Columbia from 1881 to 1886 and as United States minister to Haiti from 1889 to 1891. He wrote two expanded versions of his autobiography-My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881).

Excerpt adapted from the "Frederick Douglass" article, The World Book Encyclopedia © 1999