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Definition: Douglass, Frederick from Philip's Encyclopedia

African-American social reformer and abolitionist. An escaped slave, he was a lecturer for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society and managed to buy his freedom. He published an abolitionist paper, North Star (1847), and recruited African American soldiers for the Union side in the American Civil War. He later held several government posts, such as minister to Haiti (1889-91).

Douglass, Frederick

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
Frederick Douglass, author of a profoundly influential African American text during his era, rose through the ranks of the antislavery movement to become the most electrifying speaker and compelling writer produced by black America in the nineteenth century. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born on Maryland's Eastern Shore in February 1818, the son of Harriet Bailey, a slave, and an unknown white man. Sent to Baltimore in 1826 by his master's son-in-law Thomas Auld, Frederick spent five years as a servant in the home of Thomas Auld's brother Hugh. Hugh's wife, Sophia, treated the slave boy with unusual kindness, giving him reading lessons until her husband forbade them. Rather than accept Hugh Auld's dictates, Frederick took his first rebellious steps toward freedom by teaching himself to read and write. In 1833 a quarrel between the Auld brothers brought Frederick back to his home in St. Michaels, Maryland. Thomas Auld hired Frederick out as a farm worker under the supervision…
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Full text Article Frederick Douglass: The Myth of “Yellow Peril”, December 7, 1869

From Ripples of Hope: Great American Civil Rights Speeches
Repugnance to the presence and influence of foreigners is an ancient feeling among men. It is peculiar to no particular race or nation. Frederick Douglass was perhaps the most prominent and visionary leader of the abolitionist movement in the nineteenth century, arguing vociferously against slavery…
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Full text Article Douglass, Frederick

From Encyclopedia of Emancipation and Abolition in the Transatlantic World
Born a slave in Maryland, Frederick Douglass...
An exceptional orator, writer, and activist for the cause of black liberation, Frederick Douglass is a towering figure in the history of African Americans. Through his courage, determination, and unrelenting pursuit of knowledge, he rose from slavery to freedom. Upon gaining his own freedom, …
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Full text Article Douglass, Frederick

From Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature
D. was one of the most prominent black leaders of the 19th c. and his influence continues to be felt in the late 20th c. Born into slavery as Augustus Washington Bailey, he taught himself to read illegally and escaped to the North when he was twenty. D. became a successful author, orator, editor, …
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Full text Article Douglass, Frederick

From The Great American History Fact-Finder
An escaped slave who became a prominent abolitionist. Douglass escaped from Baltimore, Maryland, and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he worked as a chimney sweep and laborer. A celebrated orator, he spoke tirelessly for the antislavery cause. To elude slave-catchers, he fled to England, …
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Full text Article Frederick Douglass

From Chambers Classic Speeches
Frederick Douglass originally Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey (1817-95) was born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He learned to read and write during his childhood as a household servant, but was then returned to a plantation where he laboured as a field hand. He escaped from a Baltimore shipyard…
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Full text Article Douglass, Frederick 1818–1895

From Encyclopedia of Race and Racism
Frederick Douglass. This portrait of Douglass...
Frederick Douglass was the black face of antislavery and civil rights in the United States from the mid-1840s until his death in 1895. As a speaker, writer, newspaper editor and publisher, he influenced public opinion and perspectives about African Americans. His autobiography became a classic…
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Full text Article DOUGLASS, FREDERICK 1818-1895

From Encyclopedia of the Romantic Era, 1760-1850
Frederick Douglass was the single most important African American public voice in nineteenth-century America. Born into slavery in Maryland in 1818(?), only to escape at age twenty to eventually become a prominent public orator and anti-slavery activist in New England in the 1840s and 1850s, …
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Full text Article Douglass, Frederick (1818–1895)

From Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience
Frederick Douglass (Fisk University).
The beloved leader of black America in the nineteenth century, Fredrick Douglass was the most influential African American of his day. As a pioneer of the anti-slavery movement, Douglass was a charismatic speaker and writer who commanded the respect of audiences and readers alike. His Narrative of…
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Full text Article Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895)

From From Suffrage to the Senate: America's Political Women
Douglass, Frederick (1818-1895)
Frederick Douglass, born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland, became one of the most recognized leaders in the abolitionist movement. After escaping from slavery in 1838, he made his first important anti-slavery speech in 1841 and won the support of abolitionist leaders with his compelling oratory. In…
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Full text Article DOUGLASS, FREDERICK (1818-1895)

From Encyclopedia of Free Blacks and People of Color in the Americas
A lithograph portrait of Frederick Douglass...
American orator, journalist, reformer, and statesman The most prominent African American of the 19th century was born into slavery as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Tuckahoe, Maryland, the exact date uncertain although Douglass later concluded it was February 14, 1818. Douglass saw his…
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