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Abolitionist

Frederick A. Douglass was born a slave and began life under exceedingly harsh conditions. He never knew his father. He was separated from his mother by a slavemaster and was raised by his grandmother. When he was eight years old, his grandmother died, and he was sent to live with a group of other slave children. Finally, he was sent to live with a family in Baltimore, Maryland. There he was taught by caring white people to read and write. He encountered other whites who neither owned slaves nor were cruel, and met blacks who were not slaves. After some years in Baltimore, however, he was sent back to a plantation in Maryland where he was whipped frequently in an attempt to break his spirit.
The contrast of his experiences with both free blacks and enslaved blacks, with kind whites, caused Frederick A. Douglass to realize the depth of the evil of slavery and that it need not exist. He became determined to change the system. Douglass escaped from his master and fled to New York, where he began attending anti-slavery meetings and telling his own story. His skills as an orator, combined with his personal knowledge of slavery, quickly brought him to the forefront of abolitionist speakers.

Frederick A. Douglass traveled throughout New England, the North, and the Midwest, spreading the message of freedom for all slaves. On his travels, he faced many dangers and was even beaten, but he never ceased to tell the story. Following the emancipation of the slaves and the end of the Civil War, he focused his energies on how to help his own people to grow and develop. Many of his ideas were implemented by Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee Institute.

FLASH-FACTS

Was the leading spokesperson against slavery
Wrote an autobiography and edited influential newspapers
Served as the United States minister to Haiti