Frederick Douglass
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Frederick Douglass | |
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Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey | |
Birthplace | Talbot County, Maryland, U.S. |
Died | |
Occupation | Abolitionist, author, editor, diplomat |
Douglass, Frederick
Douglass, Frederick (dŭgˈləs), c.1818–1895, American abolitionist, b. near Easton, Md. as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. The son of a black slave, Harriet Bailey, and a white father, most likely his mother's owner, he reinvented himself by taking the name of Douglass (from Scott's hero in The Lady of the Lake) after his successful second attempt to escape from slavery in 1838. At New Bedford, Mass., he found work as a day laborer. A staunch abolitionist, he maintained that there could be no compromise with slavery. He had begun speaking at a local black church, and an extemporaneous 1841 speech before a meeting of the Nantucket Anti-Slavery Society established him as a superb orator in the abolitionist cause. Fearing capture as a fugitive slave, he spent two years in England and Ireland, returning in 1847 after English friends had purchased (1846) his freedom.
Douglass, who had learned to read and write while still a slave, published his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave in 1845, the first of three autobiographies; My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), was a fuller version of the first book, and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881) described his later life as a statesman and man of letters. Douglass spent some 15 years traveling by train, advocating abolition in speeches throughout the country, and soon became one of its most famous spokesmen. At Rochester, N.Y., he established (1847) the North Star anti-slavery weekly (later retitled Frederick Douglass' Paper) and edited it for 17 years. Unlike William L. Garrison, he favored abolition through political action and thus became a follower of James G. Birney.
In the Civil War he helped organize two Massachusetts regiments of African Americans and urged other blacks to join the Union ranks. During Reconstruction he continued to urge civil rights for African Americans as a member of the Republican Party. He spoke out against Jim Crow laws and spent much of his time helping to establish black institutions such as colleges. He also served as secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission (1871), marshal (1877–81) and recorder of deeds (1881–86) for the District of Columbia, and minister to Haiti (1889–91).
Bibliography
See P. S. Foner, ed., Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (4 vol., 1950–55); biographies by B. T. Washington (1907), P. Foner (1964), B. Quarles (1968), A. Bontemps (1971), W. McFreely (1991), and D. W. Blight (2018); E. Fuller, A Star Pointed North (1946); J. Stauffer and Z. Trodd, Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century's Most Photographed American (2015).
Douglass, Frederick
(pseudonym of Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey). Born February 1817, in Tuckahoe, Md.; died Feb. 20, 1895, in Anacostia Heights, a suburb of Washington, D. C. American abolitionist and revolutionary democrat. Leader of the Negro liberation movement, public figure, and writer.
Born a slave, Douglass fled to the North in 1838 and took an active part in the antislavery movement. At first Douglass shared the illusions of many abolitionist leaders on the need for moral exhortations to the slaveowners. Later, however, he resolutely supported revolutionary methods of struggle. Douglass’ political activity was subordinated to the idea of the unification of all antislavery forces and the creation of a mass abolitionist party. He took part in the organization of the National Liberty Party and in the Free Soil Party, and he was active in the Negro congress movement and in the work of the underground railroad.
Douglass was a brilliant publicist and orator. In 1847 he began to publish the newspaper North Star, which became one of the leading organs of the antislavery movement. In the 1850’s, under the influence of John Brown, Douglass came out in favor of armed struggle against slavery. He clearly conceived the revolutionary character of the Civil War in the USA (1861-65) and advanced the slogan of immediate emancipation of the slaves. Douglass participated in the formation of the first Negro regiments. During the Reconstruction period he took part in the Negro popular mass struggle for equality in US economic, political, and social life. He played a leading role in the Negro political organization the National League of Struggle for Equality, and he became chairman of the National Colored Labor Union in 1870. Douglass actively supported the democratization of US society and politics and defended the rights of women. His autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845; revised editions: My Bondage and My Freedom,1855; and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1881), exposes slavery.
SOURCES
The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, vols. 1-4. Edited by P. Foner. New York, 1950-55.REFERENCES
Foster, W. Z. Negritianskii narod v istorii Ameriki. Moscow, 1955. (Translated from English.)Graham, S. Frederik Duglas. Moscow, 1959. (Translated from English.)
Ivanov, R. F. “Frederik Duglas—rukovoditel’ revoliutsionnogo kryla abolitsionistskogo dvizheniia.” In the collection K stoletiiu grazhdanskoi voiny v SShA. Moscow, 1961.
Bekker, M. I. Progressivnaia negritianskaia literatura SShA. Leningrad, 1957.
I. P. DEMENT’EV