Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass
by Woldemedhin


This is a painting of Frederick Douglass in his later years.

Frederick Douglass was an important person in the fight for equal rights. He lived on Alexander Street in Rochester. Then he moved to South Avenue. Frederick Douglass moved to Rochester because he wanted to start a newspaper in Boston, but Frederick knew The Liberator was a more successful newspaper and was made in Boston by his friend William Lloyd Garrison. Frederick knew that Garrison would get mad if he started a newspaper in Boston where Garrison lived, so he moved to Rochester. He also came to Rochester because of all the abolitionists who lived in the town. Many abolitionists had helped freedom seekers to get to Canada using the Underground Railroad.

Before he came to Rochester, Frederick Douglass used to work in a ship yard with free African Americans just before he escaped. He experienced fighting with Edward Covey a slave breaker. He ran away from slavery by using freedom papers from an African American sailor he had worked with in the ship yard. Douglass escaped by train and then by ferry to New York City. After he got to Massachusetts, he changed his last name from Bailey to Douglass for fear of getting caught by slave hunters.

In his life, he wrote three biographies about the things that he did and also why slavery should be destroyed. His first book was called Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. It was published in 1845. For this reason, he had to leave to England in order not to be found by his slave master. The English anti-slavery supporters arranged to pay for Frederick Douglass’s freedom from his master. After he paid for his freedom, Frederick returned to the United States in 1847 and settled in Rochester, New York, where he established his newspaper called The North Star.

Frederick Douglass had many friends and co-workers. The Anthony family helped Frederick meet Susan B. Anthony, who he worked with on women's rights. He and Susan attended meetings and gave speeches together. Frederick helped John Brown plan a raid on Harper’s Ferry. He also helped William Parker get to Canada because of the Christiana Riot. The Christiana Riot happened when Edward Gorsuch’s four slaves escaped and went to an abolitionist called William Parker. But Edward Gorsuch found out and went to William Parker's house. Edward Gorsuch got killed because when he said “give me back my property [slaves],” William Parker said “I do not have your property”, because he believed that slaves were people, not property. Then shots were fired from William Parker's house and Gorsuch died.

Frederick Douglass had lots of strategies like making his own newspaper and writing articles about slavery in it. Also he made many speeches about ending slavery. He hid freedom seekers in his house. Frederick Douglass supported women’s rights and came to the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls. When Frederick was 44 years old, he recruited many African Americans for the Union Army. He wanted to be an officer but he could not because he was African American. So he helped by putting advertisements for African American men to join the Union Army.

Frederick Douglass also helped raise money for a monument for the African American soldiers that fought in the Civil War. The statue was never made because Frederick died at the age of 77 of a heart attack while he was raising money for the statue. After he died the people who were helping him to raise money decided to change the idea of building a monument to honor African American soldiers to building a monument to honor Frederick Douglass.

His quote, “Truth is of no sex – Right is of no color,” shows that Frederick Douglass was an important person in the fight for equal rights.

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