Frederick Douglass was perhaps the first black man to have had a rise so long and arduous that it took him from slavery to some of the highest positions in the country, exerting considerable influence not only on the minds of many ordinary people, but also on the presidents. His name and legacy remain unforgettable as seen in the many quotes attributed to him, the books written about him especially for children, and the monuments in his honor.
Douglass served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed the right to vote and other civil liberties for blacks. He provided a powerful voice at the time defending human rights. He is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice.
After the Civil War, Douglass held a number of important political positions, including as Reconstruction-era president of the Freedman’s Savings Bank; Marshal of the District of Columbia, President of the National Union of Colored Workers, Registrar of Deeds in Washington, Resident Minister and Consul General of the Republic of Haiti (1889-1891), and Chargé d’affaires of the Dominican Republic.
In 1872, he moved to Washington, DC after his home on South Avenue in Rochester, New York burned down and he lost, among other items, an entire edition of the north star.
In 1868, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant, who upon assuming power caused the Klu Klux Klan Act and the second and third Execution Acts to be enacted. President Grant. they used their provisions vigorously, suspending habeas corpus provisions in South Carolina and sending troops there and to other states; under his leadership. More than 5,000 arrests were made and the Ku Klux Klan was thus dealt a severe and devastating blow. Although Grant’s vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular with many whites, he earned praise from Frederick Douglass and other blacks. An associate of Douglass wrote of Grant that African Americans will have and appreciate a grateful memory of his name, fame, and great services.
Douglass’s rise to greatness took a symbolic turn upwards when, as a sign of the high esteem in which he is held, in 1872 he became the first African American to receive a nomination for Vice President of the United States, having been nominated to be Victoria. Woodhull’s running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket without his knowledge. He neither campaigned for the ticket nor even acknowledged that he had been nominated.
Douglass spoke at many schools across the country in the Reconstruction era, including at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, in 1873.
In 1877, Douglass purchased his last home in Washington DC, on the banks of the Anacostia River, and named it Cedar Hill. He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and included a china cabinet. A year later, Douglass further expanded it to 15 acres, purchasing adjoining lots. The house is now the location of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
After the disappointments of Reconstruction, many African Americans, Exodusters, moved to Kansas to form all-black towns. Douglass spoke out against the movement and urged blacks to resist. But he was condemned and booed by the black public.
In 1877, Douglass was appointed a United States Marshal, and then, in 1881, he was appointed Registrar of Deeds for the District of Columbia.
His wife, Anna Murray Douglas, died in 1882, leaving him in a state of depression only secured by his association with activist Ida B. Wells, who restored meaning to his life. In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York, the daughter of Gideon Pitts, 1, an abolitionist friend and colleague. A graduate of Mount Holyoke Women’s Seminary, Pitts had worked on a radical feminist publication Alpha while living in Washington, DC. Frederick and Helen Pitts Douglass faced a firestorm of controversy as a result of their marriage, as she was white and nearly 20 years younger. Both families backed down; hers stopped talking to him; theirs was bruised, as they felt her marriage was a repudiation of her mother. But the individualist feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the two.
The new couple traveled to England, France, Italy, Egypt, and Greece between 1886 and 1887. Later, Douglass, in his determination to determine his birthday, adopted February 14 because his mother, Harriet Bailey, used to call him her “little crush.” . . He was born in February 1816 by his own reckoning, but historians have found a record indicating his birth in February 1818.
Douglass had five children; two of them, Charles and Rossetta, helped produce his newspapers. Douglass was an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1892, the Haitian government appointed Douglass as commissioner of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He spoke for Irish Home Rule and about the efforts of Charles Stewart Parnell. He briefly revisited Ireland in 1886.
Until his death a quarter century later, Douglass used his great abilities to help his people achieve “a higher, broader, and nobler humanity.” In a multitude of capacities, Douglass contributed his energies toward that primary purpose. He always fought for the dignity of his people, always emphasizing that exploitation against people of color was not a black problem, but an American problem, or as he told the nation, “No man can put a chain around your neighbor’s ankle”. man, without at last finding the other end tied to his own neck.”
He once wrote warning the American people that “the lesson they must learn or neglect to do so at their own peril is that equal manhood means equal rights, and that they must stand up for each and every one, regardless of colour”. or race… I look forward to seeing people of color in this country enjoying the same freedom, voting at the same polls, wearing the same cartridge belts, going to the same schools, attending the same churches, riding the same streetcars, in the same railroad cars, on the same steamships, proud of the same country, fighting the same enemy, and enjoying the same peace and all its advantages…”
But unfortunately, Frederick Douglass did not live to see his hope realized.
On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. during which she was ushered onto the platform and given a standing ovation by the audience, as if they knew it was her last public appearance. Shortly after returning home, she suffered a massive heart attack and died. She is buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.
But today, even more than a century after his death, people have learned and are learning the lessons he taught. Around the world, millions of people of all races, colors, creeds, and nationalities are moving together to achieve victory, lasting peace, security, and freedom.
The words of Frederick Douglass have never been as significant as they are today, after the war raised the question of black rights in its sharpest form. His vast contribution to the war effort has made it clearer every day that victory, lasting peace and security cannot be achieved without Black peoples and without meeting their just demands.
Below are the emblems of his greatness and eternal significance in the form of quotes, children’s books and movies about him, as well as monuments:
Famous quotes from Douglass:
or “I am a republican, a dyed-in-black republican, and I never claim to belong to any party other than the party of liberty and progress.”
or “Those who profess to favor liberty and yet despise agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the land, want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.”
or “To make a slave happy it is necessary to make one thoughtless. It is necessary to darken the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, annihilate the power of reason.”
or “I affirm without hesitation that the religion of the South is a mere cover-up of the most horrible crimes, a justification of the most hideous barbarism, a sanctifier of the most heinous frauds, and a dark refuge under which hide the darkest, the most disgusting, the grossest and most infernal acts of slave owners find
or “Without struggle there is no progress.”
either”[Lincoln was] the first great man I spoke freely with in the United States who in no way reminded me of the difference between him and me, the difference in color.”
or “The power does not grant anything without a demand. It never did and never will.”
or “Once the black man puts on his person the brass letters US, let him put an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets and there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States.
Books about Douglass for young readers:
or Miller, William. Frederick Douglass: The last day of slavery. illus. by Cedric Lucas. Lee & Low Books, 1995.
or Weidt, Maryann N. Voice of Freedom: A Story About Frederick Douglass. illus. by Jeni Reeves. Lerner Publications, 2001.
Documentary films about Douglass:
oh fredrick douglas [videorecording] / Produced by Greystone Communications, Inc. for the A&E Network; executive producers Craig Haffner and Donna E. Lusitana; 1997
oh Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History [videorecording] / a co-production of ROJA Productions and WETA-TV; produced and directed by Orlando Bagwell; narration written by Steve Fayer.; c1994
oh Frederick Douglass, abolitionist publisher [videorecording] / A production of Schlessinger Video Productions, a division of Library Video Company; produced and directed by Rhonda Fabian, Jerry Baber; screenplay, Amy A. Tiehel
oh race to freedom [videorecording] : the history of the underground railway / An Atlantis Films Limited Production in association with United Image Entertainment; produced in association with Family Channel (USA), Black Entertainment Television, and CTV Television Network, Ltd.; produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Ontario Film Development Corporation and with the assistance of Rogers Telefund; distributed by Xenon Pictures; executive producers Seaton McLean, Tim Reid; co-executive producers Peter Sussman, Anne Marie La Traverse; supervising producer, Mary Kahn; producers, Daphne Ballon, Brian Parker; directed by Don McBrearty; screenplay by Diana Braithwaite, Nancy Trites Botkin, Peter Mohan. Santa Monica Publisher, CA: Xenon Pictures, Inc., 2001. Tim Reid as Frederick Douglass.
Monuments to Frederick Douglass:
o Frederick Douglass National Historic Site The Frederick Douglass House in Washington, DC
o Frederick Douglass Gardens at Cedar Hill Frederick Douglass Gardens Development and Maintenance Organization
o The Frederick Douglass Prize A national book award sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition