Douglass, Frederick (1817-1895)

US antislavery campaigner and influential African-American leader. An advocate of the American Civil War 1861-65, he issued a call to African Americans to take up arms against the South and helped organize two African-American regiments. After the Civil War, he held several US government posts, including minister to Haiti 1889-91. He published appeals for racial equality and full civil rights for African Americans, and also campaigned for women's suffrage.

Born a slave in Maryland, Douglass was forbidden education by his owner, but taught himself to read and write, developing an eloquence for which he was later renowned. Douglass escaped to Massachusetts in 1838 where he became involved with the Massachusetts' antislavery society and assumed the surname Douglass. He later fled to Britain to avoid re-enslavement under the fugitive slave laws. His talent for passionate speaking helped him to secure sufficient funds from abolitionist sympathizers to return to the USA and purchase his freedom in 1847.

Upon his return, Douglass' social reform efforts extended beyond racial equality. He attended the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848 and was the sole male supporter. He campaigned relentlessly against slavery, especially through his speeches and his newspaper the North Star, founded in 1847. His literature, including The Negro Exodus from the Gulf States, My Escape from Slavery (1881), The Color Line (1881), and the legendary Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), aroused support for the abolition of slavery.

Douglass continued crusading for African-American freedom and equality, and was actively involved with leading abolitionists, including William Lloyd Garrison and John Brown. Initially both Douglass and Garrison tried to use moral persuasion to effect reform, but in the mid-1850s Douglass split from Garrison and chose a more radical approach. In 1859 Brown revealed his plan to raid the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia to Douglass. Although Douglass attempted to dissuade him, the authorities connected him with the subsequent incident at Harpers Ferry, and he had to flee once again to Britain.

The death of his eleven-year-old daughter brought Douglass home to find the nation on the brink of Civil War. He raised the 54th and the 55th Massachusetts regiments to fight for the Union during the Civil War, viewing the war as an opportunity to realize racial equality. The 54th Massachusetts regiment was composed entirely of African-American volunteers. Douglass had campaigned for Abraham Lincoln and urged him to make emancipation an issue in the war. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation (1862) not only made the abolition of slavery an issue in the Civil War, but also served his war aims by encouraging African Americans to enlist.

After the Union victory, Douglass continued his efforts at social reform pushing for the Reconstruction amendments (Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments), that conferred equal political and civil rights for African Americans. After winning the right to vote, Douglass held a number of government posts, including recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia 1881-86, US marshall for the District of Columbia 1877-81, chargé d'affaires for Santo Domingo, and minister to Haiti 1889-91.