Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist Leader

• Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1818 on a plantation in Maryland.
• He experienced many of the horrors of slavery, including hunger, beatings, and being sent to jail.
• He escaped slavery in 1838 and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
• He became an abolitionist and spoke out against slavery.
• In 1841, he spoke at an anti-slavery meeting on Nantucket Island and was very powerful and eloquent.
• The audience asked him, “Have we been listening to a thing, a piece of property, or to a man?” and the answer was “A man! A man!”
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the pioneering feminist, vividly recalled her first glimpse of Douglass on an abolitionist platform: “He stood there like an African prince, majestic in his wrath, as with wit, satire, and indignation he graphically described the bitterness of slavery and the humiliation of subjection.”
• Douglass is one of the first fugitive slaves to speak out publicly against slavery.
• Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818
• He became an eloquent speaker against slavery, and in 1845 escaped to England
• He returned to the United States in 1847 and became a leading abolitionist
• In 1851, Douglass was falsely accused of being a slave master, and fled to Canada
• He returned to the United States in 1853 and continued to speak out against slavery
• Douglass died in 1895

Frederick Douglass was born a slave in Maryland in 1818. He became an eloquent speaker against slavery, and in 1845 escaped to England. He returned to the United States in 1847 and became a leading abolitionist. In 1851, Douglass was falsely accused of being a slave master, and fled to Canada. He returned to the United States in 1853 and continued to speak out against slavery. Douglass died in 1895.