Frederick douglass short biography

Douglass, Frederick ([sic]) Black leader.

Frederick Douglass was the most important black American leader of the 19th century. He was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Talbot County, on Maryland's Eastern Shore in [sic], the son of a slave woman, and in all likelihood, her white master. Upon his escape from slavery at age 20, Douglass adopted a new surname from the hero of Sir Walter Scott's The Lady of the Lake. Douglass immortalized his formative years as a slave in the first of three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, published in This and two subsequent autobiographies, My Bondage and My Freedom () and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (), mark Douglass's greatest contributions to southern culture. Written both as antislavery propaganda and as personal revelation, they are universally regarded as the finest examples of the slave narrative tradition and as classics of American autobiography.

Douglass's public life ranged from his work as an abolitionist in the early s to his attacks on Jim Crow segregation in the s. Douglass lived the bulk of his career in Rochester, N.Y., where for 16 years he edited the most influential black newspaper of the midth century, called successively The North Star (), Frederick Douglass' Paper (), and The Douglass Monthly (). Douglass achieved international fame as an orator with few peers and as a writer of persuasive power. In thousands of speeches and editorials Douglass levied an irresistible indictment against slavery and racism, provided an indomitable voice of hope for his people, embraced antislavery politics, and preached his own brand of American ideals.

Douglass welcomed the Civil War in as a moral crusade to eradicate the evil of slavery. During the war he labored as a fierce propagandist of the Union cause and emancipation, as a recruiter of black troops, and on two occasions as an advisor to President Abraham Lincoln. Douglass made a major contribut

African-American social reformer, writer, and abolitionist (c. –)

For other uses and other people with similar names, see Frederick Douglass (disambiguation).

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, c. February 14, &#;– February 20, ) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He became the most important leader of the movement for African-Americancivil rights in the 19th century.

After escaping from slavery in Maryland in , Douglass became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York and gained fame for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to claims by supporters of slavery that enslaved people lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been enslaved. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.

Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as an enslaved person in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (), which became a bestseller and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bo