Biography

Frederick Douglass was a social reformer and a human rights leader. He was an African American and one of the most eminent human rights leaders of the 19th century, at the forefront to the abolition movement. He was also the first black citizen to have a rank in the US Government. He was the child of a slave woman and a white father, but was separated from his mother as a baby. He lied with his grandmother in Maryland on a plantation until he was 8 when he was sent to Baltimore to live as a house servant of Hugh Auld, whose wife taught him to read. He was forced to continue learning in secret because Auld found out and it was against the law.  When he was 16 his master died and he was sent back to the plantation to work as a field hand. He was hired as a ship caulker in Baltimore and tried to escape with three other slaves in 1833. They were discovered before they could escape, but five years later he escaped to New York City, moving on to New Bedford, MA. He worked there for three years as a laborer, changing his name to Douglass to escape the slave hunters. He helped to bring many people to the Abolition movement and helped to bring countries together in regards to humanitarian reform. He returned from Europe with the money to buy his freedom and start his own newspaper in Rochester, NY  which was called the "North Star" and was published from 1847-1860.