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1818
Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in Talbot County, Maryland. His mother, Harriet Baily and his father, Aaron Anthony, a white man, is rumored to be his master. He was separated from his mom when he was born. -
Period: to
Life of Fredrick Douglass
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-1823
He was raised by his grandmother, Betsey Bailey, at Holme Hill Farm; the exact farm he was born at. He sees his mother only a few times at night. The wife of Aaron Anthony had treated Frederick with no care. Since, he was from another mom. -
1824
Moves to plantation on Wye River, where he lives with his siblings Perry, Sarah, and Eliza. -
1825
Fredrick saw his mother for the last time. -
1826
In this year, his mother dies. -
1827
Sophia Auld had taught Fredrick to read. When, Hugh Auld had stopped her; He had told her that education makes slaves rebellious. Fredrick had tricked the neighborhood kids into teaching him. He would also, read books sercetly in his free time. -
-1830
He had worked in a shipyard as general assistant. He had practiced reading and writing in secret in his spare time. -
1831
He had read a newspaper article on John Quincy Adams's antislavery petitions in Congress He had also, learned about the abolitionist movement. He then, understood what they do and how. -
1832
His sister, Sarah, was sold to a planter in Mississippi. -
1833
He was sent to St. Michaels, Maryland, where he had worked for Thomas Auld. He tried to teach the other slaves to read and write. He was caght trying to teach them by Auld. -
1834
Auld rented him out to farmer Edward Covey He was known as a "slave breaker." Fredrick got beaten up several times and he finally fought back. Covey never tried to beat him again, because he did not want his reputation to collapse. -
1835
He was hired out to work for William Freeland. He is a Talbot County, Maryland, farmer. Fredrick secretly organizes a Sunday school and teaches the other slaves to read. -
1836
He had made an escape plan but it was discovered. He was jailed, and then released; after his associates. He returned to work for Hugh and Sophia Auld in Baltimore and he was hired out to work as a caulker in a Baltimore shipyard. The knowledge he gains there helps him escape slavery two years later. -
1837
Fredrick had joined the (EBMIS) East Baltimore Mental Improvement Society, a debating club of free black men. Throughout the society, he meets a free African-American housekeeper, Anna Murray. -
1838
He had borrowed papers from a free black sailor. He then, escapes from slavery. He went to New York and changed his last name to Douglass -
1838
He marries Anna Murray. The ceremony is performed by Minister James W. C. Pennington. He is also an escaped Maryland slave. -
1st of April to the 24th of June
His daughter, Rosetta, is born. Douglass subscribes to William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist weekly "The Liberator". He hears Garrison speaking in April. He becomes a licensed preacher for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. -
1840
Fredrick's son, Lewis Henry is born. -
1841
Fredrick speaks at an antislavery meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Abolitionist William C. Coffin talked him into speaking about his life as a slave at a Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society convention. William Lloyd Garrison follows his remarks with a speech of his own, encouraging Douglass. The Society is impressed and he got hired as a speaker. Douglass becomes closely allied with Garrison and his abolitionist views. -
1842
Fredrick Douglass Jr. was born. During the same year, Fredrick Douglass met black abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond. -
1843
At an antislavery meeting in Pendleton, Indiana, Fredrick Douglass got beaten up by a mob. His right hand got broken in the fight. He never fully recovered the use of his right hand. -
1844
Fredrick Douglass' son, Charles Remond Douglass was born. -
1845
He published the “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass”. In it, he revealed details that could lead to his arrest as a fugitive slave. In the same year, he becomes a champion of women's rights. He began his tour of Great Britain and Ireland; taking about slavery with abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. His English friends raised enough money to “buy” his freedom from Hugh Auld. It cost $711.66 to set him free. -
1847
He returned from the oversea tour. He moved to Rochester, New York. With the extra money raised by the English and Irish, he was able to buy a printing press. He then started publishing the abolitionist weekly the “North Star”. He continues to publish it until 1851. -
1848
Fredrick participated in his first women's rights convention, at Seneca Falls, New York. He had met and became friends with John Brown. He had begun sheltering escaped slaves fleeing north on the "underground railroad. His daughter, Rosetta, is asked to leave school in Rochester because she is African-American. Douglass had started to protest on segregation at the Rochester public schools. -
1849
Fredrick’s daughter Annie was born on the date. Fredrick hires a tutor to teach his wife and Anna to read. They tried the tutoring, but it did not work. -
1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe published Uncle Tom's Cabin, an antislavery novel. The book sells three hundred thousand copies its first year in print. The book helps to open awareness on both sides of the slavery issue. They book also, opened people’s hearts. -
1855
Publication of his second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom. -
1856
Fredrick became friends with Ottilia Assing, a German journalist living in New Jersey. She had translated My Bondage and My Freedom into German. -
1857
In the Dred Scott case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African Americans are not U.S. citizens and that Congress has no authority to restrict slavery in U.S. territories. That means that African Americans did not have liberty and/or freedom. -
-1863
Douglass had begun on the Douglass' Monthly. It was first a supplement to Frederick Douglass' Paper. It became an independent publication the following year and is distributed until 1863. -
1859
John Brown and other abolitionist followers raid the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He plans to start a slave insurrection and provide refuge for fleeing slaves. Government troops capture him, and the other abolitionist. They are tried and hanged. Later, the authorities find a letter from Douglass to Brown. Douglass then fled to Canada and then planned a lecture tour of England to escape arrest on charges of being an accomplice in Brown's raid. -
1860
Annie Douglass dies in Rochester. -
1860
Fredrick returns to the United States. He did not get charged with being an accomplice in Brown's raid. -
1860
Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States. -
1860
South Carolina secedes from the Union. -
1861
The Civil War begun in this year. -
1862
The Congress abolished slavery in Washington, D.C. -
1863
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect. It abolishes slavery in the states that are "in rebellion,’ in sates that are with the Union. -
1863
Douglass becomes a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first regiment of African-American soldiers. His sons, Lewis and Charles join the regiment. Eventually his son Frederick Douglass Jr. becomes an army recruiter too. About 180,000 African Americans serve in the Civil War on the Union side. -
1863
Douglass met President Lincoln to discuss the unequal pay and poor treatment that black soldiers receive. -
1864
Douglass met with Lincoln again. In case the war is not a total Union victory, Lincoln asks Douglass to prepare an effort to assist slaves escaping to the North. If they win the slaves will be free. -
1865
Lincoln is assassinated. -
1865
The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was approved. The amendment is saying that slavery is outlawed. A citizen in the United States cannot own slaves. -
-1865
Douglass lectures on the Reconstruction and women's rights. He started to lecture after Lincoln’s death. The Reconstruction happens after the Civil War. -
1870
Douglass edited and then owned the New National Era, a weekly newspaper for African Americans. He loses ten thousand dollars when the paper folds in 1874. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution got adopted. This amendment states that the rights of citizens to vote cannot be discounted or denied by race, color, and etc… -
1871
President Ulysses S. Grant appoints Douglass to see if they can add the Dominican Republic to the United States of America. Ulysses S. Grant is propblary wondering will they be a benefit to the U.S.A. Well, that is Douglass’ job. -
1872
The Equal Rights Party nominates Douglass for vice-president of the United States. Fredrick Douglass moves his family to Washington, D.C., after a mysterious fire destroys his home in Rochester. -
1874
Fredrick becomes president of a troubled Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company. He tries to work with the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee to save the bank. The plan to save the bank ultimately failed and backfired. -
1875
Congress passes a Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination in public places, but people still did it. Their law failed in the southern states. They had separated the restrooms, restaurants, and water fountains etc… -
1878
Douglass purchased the Cedar Hill, in Anacostia, Washington, D.C. The twenty-room house sits on nine acres of land. He later expands the land by buying fifteen acres of land, near the house. -
1881
He publishes his third and final autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. President Garfield appoints one of his own friends to the post U.S. Marshall. Douglass is left a recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia, and then he gets a high-paying job. -
1882
Douglass's wife, Anna Murray Douglass, dies after suffering a stroke. She was forty- four years old. That made Douglass goes into a depression. -
1883
The U.S. Supreme Court says that the Civil Rights Act of 1875 is unconstitutional. -
1884
Douglass marries Helen Pitts. She is his secretary when he was recorder of deeds. The interracial marriage causes an argument among the Douglass’s' friends, family, and the public. -
-1887
Douglass tours Europe and Africa with his wife. -
1889
Douglass got appointed U.S. minister resident and the highest ranked general. He was the minister of Republic of Haiti, and chargé d'affaires, of Santo Domingo. He arrived in Haiti in October. -
1890
The U.S. government instructs Douglass to ask permission for the U.S. Navy to use the Haitian port town of Môle St. Nicholas as a refueling station. That also means that they want Douglass to rest up. -
1891
In April, Haiti rejects the Navy's proposal as too intrusive. That means the United States’ proposal was something that a close friend could ask. The U.S. press reports that Douglass is too fateful to Haitian interests. Douglass had to resign as minister to Haiti in July. -
-1893
Douglass is commissioner in charge of the Haitian exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. -
1895
He speaks at a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. He suddenly dies that evening of heart failure. He died while describing the meeting to his wife.
