About Frederick Douglass
American abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman (c. 1818–1895) who escaped slavery in Maryland and became the most influential Black leader of the nineteenth century. Through his autobiographies and his newspaper The North Star, Douglass made the case against slavery with unmatched moral and rhetorical force, and later advised presidents and championed women's suffrage.
Books by Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
The most powerful first-person indictment of American slavery ever written, and a founding text of African American political thought. Douglass tells how he was born into bondage, taught himself to read in defiance of t…
Read about this book →What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
The greatest speech in the American abolitionist tradition, and a model of immanent critique: Douglass turns the nation's own founding ideals against its practice. Invited to celebrate the Fourth of July in 1852, he ask…
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