Frederick Douglass

A brave man, clear-eyed philosopher, brilliant public speaker and writer, and in later years a highly respected statesman, Frederick Douglass was one of the most inspiring and influential figures of the nineteenth century.

Douglass devoted his life not only to ending slavery, but to supporting multiple campaigns for human rights and social justice. Born into slavery in Maryland, USA in 1818, Douglass survived the traumas and tragedies of life as an enslaved person.

At the age of 20, with the help of Anna Murray, Douglass managed to escape. The pair subsequently married, taking the surname ‘Douglass‘ from James Douglas in Sir Walter Scott’s poem ‘Lady of the Lake’. After publishing his first autobiography, ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave in 1845’, Douglass left the US to avoid being captured and re-enslaved. He travelled widely through Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England to inspire anti-slavery activism among his audiences.

Douglass played a leading role in the campaign against the Free Church of Scotland and its acceptance of donations from white US slaveholders, a protest movement he spearheaded with the slogan, "send back the blood-stained money!" When civil war broke out in 1861, Douglass — now back in the US as a free man — worked tirelessly to ensure that emancipation would be one of the war's outcomes.

After the civil war, Douglass continued to tour as a public speaker while maintaining high-ranking federal appointments. He served under five US presidents at a time when African American political involvement was severely restricted.