F  rederick Douglass (1818-1895) was born into slavery in Maryland, escaped to freedom in 1838, and thereafter worked his way to become the 19th century’s best-known and most prominent Black leader for the abolition of slavery, social reforms, and racial equality. He was a brilliant orator, writer, and statesman.

Douglass’s beginnings as a formidable New England abolitionist started in 1841 when he joined the Massachusetts Antislavery Society. In 1845, Douglass published his autobiography The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave. This led to his fear of re-enslavement, so he departed America to live in Great Britain for two years. During that time, he gave speeches in support of the American anti-slavery movement, raised enough money to buy his freedom (with the help of English Quakers), and returned to America to further his work.

Once settled in his adopted home of Rochester, New York, Douglass published The North Star, an abolitionist newspaper, from 1847 to 1860. In 1848, he attended the first convention for women’s rights, hosted by suffrage pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton in Seneca Falls, NY. He signed the convention’s “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions,” which “demand[ed] the equal station [for women] to which they are entitled.” In further support of equal rights, Douglass joined the American Equal Rights Association (AERA). The organization’s purpose was “to secure Equal Rights to all American citizens, especially the right of suffrage, irrespective of race, color or sex.”

Frederick Douglass also published other periodicals. Douglass Monthly (1859–1863) expanded his abolitionist articles to include issues on social reform. There was also the Frederick Douglass Paper (1851–1860) and National Era (1870–1874).

Of his many eloquent speeches, Frederick Douglass’s July 4, 1852 speech—marking the United States’ 76th anniversary—is one of his most famous. He used the opportunity to protest the injustice of slavery saying, "Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future."