Person

Frederick Douglass

February 14*, 1818—February 20, 1895

*Douglass never knew the actual date of his birthday, but later in life, chose to celebrate it on Feb. 14.

Bylines

The Annotated Frederick Douglass

In 1866, the famous abolitionist laid out his vision for radically reshaping America in the pages of "The Atlantic."

by Frederick Douglass, David W. Blight via The Atlantic on November 13, 2023
The Painful, Cutting and Brilliant Letters Black People Wrote To Their Former Enslavers

The letters show a desire for freedom and a desperate longing to be reunited with their families.

by Jourdon Anderson, Vilet Lester, Gillian Brockell, Annie Davis, Jermain Wesley Loguen, Frederick Douglass via Retropolis on March 13, 2022
Frederick Douglass Railed Against Economic Inequality

Never-before-transcribed articles from Frederick Douglass’ Paper denounce capitalism and economic inequality.

by Matthew Karp, Frederick Douglass via Jacobin on February 20, 2020
A Letter From Frederick Douglass to His Former Owner

A spotlight on a primary source.

by Frederick Douglass via Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History on October 4, 1857

Viewing 1–20 of 258

Sheet music depicting a fugitive slave.

Against the Slave Power: the Fugitive Liberalism of Frederick Douglass

Douglass elaborated a political theory attuned to the differential character of law as it applied to slaves and other outlaws.

by Paul Crider via Liberal Currents on August 5, 2024

Frederick Douglas.

What Frederick Douglass Learned from an Irish Antislavery Activist

Frederick Douglass was introduced to the idea of universal human rights after traveling to Ireland and meeting with Irish nationalist leaders.

by Christine Kinealy via The Conversation on June 14, 2024

Side-by-side photographs of Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.

On Garrison, Douglass, and American Colonialism

Examining how William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass interpreted the nation's relationship with the Constitution.

by Maggie Blackhawk via LPE Project on April 22, 2024

Frederick Douglass and the Haiti Commission on USS Tennessee in Key West.

Frederick Douglass and American Empire in Haiti

Toward the end of his life, Frederick Douglass served briefly as U.S. ambassador to Haiti.

by Peter James Hudson via Boston Review on December 9, 2021

A cartoon by Thomas Nast, depicting Johnson as a king and the race riots that occurred at a Radical Republican convention in New Orleans.

‘The Failed Promise’ Review: The Mad King and the Lost Cause

Frederick Douglass and Republican legislators had high hopes for Andrew Johnson—but ended up impeaching him.

by Randall Fuller via The Wall Street Journal on August 20, 2021

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass and the Trouble with Critical Race Theory

A favorite icon of critical race theory proponents doesn’t say what they want him to say.

by Robert S. Levine via Los Angeles Review of Books on August 2, 2021

Frederick Douglass and the American Project

It would be hard to blame him if he had lost faith in the republic.

by Richard Hughes Gibson via The Hedgehog Review on February 22, 2021

The Douglass Republic

How today's protests are struggling to reclaim the vision of the great abolitionist leader.

by Jabari Asim via The New Republic on August 14, 2020

Emancipation Memorial seen through fence grating

What Frederick Douglass Had to Say About Monuments

In a newly discovered letter, the famed abolitionist wrote that ‘no one monument could be made to tell the whole truth'

by Jonathan W. White, Scott Sandage via Smithsonian on June 30, 2020

Photo of Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass: The Most Photographed American of the 19th Century

Be Woke presents Black History in two minutes (or so).

via YouTube on April 3, 2020

Frederick Douglass’s Vision for a Reborn America

In the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, he dreamed of a pluralist utopia.

by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on November 9, 2019

The Prophet Is Human

A towering new biography of the great American orator and public intellectual Frederick Douglass.

by Mary F. Corey via Los Angeles Review of Books on April 11, 2019

Illlustration: Mrs. Auld teaches fredrick Douglass to read

A Frederick Douglass Reading List

Reading recommendations from a lifelong education.

by Jaime Fuller via Lapham’s Quarterly on February 21, 2019

Frederick Douglass Forum

An online forum on the life and legacy of Frederick Douglass.

by David W. Blight, Leigh Fought, Manisha Sinha, Chris Shell, Noelle Trent, Neil Roberts, Christopher Bonner via Black Perspectives on November 30, 2018

Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass, Abolition, and Memory

On Douglass’s monumental life, the voice of the biographer, memory and tragedy, and why history matters right now.

by David W. Blight, Martha Hodes via Public Books on November 26, 2018

The Double Battle

A review of David Blight's new biography of Frederick Douglass.

by Eric Foner via The Nation on October 24, 2018

Frederick Douglass.

Frederick Douglass Is No Libertarian

It’s the 200th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’s birth, and some on the right have been crashing the party.

by Maurice S. Lee via Public Books on May 18, 2018

Frederick Douglass, Refugee

Throughout modern history, the millions forced to flee as refugees have felt Douglass' agony, and thought his thoughts.

by David W. Blight via The Atlantic on February 7, 2017

Frederick Douglass.

"What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?"

Frederick Douglass’ 1852 speech is widely known as one of the greatest abolitionist speeches ever.

via BackStory on July 7, 2014

A boy scout yawns as he holds a U.S. flag at an event in Maine in 1984.

The Christian Nationalism at the Heart of Jim Crow America

The Trump campaign is signaling that it intends to make the U.S. a "Christian nation." Here's what that idea looked like in history.

by William Horne via Made By History on October 17, 2024

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