Frederick Douglass: Advocate for Equality

The Gilder Lehrman Collection contains many documents on the life and work of Frederick Douglass. The following Spotlights on Primary Sources provide a closer look at some of those documents.

Buying Frederick Douglass’s freedom, 1846
In 1846, Douglass’s friends in Great Britain negotiated to purchase his freedom from the Auld family in Maryland.

“I love you but hate slavery”: Frederick Douglass to his former owner, Hugh Auld, ca. 1860
In this letter, Douglass writes to Hugh Auld, whose family had enslaved him, to try to get information about his birthdate.

Racism in the North: Frederick Douglass on “a vulgar and senseless prejudice,” 1870
Frederick Douglass wrote to the manager of the Star Course lecture series at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, refusing to speak if Black audience members were not admitted on the same terms as White audience members.

Frederick Douglass on Jim Crow, 1887
Frederick Douglass witnessed and decried the encroachment of Jim Crow laws in the decade following the end of Reconstruction. In this letter, he recognizes some advances made in the South but calls out the ongoing inequalities.

Frederick Douglass on the disfranchisement of Black voters, 1888
In this 1888 letter, Frederick Douglass protested the disfranchisement of Black voters in the South a decade after Reconstruction ended. 

Many essays about Frederick Douglass and his times have been published on the Gilder Lehrman Institute website and in History Now, the institute’s online journal. The selected essays below provide teachers, students, and general readers with a historical perspective.

Frederick Douglass: An Example for the Twenty-First Century by Noelle N. Trent (National Civil Rights Museum)

Director of Interpretation, Collections, and Education at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Noelle N. Trent writes about Frederick Douglass’s legacy and influence on the present day in this essay.

“The Merits of This Fearful Conflict”: Douglass on the Causes of the Civil War by David Blight (Yale University)

Historian David Blight discusses Douglass’s reflection on the Civil War and his fear that Americans were forgetting about the root causes of the war in their efforts to reconcile the North and the South.

Frederick Douglass: From Slavery to Freedom by Steven Mintz (University of Texas at Austin)

Historian Steven Mintz writes about Douglass’s journey from being enslaved to becoming one of the most prominent Black activists of his time.

The Lion of All Occasions: The Great Black Abolitionist Frederick Douglass by Manisha Sinha (University of Connecticut)

Historian Manisha Sinha writes about Douglass’s work as an abolitionist in this essay from the Winter 2018 issue of History Now, “Frederick Douglass at 200.”

Douglass the Autobiographer by Robert S. Levine (University of Maryland, College Park)

Professor Robert S. Levine discusses Frederick Douglass’s autobiographies and writing in this essay from the Winter 2018 issue of History Now, “Frederick Douglass at 200.”

Frederick Douglass, Orator by Sarah Meer (University of Cambridge)

Sarah Meer, a professor of nineteenth-century literature, explores Douglass’s work through his speeches. 

Community Programming Ideas 

• Host a Community Book Program before and/or during the exhibit using any of Douglass’s own autobiographies or biographies. You may consider choosing an additional title for young adults and children. Please see the bibliography included in this Site Support Notebook for biography and other book ideas.
• Create displays or complimentary programming based upon the following:
  • Black soldiers in the Civil War
  • Jim Crow era laws and their impacts
  • Ida B. Wells and her continued fight for civil rights following Douglass’s death
• Host this exhibition as part of Black History Month programming in February, also highlighting the influential figures Douglass worked with during his life. Other figures to feature might include Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Du Bois, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman.
• One of Douglass’s core beliefs was that voting should be a right and is one of the most powerful ways to influence the world around us. Host a voting registration drive alongside the exhibition in honor of Douglass’s belief in the power of voting.

Student Programming Ideas

• Have a group of students read each of Douglass’s autobiographies. Hold a discussion in which students can compare and contrast his own narrative of his life as he aged and the fight for equality continued.
• Create a scavenger hunt using key quotes, images, and facts from Douglass’s life. Challenge students to find the answers on the panels while they view the exhibition.
• During his own life, Douglass’s views on whether or not the constitution itself enumerated universal voting rights changed. Use this change in viewpoints to teach students about interpreting the US Constitution and the complexity of using one document to determine the fate of a rapidly expanding and changing nation.