Collection of Frederick Douglass materials

Object Details

Biographical/Historical note: Frederick Douglass (1818--895) was born into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore but fled north in 1838 to settle in Massachussetts. He soon joined the antislavery movement, and by the mid-1840s his commanding eloquence in offering firsthand testimony to the oppressions of slavery had transformed him into one of the movement's most persuasive spokesmen. Douglass' reforming zeal remained strong all his life. After the Civil War put an end to slavery, he continued to be a leading defender of the rights of African Americans during Reconstruction. In 1871, President Grant appointed Douglass secretary to a diplomatic mission charged with investigating the desirability of annexing the Caribbean nation of Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) as a United States territory.

Citation: Collection on Frederick Douglass, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution.

Type: Collection descriptions; Archival materials; Clippings; Cartes-de-visite; Portraits; Books; Photographic prints; Lithographs; Albumen prints

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There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .