Frederick douglass

Frederick Douglass

By C.J. Morgan

1818 Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, a slave, in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland. Mother is a slave, Harriet Bailey, and father is a white man, rumored to be his master, Aaron Anthony. He had three older siblings, Perry, Sarah, and Eliza.

1826 Aaron Anthony died. Frederick Bailey was inherited by Anthony's son-in-law, Thomas Auld. Auld then hired Bailey to his brother, Hugh Auld, in Baltimore, where Douglass worked in the shipyards. Hugh Auld's wife, Sophia, began to teach Bailey to read, but the lessons ceased at the insistence of her husband. Bailey continued his reading lessons among the white boys on the streets of Baltimore

1835 First attempted to escape with a group of slaves.  They were betrayed by one of their number and jailed.

1838 Frederick Bailey escaped from slavery using the forged papers of a sailor. He traveled by railroad from Maryland to New York City. Bailey and Anna Murray married and moved to Massachusetts. He adopted the name Frederick Douglass.

1841 Attended an antislavery meeting on Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he made an impromptu speech (although not his first) that captured the attention of William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison then hired Douglass as a lecturer for the American Anti-Slavery Society

1845 “Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass” was published in the United States

1845-47 Tour of England, Scotland and Ireland

1846 Rumors that Douglass's former master plans to return him to slavery prompted Douglass's friends and supporters in Britain to raise money and buy his freedom.

1847 Returned to the United States and relocates to Rochester, New York, an industrial town on the shore of Lake Ontario.

Began publication of the North Star with partners Martin R. Delaney and John K. Dick.

1859 Began publication of Douglass' Monthly, a supplement to Frederick Douglass's Paper.

After assisting John Brown in planning a raid on Harper's Ferry, Virginia, in order to incite a slave revolt, Douglass declined to join the expedition. When the plan failed, Douglass fled to England for six months to avoid prosecution

1861 Civil War began.

1863 Recruited members for the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts, a black regiment in the Union Army.  Sons Charles and Lewis joined the regiment. Son Frederick Douglass, Jr., became a recruiter.

1865 13th Amendment ratified: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their Jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

1868 Amendment ratified: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

1870 15th Amendment ratified: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Congress shall have poser to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."

1872 The Equal Rights Party, headed by it presidential nominee, Victoria Woodhull, nominated Douglass as its vice-presidential candidate.  Douglass does not publicly associate himself with this party, and did not meet Woodhull until his third trip to Europe over a decade later.

Arsonists allegedly burned the Douglass home in Rochester, destroying many of Douglass's papers.  The family moved to Washington, D.C.

1878 Purchased Cedar Hill, an estate in Anacostia, District of Columbia.

1881 Third autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, published.

1891 Revised edition of Life and Times of Frederick Douglass published.

1895 ( February 20th) Died at Cedar Hill.