Frederick Douglass

Fredrick Douglass

Fredrick Douglass is a hero because in the 1800s he was a former slave who became one of the great American anti- slavery leaders, and was a supporter of womens rights. While he was sent to work for Hugh Auld in the Plantation house Fredrick made a resolution that on January 1, 1836 that he would be free by the end of the year. Auld’s wife taught Fredrick how to read, when he tried to escape slavery at the age of 16 years old his plan was found and he was put in jail. When escaped slavery the second time in 1858 at the age of 20 he said, “that reading was his path way to freedom.”

Once he escaped he wasn’t a free man, when he escaped he went to go work for an abolitionist named William Lloyd Garrison. A few years later after he escaped slavery he married a free black women named Anna Murray and had four kids. In 1882 his wife Anna died and in 2 years later he married a white women named Helen Pitts.

He also became good friends with Abraham Lincoln and helped persuade Lincoln to issue the emancipation and asked him to work with him as a consultant. He also started an abolition journal, The North Star in 1847, which was a journal on slavery and anti-slavery. He also campaigned for civil rights of free black people and stressed the importance of black loyalty during the Civil War and actively recruited northern blacks and campaigned for liberty, free soil, and the Republican Party in the 1840s and 1850s. Fredrick Douglass was a journalist, abolitionist and an orator. He also attended a speaking tour in England, Ireland, and Scotland. After the war he fought for the rights of women and African Americans and promised that he would continue his active involvement to better the lives of the American slaves.