Frederick Douglass

Born into slavery about 1818, Frederick Douglass escaped north to Massachusetts at age twenty and became a leading voice against slavery. Fearing capture and re-enslavement, he went to England, continued speaking out against slavery, and raised enough money to buy his freedom so he could return to America. He later settled in Rochester, NY, where he championed equality and freedom for enslaved people, took an active role in the women’s suffrage movement, and established a newspaper focused on fundamental human rights and the connections among slavery, the treatment of black people, and women. On Sunday evening, November 29, 1857, he spoke on the “Unity of Man” before a full house at a historic church meetinghouse on Martha’s Vineyard, and by then he had become a man of international stature.

Edgartown, Massachusetts · United States