Douglass was illiterate for the majority of his boyhood since he was a slave. He was prohibited from reading and writing because plantation owners saw education as harmful and a threat to their authority. When he was approximately 12 years old, the slave owner's wife in Baltimore began teaching him the alphabet, but she eventually stopped when her husband discouraged her. Nevertheless, a young Douglass took matters into his own hands and used his time on the street to carry out his owner's chores in order to fit in reading lessons. Douglass described in his book how he learned to read from white youngsters in the area and by looking at the writings of the men he worked with.

In his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he described how he would bring a book with him when out and about and beg the white kids in his neighborhood to teach him to read the book in exchange for little pieces of bread.

Douglass educated himself in reading and writing in secret. Knowledge is the path from enslavement to liberation, he would later declare. Douglass' new line of inquiry prompted him to challenge and decry the system of slavery as he studied newspapers, pamphlets, political writings, and books of all kinds. Later, Douglass attributed The Columbian Orator, an anthology he read when he was around 12 years old, with helping him define his beliefs on freedom and human rights. This school reader, which was first published in 1797, includes essays, speeches, and discussions to help pupils learn reading and language.

To underline the kindness of abolitionists, our collection of Frederick Douglass's facts includes his support for the education of his fellow black Americans. As a teenager, Douglass taught his slaves how to read and write. He conducted secret classes during this time while working for a farmer named William Freeland.

To the chagrin of slave owners, Douglass, then going by the name “Bailey” taught his fellow slaves to study the New Testament of the Bible after learning to read and write and eventually authoring three autobiographies. Local crowds who felt intimidated by his efforts to teach and enlighten his fellow slaves broke up his sessions, which occasionally comprised as many as 40 individuals.

After some time, the neighborhood came together to stop Douglass from attending his private sessions. Douglass persisted in his desire to educate his fellow slaves and began to set up covert seminars in various locations.

Douglass made an initial fruitless attempt to flee from Freeland, who had hired him from his owner. Douglass fell in love with Anna Murray, a free-living black lady in Baltimore, around 1837. She was roughly five years his senior. They came up together with a scheme, and on a night in 1838, Douglass boarded a train headed north while dressed in a sailor's clothing that Anna had bought, carrying documents from a sailor acquaintance and money from her savings. His confidence in his potential to reach freedom was strengthened by her liberation. Murray gave him advice, helped him out financially, and supported his endeavors.

Douglass successfully eluded capture on September 3, 1838, by boarding a train headed for the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad. Then, young Douglass landed at Harford County, Maryland's Havre de Grace, which is located in the northeastern part of the state along the Susquehanna River's western bank and empties into the Chesapeake Bay. Douglass sailed through the Susquehanna River before continuing to Wilmington, a significant port at the entrance of Delaware Bay, beyond the state border. He then steamed further northeast along the Delaware River to the Philadelphia city of Quaker since the train was still under construction. He carried on to the New York City home of renowned abolitionist David Ruggles.

Douglass despatched Murray north to New York when he got there. She gave them everything they needed to build a nest. Just eleven days after Douglass arrived in New York, on September 15, 1838, they were wed in the presence of a black Presbyterian clergyman. That is the reason why the first wife of Frederick Douglass assisted in his freedom from slavery.

One of the 10 Interesting Facts about Frederick Douglass is that Frederick Douglass is not his true name. Actually, he chose his name from a poem. Douglass used aliases to avoid being discovered after fleeing enslavement despite the fact that he was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey.

In particular, the joy of being free was soon overshadowed by feelings of loneliness and fear of being abducted. Many "man-hunters" who are willing to return runaway slaves to their masters for a price are present in the North. Fortunately, he ran upon abolitionist David Ruggles, who suggested that he relocate to New Bedford, Massachusetts, which is located around fifty miles south of Boston and where he could readily find work. Here, Douglass first makes mention of his wife, Anna Murray, a liberated lady he had met in Maryland and who had moved to New York City with him. After getting hitched on September 15, 1838, they promptly left for New Bedford, staying with abolitionist Nathan Johnson.

When Douglass first arrived in New Bedford, Massachusetts, he believed there were too many Johnsons about to set himself apart. In order to avoid being discovered by slave hunters, Johnson advised Frederick to alter his last name. Douglass clarifies: "I granted Mr. Johnson the right to choose my name, but I warned him not to take the name "Frederick" away from me. To maintain my feeling of self, I must cling to it". Johnson substituted "Douglas", a persona from Sir Walter Scott's extensive love poem The Lady of the Lake for "Bailey". Strangely, James of Douglas, the exiled lord in the poem, has just one "s" in his name.

Douglass took more portraits than even Abraham Lincoln, making him the most popular American in the 19th century in photographs. Douglass actively sought out the camera because he thought it was a crucial instrument for advancing civil rights since it allowed for a truthful and fair portrayal of African Americans. He purposefully avoided smiling for the camera, in part to fight the "happy slave" stereotypes that were prevalent at the time, particularly in settings like theater productions where white performers would dress as black people to conduct racist plays.

Douglass has 160 different portraits, more than Walt Whitman or Abraham Lincoln, two other 19th-century icons. During the Civil War, Douglass wrote extensively on the issue and referred to photography as a "democratic art" that may ultimately show black people as people rather than as "things." In the hopes that his picture would alter the way black males were generally perceived, he distributed his photos during speeches and lectures. In particular, he went on to freely distribute his photos throughout various speeches and seminars in an effort to alter people's perceptions about his race.

Douglass was the lone African-American participant at the inaugural Convention on Women's Rights that was held in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. After the convention, he expresses the North Star's viewpoint and lends credibility to it by saying, "We think that women are justly entitled to all that we ask for males." The first phrase in the newspaper's slogan, "the freedom to be without gender," is reiterated in this letter, which was sent a week after the congress.

Douglass broke with the Stanton-led wing of the women's rights movement after the Civil War, during the battle over the 15th Amendment, which would have granted African males the right to vote. Douglass backed the amendment that would give black males the right to vote. Stanton disagreed with the 15th Amendment because it restricted the spread of suffrage to black males. She also believed that if it were to pass, the fight for women's voting rights would be put off for decades. Stanton opposed any legislation that divided the issues because she believed that American women and black men should unite to fight for equal access to the vote. Both Douglass and Stanton were aware that there was not yet sufficient male support for the right of women to vote, but that in the late 1860s, an amendment granting black males the right to vote may pass. Stanton hoped that by linking women's suffrage with that of black men, her cause would be successful.

According to Douglass, there was hardly enough support for black men's suffrage, making such a tactic extremely hazardous. He was concerned that tying the struggle of black males to that of women's suffrage would lead to defeat for both. Douglass said that white women at least indirectly possessed the right to vote because of their social ties to fathers, husbands, and brothers, which had already given them power. He felt that if black males had the right to vote, black women would experience the same level of empowerment as white women. Douglass informed the American ladies that he had never opposed women's voting rights.

Together with other female activists, including Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others, he co-founded the American Equal Rights Association in 1866 to promote universal suffrage.

In his final years, Douglass served in senior government posts under US presidents, determined to devote his entire life to the ideals he campaigned for. One of the 10 Interesting Facts about him that many readers still do not aware of is that Frederick Douglass served under five presidents. In 1877, he served as Rutherford B. Hayes' assistant. He then worked for Presidents Grover Cleveland, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, and Benjamin Harrison.

Douglass' responsibilities included acting as a U.S. Marshal for the Washington, D.C., Record of Deeds He was also given the job of Minister Resident and General Consul in Haiti. In particular, Douglass developed into more of a statesman later in life, holding prestigious government jobs such as U.S. Marshal for Washington, D.C., Recorder of Deeds for Washington, D.C., and Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti. The first president to appoint Douglass to a post was Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877. Presidents Garfield, Arthur, Cleveland, and Benjamin Harrison all sought his advice for various roles.

Frederick Douglass leveraged his prominence as the most well-known African American social reformer, orator, writer, and abolitionist during the Civil War to persuade men of his race to enlist in the Union army. In other words, Douglass convinced Black soldiers to sign up for the Civil War. Douglass urged men who had previously been slaves to "stand up in the dignity of our manhood, and prove by our own right weapons that we are worthy to be freemen" in his broadside "Men of Color to Arms! Now or Never!".

Frederick Douglass saw the Civil War as the "golden moment" for African American men to unite with all races of men to assert their claim to freedom and manly character. Douglass gained international fame after the 1845 publication of his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Douglass was of the opinion that his brethren may legitimately claim America as their nation by protecting it. Black males were able to establish their rights as male citizens and escape the stigma of being helpless slaves while serving in uniform.

Douglass pleaded with Abraham Lincoln and others to offer blacks a fighting chance at the start of the Civil War in 1861. Is he not a man? In his Douglass 'Monthly periodical, Douglass penned. They may not carry swords, fire firearms, march, engage in counterattacks, or submit to authority figures like others. This was not an issue for males of color, however, for the majority of white men in the Confederacy. It is a war of white men.

Until Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which freed all slaves in the states that had seceded from the Union, the conflict would mostly involved white people. A clause urging the enlistment of African-American males in the Union's military services was included in the statement. Douglass traveled more than 2,000 miles from Boston to Chicago while extolling the Union's devotion to Black men and used his newfound authority to recruit. Many of his talks on recruitment would end with him leading the crowd in the hymn "John Brown's Body," which was a favorite of the Union Army.

Early in June 1877, Douglass' third Rochester house on South Avenue caught fire and was thought to have been the result of arson while he was in Washington, DC. Many of Douglass’ possessions were lost in a devastating fire, and the home suffered extensive damage, particularly to the ground and the furniture.

He then purchased Cedar Hill, the property that would become his last residence and the name of the national park site, and he chose to stay in the nation's capital rather than go back to New York.

The 1877 fire destroyed hundreds of Douglass' letters as well as the only known entire collection of Douglass' newspapers. Additionally, no existing photos of the Rochester residence exist. 16 episodes of the North Star and Frederick Douglass' Paper were also misplaced.

However, the Park Service continues to conserve the remaining items, from his collection of walking canes to the violin he taught his grandson to play. All of the books, furniture, and photos that firemen recovered from the fire were transferred to Cedar Hill. At the location of Douglass' former residence, the city of Rochester constructed a public library in 1927, which was formally called the Frederick Douglass Community Library in 2016.

Grant ratified the Civil Rights Act of 1871, sometimes referred to as the Klan Act, as well as the second and third Enforcement Acts after the midterm elections. Grant zealously acted under its provisions, suspending the habeas corporation in South Carolina and sending soldiers there and elsewhere. Over 5,000 arrests were made while he was in charge. Douglass admired Grant despite the fact that many white people disliked him because of his success in dismantling the Klan. African Americans would always value Grant's name, reputation, and great services, according to a colleague of Douglass.

As Victoria Woodhull's running partner on the Equal Rights Party ticket, Douglass made political history by becoming the first African American to be nominated for vice president of the United States in 1872. Douglass, however, was not asked for his permission before the nomination was made, and he never accepted it. Additionally, Woodhull's candidacy is debatable since, on Inauguration Day, she won't be of legal age to serve as president. He never formally entered the race for president, but he was given one vote at each of the two nominating conventions. He represented the State of New York's votes in Washington, D.C. that year as a presidential elector at large.