Born into slavery in Maryland, Douglass secretly taught himself to read and escaped to the North at about twenty. He became the most famous abolitionist speaker of his time, published his own newspaper and advised President Lincoln. After the Civil War he kept fighting for Black citizens and for women's suffrage, insisting that America live up to the promises of its own founding.
Core ideas
Liberty is a natural right of every human being, and slavery is a crime against it
Reading and education are the road from bondage to freedom
Rights are never simply given; the oppressed must demand and win them
The tradition: Abolitionist
Abolitionism was the movement to end slavery, joining moral argument, faith and political action. Douglass is its most powerful voice, a man who spoke about slavery from his own experience of it.
