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Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, in Talbot County, Maryland.
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Taught to read by his owner's wife. Works in Baltimore as servant and laborer. And Learned how to write by his own.
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Sees his mother for the last time
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Hired Out to Edward Covey, a "slave breaker", to break his spirit and make him accept slavery.
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Tries to escape from slavery
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A free Negro (daughter of slaves).
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Douglass escapes from slavery and goes to New York City
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Speaks at an abolitionist meeting in Massachusetts and is employed as a lecturer for the Anti-Slavery society.
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Publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
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Begins tour of Great Britain and Ireland, lecturing on slavery with abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. English friends raise money to "purchase" his freedom; Douglass is manumitted after Hugh Auld receives $711.66 in payment.
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Begins tour of Great Britain and Ireland, lecturing on slavery
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With money raised by English and Irish friends, buys printing press and begins publishing the abolitionist weekly North Star. He continues publishing it until 1851.
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Participant in first women's rights convention
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Lincoln asks Douglass to prepare an effort to assist slaves escaping to the North.
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The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery, is ratified.
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The Equal Rights Party nominates Douglass for vice-president of the United States on a ticket headed by Victoria C. Woodhull.
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Douglass's wife of forty-four years, Anna Murray Douglass, dies after suffering a stroke. Douglass goes into a depression
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Frederick Douglass marries his secretary Helen Pitts
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Speaks at a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. Dies suddenly that evening of heart failure while describing the meeting to his wife.