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Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, a slave, in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland. His mother is a slave, Harriet Bailey, and father is a white man, rumored to be his master, Aaron Anthony. He had three older siblings, Perry, Sarah, and Eliza.
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Frederick is raised by grandmother Betsey Bailey at Holme Hill Farm, where he was born; sees his mother only a few times.
1819-1823 -
This is the very last time Frederick has seen his mother. He doesnt see her until she dies in 1826.
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Sent to Baltimoreto live with Hugh Auld and his wife Sophia. His master, Aaron Anthony, dies late in the year; Frederick becomes the property of Thomas Auld, Anthony's son-in-law. Thomas Auld sends him back to Hugh Auld.
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Asks Sophia Auld to teach him to read. She does so until Hugh Auld stops them, believing that education makes slaves rebellious.
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1829-30
Works in shipyard as a general assistant. He practices reading and writing in secret. -
Reads newspaper article on John Quincy Adams's antislavery petitions in Congress; learns of the abolitionist movement.Buys copy of a compilation of speeches, Caleb Bingham's The Columbian Orator, with which he hones his reading and speaking skills
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Sent to St. Michaels, Maryland, where he works for Thomas Auld. Tries to teach other slaves to read until Auld discovers it and stops him.
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Auld rents him out to farmer Edward Covey, known as a "slave breaker." He is beaten several times and finally fights back. Covey never tries to beat him again.
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Hired out to work for William Freeland, a Talbot County, Maryland, farmer. Secretly organizes Sunday school and teaches other slaves to read.
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Makes an escape plan but is discovered, jailed, and then released. He returns to work for Hugh and Sophia Auld in Baltimore and is hired out to work as a caulker in a Baltimore shipyard. The knowledge he gains there helps him escape slavery two years later.
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Borrows papers from a free black sailor, he escapes from slavery to New York and changes his last name to Johnson.
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Marries Anna Murray. The ceremony is performed by minister James W. C. Pennington, who is also an escaped Maryland slave. The newlyweds move to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where Frederick works as an unskilled laborer. They stay with caterers Mary and Nathan Johnson. Nathan suggests that Frederick take on the last name Douglas, from a character in Sir Walter Scott's poem The Lady of the Lake. He does so, spelling it Douglass.
Tries to get job as a caulker, but white workers threaten to quit. -
Daughter Rosetta is born.
Douglass subscribes to William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist weekly The Liberator. Hears Garrison speaking in April.
Becomes a licensed preacher for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. -
Frederick's second child is born. He is named Lewis Henry.
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Speaks at an antislavery meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Abolitionist William C. Coffin talks him into speaking about his life as a slave at a Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society convention. William Lloyd Garrison follows his remarks with a speech of his own, encouraging Douglass. The Society is impressed and he is hired as a speaker. Douglass becomes closely allied with Garrison and his abolitionist views.
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Son Frederick is born.
Meets black abolitionist Charles Lenox Remond. Talks to him about his enslaved life. -
Son Charles Remond is born.
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He reveals details that could lead to an arrest as a fugitive. Once published he flees to the U.K. He still belongs to Hugh Auld but the Europeans and Irish friends pull enough money together to buy his freedom.
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Returns from overseas tour; moves to Rochester , New York
With money raised by the English and Irish friends, he buys printing press and begins publishing the abolitionist weekly North Star. He continued publishing until 1851. -
Daughter Annie was born. Frederick hires a tutor to teach his wife to read. The effort is unsuccessful.
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His next autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom is published.
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The US Congress abolishes Slavery in Washington, DC.
August 10th ~
Douglass meets with Abraham Lincoln to discuss unequal pay and poor treatment towards the black soldiers in the Civil War. -
Douglass remarries Helen Pitts, January 24, 1884. The interracial marriage causes controversy among the friends and family members.
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Frederick speaks at a meeting of National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. He dies suddenly that evening. His wife recalls it as a heart faliure while he was telling her about the meeting.
