Frederick Douglass was perhaps the first black man to have had such a long and arduous rise that led him from slavery to some of the highest positions in the country, wielding considerable influence not only in the minds of many ordinary people, but also in the presidents. His name and legacies remain unforgettable as seen in the numerous quotes attributed to him, the books written about him especially for children, as well as the monuments to his honor.

Douglass served as an adviser to President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and fought for the adoption of constitutional amendments that guaranteed the right to vote and other civil liberties for blacks. He then provided a powerful voice defending human rights. He is still revered today for his contributions against racial injustice.

After the Civil War, Douglass held several important political positions, including President of the Reconstruction-era Freedman Savings Bank; Marshall of the District of Columbia, President of the National Union of Colored Workers, Registrar of Deeds in Washington, Resident Minister and Consul General of the Republic of Haiti (1889-1891) and Charge d’Affaires of the Dominican Republic.

In 1872, he moved to Washington, D.C. after his home on South Avenue in Rochester, New York caught fire and he lost, among other items, an entire number of The north star.

In 1868, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant, who upon assuming power made the Klu Klux Klan Act and the second and third Execution Acts into law. President Grant. used its provisions vigorously, suspending habeas corpus provisions in South Carolina and sending troops there and in other states; under his leadership. More than 5,000 arrests were made, resulting in a severe and devastating blow to the Ku Klux Klan. Although Grant’s vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular with many whites, it earned him the praise of Frederick Douglass and other blacks. A Douglass associate wrote about Grant that African Americans will have and appreciate a grateful memory of his name, fame, and great service.

Douglass’s rise to greatness took a symbolic upward turn when, as a sign of the high esteem in which he is held in 1872, he became the first African-American to receive a nomination for Vice President of the United States, having been nominated to be Victoria. Woodhull’s running mate on the Equal Rights Party ticket without his knowledge. He did not campaign for the ticket or even acknowledge that he had been nominated.

Douglass spoke in many schools across the country during the Reconstruction era, including at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in 1873.

In 1877, Douglass bought his last home in Washington DC, on the banks of the Anacostia River, and named it Cedar Hill. He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms and included a porcelain closet. A year later, Douglass expanded it further to 15 acres, with the purchase of adjoining lots. The home is now the location of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

After the disappointments of Reconstruction, many African Americans, Exodusters, moved to Kansas to form all-black towns. Douglass spoke out against the movement, urging blacks to stand their ground. But he was condemned and booed by the black public.

In 1877, Douglass was appointed Marshall of the United States and then, in 1881, he was appointed Registrar of Deeds for the District of Columbia.

His wife Anna Murray Douglas died in 1882, leaving him in a state of depression that was only alleviated by his association with activist Ida B. Wells, who restored meaning to his life. In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York, daughter of Gideon Pitts, 1, an abolitionist colleague and friend. A graduate of Mount Holyoke Women’s Seminary, Pitts had worked on a radical feminist publication Alpha while living in Washington, DC. Frederick and Helen Pitts Douglass faced a storm of controversy as a result of their marriage, as she was white and nearly 20 years younger. Both families fell back; hers stopped talking to him; theirs was bruised, as they felt that their marriage was a disowning of their mother. But individualist feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated both of them.

The new couple traveled to England, France, Italy, Egypt and Greece from 1886 to 1887. Later, Douglass, determined to confirm his birthday, adopted on February 14 because his mother, Harriet Bailey, used to call him her “little Valentine.” . . He was born in February 1816 according to his own calculations, but historians have found a record indicating his birth in February 1818.

Douglass had five children; two of them, Charles and Rossetta, helped produce their newspapers. Douglass was an ordained minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

In 1892, the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner for the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He spoke for the Irish Home Rule Government and about the efforts of Charles Stewart Parnell. He briefly revisited Ireland in 1886.

Until his death a quarter of a century later, Douglass used his great abilities to help his people achieve “a higher, broader, and nobler humanity.” In a multitude of capacities, Douglass contributed his energies to that primary purpose. He always fought for the dignity of his people, always emphasizing that exploitation against people of color was not a black problem, but was in fact an American problem, or as he told the nation, “no man can put a chain on his neighbor’s ankle. man, without finally finding the other end fastened around his own neck. “

He once wrote warning the American people that “the lesson they must learn or neglect to do so at their own risk is that equal manhood means equal rights, and that they must defend each for each and each for each, without respecting the color”. or race … I hope to see people of color in this country enjoying the same freedom, voting from the same ballot box, using the same box of cartridges, going to the same schools, attending the same churches, traveling in the same trams, in the same railroad cars, in the same steamers, proud of the same country, fighting against the same enemy, enjoying the same peace and all its advantages … “

But sadly, Frederick Douglass did not live to see his hope realized.

On February 20, 1895, Douglass attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, DC during which she was brought to the platform and given a standing ovation by the audience, as if they knew it was her last public appearance. Shortly after returning home, he suffered a massive heart attack and died. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York.

But today, even more than a century after his death, people have learned and are learning the lessons he taught. Around the world, millions of people of all races, colors, creeds and nationalities are moving together to achieve lasting victory, peace, security and freedom.

The words of Frederick Douglass have never been as significant as they are today after the war raised the issue of black rights in the sharpest way. Their vast contribution to the war effort has made it increasingly clear that lasting victory, peace, and security cannot be achieved without black peoples and without meeting their just demands.

Below are the emblems of his greatness and eternal significance in the form of quotes, children’s books and movies about him, as well as monuments:

Famous Douglass Quotes:

or “I am a republican, a black republican, dyed in wool, and I never claim to belong to any other party than the party of freedom and progress.”

or “Those who profess to favor freedom and yet despise agitation, are men who want crops without plowing the land, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.”

or “To make a happy slave it is necessary to be thoughtless. It is necessary to obscure the moral and mental vision and, as far as possible, to annihilate the power of reason.”

or “I affirm without hesitation, that the religion of the South is a mere cover for the most heinous crimes – a justification of the most hideous barbarism, a sanctifier of the most heinous frauds, and a dark refuge under which the darkest, most disgusting , The grossest and most infernal actions of the slaveholders find

or “Without struggle there is no progress.”

or “[Lincoln was] the first great man I spoke to freely in the United States who never reminded me of the difference between him and me, the difference in color. “

or “Power grants nothing without a demand. It never did and never will.”

or “Once you let the black man take over your person, the brass letters US allow you to put an eagle on the button and a musket on your shoulder and bullets in your pockets and there is no power on earth you can deny. that he has earned the right to citizenship in the United States. “

Books about Douglass for young readers:

or Miller, William. Frederick Douglass: The last day of slavery. Illus. by Cedric Lucas. Lee and Low Books, 1995.

or Weidt, Maryann N. Voice of Freedom: A Story About Frederick Douglass. Illus. by Jeni Reeves. Lerner Publications, 2001.

Documentary films about Douglass:

or Frederick douglas [videorecording] / produced by Greystone Communications, Inc. for A&E Network; executive producers, Craig Haffner and Donna E. Lusitana .; 1997

or Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History [videorecording] / a co-production of ROJA Productions and WETA-TV; produced and directed by Orlando Bagwell; narration written by Steve Fayer .; c1994

or Frederick Douglass, abolitionist editor [videorecording] / a production of Schlessinger Video Productions, a division of the Library Video Company; produced and directed by Rhonda Fabian, Jerry Baber; screenplay, Amy A. Tiehel

or Race to freedom [videorecording] : the history of the underground railway / year produced by Atlantis Films Limited in association with United Image Entertainment; produced in association with Family Channel (USA), Black Entertainment Television and CTV Television Network, Ltd.; Produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, Ontario Film Development Corporation and with the assistance of Rogers Telefund; distributed by Xenon Pictures; executive producers, Seaton McLean, Tim Reid; co-executive producers, Peter Sussman, Anne Marie La Traverse; supervising producer, Mary Kahn; the producers, Daphne Ballon, Brian Parker; Directed by Don McBrearty; Teleplay by Diana Braithwaite, Nancy Trites Botkin, Peter Mohan. Editorial Santa Monica, CA: Xenon Pictures, Inc., 2001. Tim Reid as Frederick Douglass.

Monuments to Frederick Douglass:

o Frederick Douglas National Historic Site The home of Frederick Douglass in Washington, DC

o Frederick Douglass Gardens in Cedar Hill Frederick Douglass Gardens Development and Maintenance Organization

o Frederick Douglass Award A national book award sponsored by the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.