FREDERICK DOUGLASS CHRONOLOGY
1818
Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in February at Holme Hill Farm, Talbot County, Md.
1826
Douglass sent to live with Hugh Auld’s family in Baltimore.
1833
Master loans Douglass to Thomas Auld at St. Michaels, Md.
1834
Douglass spends a year as a fieldhand hired out to Edward Covey, Talbot County “slave breaker.”
1836
After Douglass’s unsuccessfully attempts to escape, he is returned to Hugh Auld in Baltimore.
On September 3, Douglass departs Baltimore on a successful escape attempt to the North. He marries Anna Murray in New York City on September 15, and the couple settles in New Bedford, Mass.
1841
After addressing an antislavery meeting in Nantucket, Mass., Douglass is hired as a lecturer by Garrisonian abolitionists.
1845
Douglass publishes his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, placing himself in danger of being hunted and recaptured as a runaway slave. For his safety, Douglass departs in August for twenty-one months in Great Britain as an abolitionist lecturer.
1847
From his new home in Rochester, N.Y., Douglass publishes the first issue of his weekly newspaper North Star on December 3.
1848
Douglass attends the Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention on July 19–20.
1851
After breaking from the Garrisonian abolitionists, Douglass revamps his newspaper into the Frederick Douglass’ Paper, a Liberty Party vehicle.
1852
Douglass publishes his novella, “The Heroic Slave.” On July 5, he delivers his most memorable oration, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” in Rochester, N.Y.
Douglass’s second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, is published.
1859
Following Harpers Ferry Raid in October, Douglass flees first to Canada and then Great Britain for safety because of his prior close connections with John Brown, the head plotter. Douglass is not able to return home until April 1860.
1863
After recruiting black troops for the Union Army, Douglass has the first of three private interviews with President Abraham Lincoln. Douglass encourages Lincoln to allow black soldiers to demonstrate their abilities in combat against the Confederates.
1870
Douglass relocates to Washington, D.C., and begins editing the New National Era to advance black civil rights as well as other reforms.
1871
Douglass serves as assistant secretary on the U.S. Commission sent to Santo Domingo to evaluate prospects for annexation.
1874
Appointed president of the Freedman’s Savings Bank in March, Douglass has to close the institution as insolvent in July.
1877
President Ruther B. Hayes appoints Douglass U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia.
President James A. Garfield appoints Douglass recorder of the deeds for the District of Columbia. Douglass publishes his third autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
1882
In August, Douglass’s wife Anna dies.
1884
Douglass’s marriage in January to a younger white woman, Helen Pitts, causes a public controversy.
1886
In September, Douglass and his new wife depart for tour of Europe and the Near East, returning in August 1887.
1889
Douglass accepts an appointment as U.S. ambassador to Haiti in July. He resigns post in August 1889 after clashes with the Benjamin Harrison administration over attempted annexation of a Haitian port to serve as an American naval base.
1892
While serving as commissioner of the Haitian pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago from October to December 1893, Douglass meets many of the next generation of African American leaders.
1895
Douglass dies at his Cedar Hill home in Washington, D.C., on February 20 after attending a women’s rights convention.