(b. ca. February, 1818; d. February 20, 1895) Former slave, political leader, and civil rights advocate.

Frederick Douglass, the foremost African-American political leader of the nineteenth century, was a lifelong advocate of freedom and civil rights for African Americans as well as a strong supporter of equal rights for women. Douglass's 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the most renowned and widely read slave narrative as well as a classic work of American literature. His autobiography and his work as an abolitionist

Frederick Douglass.

speaker and publisher contributed to the nation's debate over slavery and thus to the events that led to the Civil War (1861–1865).

Born a slave on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Frederick Bailey was the son of Harriet Bailey, a slave of Captain Aaron Anthony who, according to rumor, may have been Frederick Bailey's father. In 1826, Frederick Bailey was sent to live in Baltimore, where...