Frederick Douglass has often been called the "father of the Civil Rights movement." His book Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass became a best-selling account of life under slavery and his escape to freedom. Published in 1845, his story was a major contribution to the antislavery movement. Douglass was active in antislavery causes, women's rights and, after the Civil War, the movement for black equality and self-improvement. He became an important figure in the postwar Republican Party, and was given a number of government appointments.

Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Bailey, a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland, the son of Harriet Bailey and an unidentified father. Douglass personally thought his father was his white master, Aaron Anthony. He took February 14, 1817, as his birth date. In 1825, he was sent to Baltimore to be a houseboy. Here, his mistress wished to teach him the alphabet, but the master would not allow...