EDMES Grade Five Learning Tree

The American Civil War

People Who Made a Difference

Frederick Douglass

1817-1895

Frederick Douglas was a slave on a Maryland plantation until he escaped and moved North, earning enough from writing his autobiography to purchase his freedom. He become an advocate of abolition and social justice and pressed Lincoln to enlist blacks and pronounce emancipation.

Frederick Douglass once told a group of African American students from a school in Talbot County, Maryland, "What was possible for me is possible for you. Do not think because you are colored you cannot accomplish anything. Strive earnestly to add to your knowledge. So long as you remain in ignorance, so long will you fail to command the respect of your fellow men." Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey to a slave mother and a white father he never knew, Frederick Douglass grew up to become a leader in the abolitionist movement and the first black citizen to hold high rank (as U.S. minister and consul general to Haiti) in the U.S. government.

African Americans were ready and willing to fight in the Civil War, but President Lincoln and Union leaders were not sure how they felt about enlisting black troops. By 1860, Douglass was well known for his efforts to end slavery and his skill at public speaking. During the Civil War, Douglass was a consultant to President Abraham Lincoln and helped convince him that slaves should serve in the Union forces and that the abolition of slavery should be a goal of the war.  Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation clearly stated that Confederate slaves were now free and they could serve in the Union army. By the end of the war, about 186,000 African American men had enlisted.

Douglass also worked as a recruiter in several regions of the country signing up African Americans to serve in the Union army. Douglass recruited his sons, Charles and Lewis, who both joined the famous 54th Massachusetts Regiment. This army unit was made up of black volunteers who fought a bitter battle at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, in July 1863.

. He published a newspaper called The North Star. Douglass's goals were to "abolish slavery in all its forms and aspects, promote the moral and intellectual improvement of the COLORED PEOPLE, and hasten the day of FREEDOM to the Three Millions of our enslaved fellow countrymen." In addition to publishing The North Star, Douglass lectured on the subject of freedom. After the war, he held various government positions.

This page last updated on 11/13/2004.