Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born in February of 1817 at Tuckanoe, Maryland, to a white father and a slave mother. When Frederick was eight years old he was sent to Baltimore, Maryland, to work as a house servant for one of his father's relatives. The mistress of the house taught him to read and write, which was unusual because slaves were not often educated. While working in Baltimore, he met a young free black woman named Anna Murray. They decided to get married. Frederick did not want to marry Anna while he was a slave. He ran away. Annie joined him there. They were married in 1838. They left New York City to find work in New Bedford, Massachusetts. To avoid capture from slave hunters, Frederick dropped his two middle names and changed his last name to Douglass. He needed work to support his family which eventually included four children.

In 1841 Douglas spoke out against slavery at the Massachusetts Anti- slavery society about his life as a slave. He spoke so well, people didn't believe he had ever been a slave. He wrote a book. Because he was afraid of being taken back into slavery, he went to England to lecture for 2 years. He came back to U.S. in 1847 and founded an anti-slavery newspaper- the North Star. He ran a "station" on the Underground Railroad. During the Civil War he succeeded in organizing 2 black regiments for the Union. Following the Civil War he worked for equal rights for Blacks. He was part of the U.S. government for years. He died January 20, 1895.