This is the second part of the History of Frederick Douglass article.
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Travels to Europe - History of Frederick Douglass
Douglass spent two years in the British Isles and gave several lectures, mainly in Protestant churches. He remarked that he was treated not "as a color, but as a man."
He met and befriended Irish nationalist Daniel O'Connell. When Douglass visited Scotland, the members of Free Church of Scotland, whom he had criticized for accepting money from US slave-owners, demonstrated against him with placards that read "Send back the nigger."
Douglass was able safely to return to the U.S. only when two Englishwomen, Ellen and Anna Richardson, purchased his freedom from Hugh Auld, for $710.96 or £150. On December 5, 1846, at age 28, Douglass was legally a free man.
Frederick Douglass had five children; two of them, Charles and Rossetta, helped produce his newspapers.
The Civil War - History of Frederick Douglass
In 1851, Douglass merged North Star with Gerrit Smith's Liberty Party Paper to form Frederick Douglass' Paper, which was published until 1860. Douglass came to agree with Smith and Lysander Spooner that the United States Constitution is an antislavery document, reversing his earlier belief that it was proslavery, a view he had shared with William Lloyd Garrison. Garrison had publicly demonstrated his opinion of the Constitution by burning copies of it. Douglass' change of position on the Constitution was one of the most notable incidents of a division that emerged in the abolitionist movement after the publication of Spooner's book The Unconstitutionality of Slavery in 1846. This shift in opinion, as well as some political differences, create a rift between Douglass and Garrison. Douglass further angered Garrison by saying that the Constitution should be used to fight slavery. With this, Douglass began to assert his independence in the Garrisonians. Garrison saw the North Star as competition with the National Anti-Slavery Standard and Marius Robinson's Anti-slavery Bugle.
In March 1860, Annie, his youngest daughter, died in Rochester, New York while Douglass was still in England. Douglass returned from England the following month, taking the route through Canada to avoid detection.
By the time of the Civil War, Douglass was the most famous black man in the country, known for his oratories on the condition of the black race, and other issues such as women's rights.
The Reconstruction era - History of Frederick Douglass
After the Civil War, Frederick Douglass held a number of important political positions. He served as President of the failed Reconstruction-era Freedman's Savings Bank, marshal of the District of Columbia, minister-resident and consul-general to the Republic of Haiti, and chargé d'affaires for Santo Domingo. After two years he resigned his ambassadorship due to disagreements with U.S. government policy. In 1872, he moved to Washington, D.C., after his house on South Avenue in Rochester, New York burned down — arson was suspected. Also lost was a complete issue of The North Star.
In 1868, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant. The Klan Act and Enforcement Act were signed into law by President Grant. Grant used their provisions vigorously, suspending habeas corpus in South Carolina and sending troops there and into other states; under his leadership over 5,000 arrests were made and the Ku Klux Klan was dealt a serious blow.
Grant's vigor in disrupting the Klan made him unpopular among many whites, but Frederick Douglass praised him. An associate of Douglass wrote of Grant that African-Americans "will ever cherish a grateful remembrance of his name, fame and great services." The conflict was not limited to the KKK. Racist groups like the Knights of the White Camellia and the White League also played a part.
Later life - History of Frederick Douglass
In 1877, Frederick Douglass purchased his final home in Washington D.C. on the banks of the Anacostia River. He named it Cedar Hill (also spelled CedarHill). He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms including a china closet. One year later, Douglass expanded his property to 15 acres (61,000 m²) with the purchase of adjoining lots. The home is now the location of the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
After the disappointments of Reconstruction many African Americans called Exodusters moved to Kansas to form all-black towns. Douglass spoke out against the movement, urging blacks to stick it out. He was condemned and booed by black audiences.
In 1881 Douglass was appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. Douglass's wife (Anna Murray Douglas) died in 1882, leaving him in a state of depression. His association with activist Ida B. Wells brought meaning back into his life. In 1884, he married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York. Pitts was a graduate of Mount Holyoke Seminary, and daughter of Gideon Pitts, Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass. While living in Washington, D.C. before her marriage, she had worked on a radical feminist publication called the Alpha while living in Washington, D.C.
Frederick and Helen Pitts Douglass faced a storm of controversy as a result of their marriage. She was a white woman who was nearly 20 years younger than him. Both families recoiled; hers stopped speaking to her; his was bruised, as they felt his marriage was a repudiation of their mother. But individualist feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the two.
The new couple traveled to England, France, Italy, Egypt and Greece from 1886 to 1887.
In later life, Frederick Douglass determined to find his birthday. He was born in February of 1817 by his own calculations, but historians have found a record indicating his birth in February of 1818.
In 1892 the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner to the Chicago World Columbian Exposition. He spoke for Irish Home Rule and efforts of Charles Stewart Parnell and briefly revisited Ireland in 1886.
On February 20, 1895, he attended a meeting of the National Council of Women in Washington, D.C. During that meeting, he was brought to the platform and given a standing ovation by the audience. Shortly after he returned home, Frederick Douglass died of a massive heart attack or stroke in his adopted hometown of Washington D.C.
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