Frederick Douglass’ Paper

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman.

After escaping from slavery Douglass became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing.He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.

Many Northerners found it hard to believe that such a great writer and speaker had once been a slave.

By 1851 Frederick Douglass had become established as one of the most influential black leaders of the 19th century. In this year he changed the title of his Rochester based newspaper, The North Star, to the “Frederick Douglass’ Paper.”

In respect to the Church and the government, we especially wish to make ourselves fully and clearly understood. With the religion of the one, and the politics of the other, our soul shall have no communion. These we regard as central pillars in the horrid temple of slavery. They are both pro-slavery; and on that score, our controversy with them is based.

–Frederick Douglass