Читать книгу Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass - Frederick Douglass - Страница 14

During the fifty years following the publication of the Narrative, Douglass was a forthright advocate for human rights, and not only of black people. He and Anna provided a temporary home to hundreds of escaped slaves as part of the Underground Railroad. When slavery ended with the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, he regularly spoke out for the civil and voting rights that became enshrined in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments.

In the 1840s, on the abolition circuit, Douglass found that female abolitionists were not allowed to speak out publicly. This led him to become an outspoken proponent of women's emancipation. He was the only man to attend the 1848 Seneca Falls Convention in New York for women's rights, and told the audience that he could hardly agitate for black rights and keep quiet on female suffrage:

In this denial of the right to participate in government, not merely the degradation of woman and the perpetuation of a great injustice happens, but the maiming and repudiation of one-half of the moral and intellectual power of the government of the world.

In 1882, after over forty years of marriage, Anna died. Before long, though, Douglass married a white woman suffragist and abolitionist, Helen Pitts, who was about the age of his oldest daughter. Amid the controversy, Douglass said: “This proves I am impartial. My first wife was the color of my mother and the second, the color of my father.”

He was also an early campaigner for black children's education, and against the racial segregation of education. In the Civil War, he argued that black Americans should be able to fight on the Union side.

After Rutherford B. Hayes became president in 1876, Douglass was appointed marshal to the District of Columbia. It was the first ever Senate-approved posting of a high-level job to a black man and, although it involved few duties, provided a handsome stipend. In 1878, he was able to buy a 20-room home overlooking Washington D.C. “Cedar Hill” is now a federally run museum, the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

Douglass in mid-1880s with second wife Helen (sitting). Photographer unknown

Douglass and Helen travelled widely in the 1880s, including trips to Europe. He remained in demand as a speaker. He was opposed to the various ‘Back to Africa’ resettlement programs mooted at the time, and also the idea of black separatist movements and all-black towns.

In 1889, President Harrison appointed him the consul-general to the Republic of Haiti, which he resigned in 1891. The following year, Douglass built a row of rental houses for African Americans, which still stands in the Fells Point area of Baltimore.

Douglass died on February 20, 1895, having just returned from a women's rights meeting, where he had been escorted onto the stage by Susan B. Anthony.

His writings and speeches fill many volumes. He became revered by many, black and white, and was one of the most photographed Americans of the nineteenth century. Schools and buildings are named after him.

Douglass made an indelible impression on American life.