THE WORLD OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS AND MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM

1818	In February Frederick Douglass is born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in Tuckahoe, Maryland. His mother, Harriet Bailey, is a slave; his father’s identity is unknown, though many believe he was Douglass’s white master, Aaron Anthony. Frederick is sent to be raised by his grandparents, Betsey and Isaac Bailey.
1824	Six-year-old Frederick is sent to St. Michaels, Maryland, to work on the Lloyd plantation, managed by Aaron Anthony.
1826	Frederick’s mother dies. He is sent to Baltimore to work for Hugh Auld, a shipbuilder and the brother of Thomas Auld, Anthony’s son-in-law Frederick’s job is to look after Auld’s son, Tommy, and to work as a houseboy for Auld’s wife, Sophia.
1827	Sophia Auld begins to teach Frederick to read, but her husband stops the lessons. Frederick continues learning on his own.
1831	Having saved fifty cents, he purchases a copy of The Columbian Orator, an anthology of great speeches from lead ing orators throughout history, on such issues as liberty, equality, and justice.
1833	In March Frederick is sent back to St. Michaels to work for Thomas Auld.
1834	In January he is hired out as a field hand to Edward Covey, a professional “slave-breaker” who beats intransigent slaves into submission. After nearly eight months, Frederick stands up to Covey and beats him in a fight.
1835	Frederick is hired out to William Freeland as a field hand. He opens a Sunday school for young blacks and begins teaching them to read and write.
1836	Frederick and several other of Covey’s slaves attempt to escape, but are caught and imprisoned. Thomas Auld takes him out of prison and sends him back to Baltimore, where Hugh Auld trains him to become a ship caulker.
1837	He meets and falls in love with Anna Murray, a free black woman.
1838	On September 3 Frederick successfully escapes from slavery using a sailor’s “protection papers” (documents certifying the bearer is a free seaman). He arrives in New York City on September 4 and, to avoid recapture, changes his name to Frederick Johnson. Anna Murray joins him in New York and they marry on September 15. They move to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Frederick again changes his name, this time to Frederick Douglass, after a character in Lady of the Lake (1810), a historical poem by Sir Walter Scott.
1839	In New Bedford Douglass works as a day laborer and begins speaking at abolitionist meetings. His first child, Rosetta, is born on June 24.
1840	The Douglass’s son Lewis is born.
1841	In August Douglass travels to Nantucket to attend a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society; he meets the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, president of the American Anti-Slavery Society and editor of the wellknown abolitionist paper The Liberator. Impressed by Douglass’s eloquent and powerful speech, Garrison employs him as an antislavery speaker.
1842	A second son, Frederick, is born. Douglass begins traveling in New England, New York, and elsewhere around the North as an abolitionist speaker. He tells his personal story and attacks both slavery and northern racism. He and his family move to Lynn, Massachusetts, where Anna finds work in a shoe factory.
1844	Another son, Charles Remond, is born.
1845	In May Douglass publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. The book is well received and widely publicized. However, its publication exposes his identity, and fearing capture as a fugitive slave, he leaves the
	country. He begins traveling through England and Ireland, speaking against slavery.
1846	On December 5, 1846, friends purchase Douglass’s freedom from Thomas Auld.
1847	Douglass returns to the United States in the spring; he and his family move to Rochester, New York. On December 3 he founds an antislavery newspaper, the North Star, which he continues to edit until 1860 (the paper’s name becomes Frederick Douglass’ Paper in 1851).
1848	Douglass attends and speaks at the first Women’s Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, New York, beginning his long association with the women’s rights movement.
1849	His daughter Annie is born.
1850	Douglass becomes part of the Underground Railroad network, using his home as a hiding place for fugitive slaves traveling north.
1851	Douglass definitively breaks with Garrison, disagreeing over the issue of moral exhortation (which Garrison favored)versus political action (Douglass’s preference) as the major tool for eliminating slavery.
1852	On July 4 Douglass delivers an impassioned speech about the meaning of freedom and slavery in a republic and about continuing hypocrisy and injustice.
1855	His second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, is published.
1859	Abolitionist John Brown tries to enlist Douglass’s support in a raid to liberate slaves at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia); Douglass refuses, believing it to be a doomed ef fort. On October 16 Brown goes through with his raid and is caught; he is later tried and hanged for treason. Because of his association with Brown, Douglass flees to England.
1860	Douglass’s daughter Annie dies and he returns to Rochester. He campaigns for Abraham Lincoln, who is elected presdent in November.
1861	The Civil War begins. Douglass is a vocal proponent of the right of blacks to enlist and an aggressive propagandist for the Union cause.
1863	On January 1 President Abraham Lincoln issues the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in Confederate areas not held by Union troops. The first black regiment, the Fiftyfourth Massachusetts Volunteers, is assembled. Two of Douglass’s sons, Lewis and Charles, are among the recruits. Douglass travels throughout the North and recruits more than 100 members for the regiment; but he stops recruiting after a few months because of rampant discrimination against the black soldiers.
1864	Douglass is called to the White House to discuss strategies for emancipation.
1865	He attends the White House reception following Lincoln’s second inauguration. The Civil War ends on April 9, and on April 14 Lincoln is assassinated. In December Congress ratifies the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, abolishing slavery.
1866	Douglass supports Republican Reconstruction plans. He is part of a delegation that meets with President Andrew Johnson (who harbors Confederate sympathies) to push for black suffrage.
1868—1870	Douglass campaigns for Ulysses S. Grant, who wins the presidency in 1868. On March 30,1870, Congress passes the Fifteenth Amendment, which gives blacks the right to vote. Douglass’s support for this measure, which does not include women, causes a temporary rift with women’s rights supporters.
1871	Grant appoints Douglass secretary of a commission to Santo Domingo.
1872	The Douglass’s Rochester home is destroyed by fire; no one is injured, but many of Douglass’s important papers are lost. The family moves to Washington, D.C.
1874	Douglass is named president of Freedman’s Savings and Trust Company, a bank that had been founded to encourage blacks to save and invest their money. The bank is on the verge of collapse when Douglass takes it over, and it soon closes. A newspaper Douglass had purchased in 1870—the New National Era—also closes.
1877	President Rutherford B. Hayes appoints Douglass marshal of the District of Columbia, a post he holds until 1881. Douglass returns to St. Michaels, Maryland, and meets with his former owner Auld, who is dying.
1881	President James Garfield appoints Douglass recorder of deeds for the District of Columbia, a post he holds until 1886. Douglass publishes his third autobiographical volume, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
1882	His wife, Anna, dies in August.
1884	Douglass causes something of a scandal when he marries his former secretary, Helen Pitts, who is white.
1889	President Benjamin Harrison appoints him minister and consul general to Haiti, a post he holds until 1891.
1894	Douglass delivers his last major speech, “The Lessons of the Hour,” a denunciation of lynchings in the United States.
1895	On February 20 Frederick Douglass dies in Washington, D.C., of a heart attack. He is buried in Rochester beside his first wife and his daughter, Anna.
1988	On February 12 Douglass’s home in Washington, D.C., is designated the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.