In 1851 Douglass joined the National Liberty Party and made his paper an organ of it. In doing so he changed its name from The North Star to Frederick Douglass’ Paper and removed his initials from his editorials. In this short piece, he explains why he had previously used initials, revealing his influence as an editor and public leader.
SOURCE: Frederick Douglass’ Paper, June 26, 1851
We have during the last three years signed our editorials with the above initials. The custom originated in a desire to remove certain doubts which were most liberally entertained by the pro-slavery public as to who wrote the leading editorials of the North Star. It had been repeatedly denied that an uneducated fugitive slave could write the English language with such propriety and correctness as those early editorials evinced. Well, we pocketed the compliments to our skill, although at the expense of our veracity; and having won the former, we set about to establish the latter by affixing our initials. We have followed the custom now more than three years, and hope we have removed all doubts which our signature can possibly remove in this line. We shall now, therefore, dispense with them, and assume fully the right and dignity of an Editor—a Mr. Editor if you please!