Letter Authorizing African-American Troops_ photo: courtesy of nps.gov
By the time of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass was one of the most famous black men in the country. His reception by leaders in England and Ireland added to his stature. The Civil War (1861 - 1865) was a war between Northern and Southern states in which the main issues were slavery and the Southern states' decision to leave the Union and form an independent nation. Douglass insisted that African Americans should be allowed to fight. After all, they would be fighting for their own freedom. In 1863, as a result of Douglass's continued urging, President Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) asked him to recruit African American soldiers for the
Union (Northern) army. As the war proceeded, Douglass had several meetings with Lincoln to discuss the use and treatment of African American soldiers
by the Union forces. As a result, the role of African American soldiers was upgraded each time, making them a more effective force in the fight.
President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. (Slaves in Union-held areas and Northern states would become freed with the adoption of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865). Douglass described the spirit of those awaiting the proclamation: "We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky...we were watching...by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day...we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries."
Source: notablebiographies.com
Charge of the 54th Massachusetts Colored Regiment, July 18,1863.
Frederick Douglass helped theUnion by serving as a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment. His son Frederick Douglass Jr. also served as a recruiter while another, Charles, fought for the 54th Massachusetts Regiment at the Battle of Fort Wagner. Photo credit: nps.gov Source: Rochester.edu
The end of the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves did not mean that Douglass was able to rest. The Reconstruction period, as the years after the Civil War came to be known, presented a new set of
challenges for the country. While slavery had ended, the discrimination that went along with slavery was still in place. Some Southerners even went to court to try to overturn the slaves' emancipation. Douglass not only fought for equality for his people but also made plans with President Lincoln to move the liberated slaves out of the South. In 1870 Douglass and his sons began publishing the New National Era newspaper in Washington, D.C. He used the newspaper to make statements on the issues of discrimination. Source: Britannica.com
Post Emancipation Era
Assistant Secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission
Douglass' Inquiry of Plantation Owners in Santo
Domingo
By James E. Taylor
Frederick Douglass was appointed to several important political positions in the post emancipation era. In 1868, Douglass supported the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant who signed the Klan Act into law. Over 5,000 arrests were made and the Ku Klux Klan received a serious blow. Grant became unpopular with many whites but Douglass praised him.
In 1871 Frederick Douglass served as Assistant Secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission under President Grant's administration. Douglass is wearing a wide brimmed Panama hat & carrying a riding crop. He stands a few steps below Madam Hyppolite, wife of the Haitian president, wearing a riding habit. In this scene Douglass questions the residents. Bottom right bears the signature, James E. Taylor. Taylor (1839-1901) was an illustrator for the Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.)
Source: Britannica.com
In 1872, Douglass became the first African American nominated for Vice President of the United States, as Victoria Woodhull's running mate on
the Equal Rights Party ticket. He was nominated without his knowledge. During the campaign, he neither campaigned for the ticket nor acknowledged that he had been nominated. He also moved to Washington, D.C., in that same year, after his house on South Avenue in Rochester, New York, was burned down; arson was suspected. Douglass also lost a complete issue of The North Star.
In 1873 he continued his speaking engagements, adressing many colleges around the country, including Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. He also continued to emphasize the importance of voting rights and exercise of suffrage.
In March of 1874, he was appointed as President of the Reconstruction-era Freedman's Savings Bank, which was a financial organization created by the U.S. government to encourage and guide the economic development of the newly-emancipated African Americans. Source: Britannica.com
Frederick Douglass Appointed as US Marshal of the District of Columbia (1877- 1881)
Courtesy of: whitehousehistory.org
Washington D.C., March 13, 1878.
Hon. AG. Riddle,
My Dear Sir,
I am very much obliged by the receipt of a Copy of your address on the late
Hon. Geo.W. Paschal. It is an eloquent tribute of respect, affection and
friendship to the deceased, and I doubt not [___________]. I listened to it
with close attention as it fell from your lips, and am now glad to have it in
pamphlet form.
With Respect and Esteem
Yours Truly
Fredk. Douglass
In 1877, Douglass also bought his final home in Washington D.C., on a hill above the Anacostia River. He named it Cedar Hill (also spelled CedarHill). He expanded the house from 14 to 21 rooms, and included a china closet. One year later, he expanded his property to 15 acres (61,000 m²) by buying adjoining lots. The home has been designated the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
Source: Jesse Bravo and The Chris Webber Collection of Artifacts and documents
Recorder of Deeds
Courtesy of publicaffairs.cua.edu
In 1881-1886, Frederick Douglass was appointed as Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia by President Garfield, then considered a high-paying job.
Catholic University of America (CUA) land deed signed by Frederick Douglass. The land deed records the transfer of the property on which CUA is located).
Source: publicaffairs.cua.edu
Photo credit: oxfordjournals.org
On August 4th, 1882, after a union of 44 years, Anna Murray Douglass died and Frederick went into a state of depresion. His association with the activist Ida B. Wells brought meaning back into his life.
In 1884, Douglass married Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York. Pitts was the daughter of Gideon Pitts, Jr., an abolitionist colleague and friend of Douglass. Pitts was a graduate of Mount Holyoke College (then called Mount Holyoke Female Seminary). She had worked on a radical feminist publication named Alpha while living in Washington, D.C. The couple faced a storm of controversy with their marriage, since she was both white and nearly 20 years younger than he. Her family stopped speaking to her; his was bruised as his children felt his marriage was a repudiation of their mother. But feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton congratulated the couple. The new couple traveled to England, France, Italy, Egypt and Greece from 1886 to 1887. Source: notablebiographies.com
Courtesy of arcweb.archives.gov
At the 1888 Republican National Convention, Douglass became the first African American to receive a vote for President of the United States in a major party's roll call vote.
In 1889–91 Douglass was appointed U.S. Minister and Consul General to Haiti and as chargé d'affaires for the Dominican Republic. He resigned his assignment in Haiti after two years when he discovered that American businessmen were taking advantage of his position in their dealings with the Haitian government.
In 1892 the Haitian government appointed Douglass as its commissioner to the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. He spoke for Irish Home Rule
and the efforts of leader Charles Stewart Parnell in Ireland. He briefly revisited Ireland in 1886. Also in 1892, he constructed rental housing for blacks in the Fells Point area of Baltimore. Now known as Douglass Place, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
Source: National Archives at College Park Reference Section
Kodak Park ceremony - Photo credit: buffalo.edu
In 1892 President Benjamin Harrison attends ceremony at Kodak Park with Frederick Douglass, Mayor Hiram Edgerton and Civil War veterans Source: buffalo.edu