On Feb. 14, 1838, Frederick Douglass escaped slavery in Talbot County, Maryland on a train to New York. Born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, he was sent to Baltimore at just 8 years old and sold to a slaveholding family. After learning how to read as a child (a rare opportunity for someone in his position), he learned about the abolitionist movement, offering him a chance at a life that he otherwise wouldn't have likely had.
To escape, Douglass slipped aboard a train in Baltimore bound for New York, dressed as a sailor. It was a clever ruse: As a slave, he didn't have the paperwork needed to show railroad employees that he was a free man. Instead, he had a "protection pass" often carried by sailors, used in lieu of those papers.
Once established in New York, Douglass began his career crusading against slavery. He started traveling to free states, speaking out about how he'd been treated, and joined the Underground Railroad. In 1845, he published The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which helped cement his fame. He'd write two more best-sellers in his lifetime.
Douglass' speeches and writings set the direction for the national discourse on slavery, especially as the Civil War broke out. He was a major influence on President Abraham Lincoln around issues related to Black people, including pushing him to abolish slavery and pay Black troops equally. He even worked to recruit Black soldiers for the Union during the Civil War.
He later became president of the Freedman's Savings Bank, an institution created by Congress to collect deposits from emancipated people, and started another newspaper advocating for racial equality. A few years later in 1877, Douglass was appointed the U.S. Marshall for the District of Columbia. He bought a 14-room house in Washington D.C. that he and his wife dubbed Cedar Hill, which is now open to the public as a National Historic Site. Douglass died in 1895 at age 77.
You can read more about Douglass at History.com.
