Frederick Douglass (his name is misspelled “Douglas” here) was born enslaved in Maryland. His successful escape to freedom led to his meeting William Lloyd Garrison who hired him to speak against slavery. Douglass’ eloquent denunciations of the institution made him one of the most effective proponents of abolitionism. In 1859, Douglass fled from the United States in the wake of John Brown’s abortive raid on Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Brown had approached him looking for his support and Douglass had secretly helped raise funds and helped plan the raid, but refused to join Brown when he realized how poorly conceived the raid was. Nonetheless, Brown kept all the correspondence between them and as a result Douglass, fearing arrest, fled first to Canada and then to England. There, as this news report notes, the ambassador refused to give him permission to continue to France. He did so using the reasoning from the Supreme Court decision in the case of Dred Scott (1857). Chief Justice Roger Taney wrote that “Negroes of African descent,” regardless of whether they were enslaved or not, could not be citizens of the United States. Although this ruling was widely ignored, it remained in effect until the Fourteenth Amendment was passed in 1868. Frederick Douglass returned to the United States in late 1860, and was not prosecuted. He became an effective spokesman for African-Americans. He was instrumental in persuading Abraham Lincoln to order the emancipation of the enslaved, something he did in his Emancipation Proclamation of 1863.
Greenfield Gazette and Courier. “Frederick Douglas refused passport.” April 27, 1860. Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, American Centuries. https://americancenturies.org/collection/l02-112/. Accessed on October 16, 2024.
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