The Gilder Lehrman Collection contains many documents on the life and work of Frederick Douglass. The following Spotlights on Primary Sources provide a closer look at some of those documents.
Buying Frederick Douglass’s freedom, 1846
In 1846, friends of Douglass’s in Great Britain negotiated to purchase his freedom from the Auld family in Maryland.
“I love you but hate slavery”: Frederick Douglass to his former owner, Hugh Auld, ca. 1860
In this letter, Douglass writes to Hugh Auld, whose family had enslaved him, to try to get information about his own birthdate.
Racism in the North: Frederick Douglass on “a vulgar and senseless prejudice,” 1870
Frederick Douglass wrote to the manager of the Star Course lecture series at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, refusing to speak if Black audience members were not admitted on the same terms as White audience members.
Frederick Douglass on Jim Crow, 1887
Frederick Douglass witnessed and decried the encroachment of Jim Crow laws in the decade following end of Reconstruction. In this letter he recognizes some advances made in the South, but calls out the ongoing inequalities.
Frederick Douglass on the disfranchisement of Black voters, 1888
In this 1888 letter, Frederick Douglass protests the disfranchisement of Black voters in the South a decade after Reconstruction ended.