Why should we care about Frederick Douglass?

Douglass was one of the first great African-American public intellectuals, who not only shaped the discourse about slavery and black life in America, but also came to represent the indomitable spirt of those who fought slavery and stood up against oppression. Douglass escaped from slavery at the age of 20, fled to Massachusetts, where in 1845 he penned his seminal autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. 

That book, which vividly described the circumstances and psychological toll of his enslavement, became not just a best-selling memoir, but also a rallying cry against the institution of slavery. Having written the book, Douglass became a staple of the abolition movement's national speaking tour, following William Lloyd Garrison and other prominent abolitionist intellectuals around the country to convince ordinary Americans that slavery was not only unjust, but a bad policy for the country.

During and directly after the Civil War, Douglass became a close adviser and confidante to Abraham Lincoln, becoming the first African-American to be invited to stay at the White House. Douglass's passion for justice also led him to take up the fight for Women's Suffrage, along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, whom he accompanied to the famous Seneca Falls Convention on Women's Rights in 1848. 

Once the Civil War was over, Douglass became the first black American to be appointed to a federal post, when during Reconstruction, he served as President of the Freedman's Savings Bank. Subsequently, Douglass served as head of the diplomatic mission for United States Embassy in the Dominican Republic, and later served as a minister in Haiti's government. 

In 1872, Douglass became the first African American vice presidential nominee when he ran with Victoria Woodhull for the party of Equal Rights. Along with W.E.B. Dubois and George Washington Carver, Douglass was one of the first universally celebrated African American intellectuals, who helped to demonstrate to the country and the world that Black Americans had every bit as much intelligence, courage and integrity as the whites who had held a monopoly on power.