In the 1800s, a 22 year old man named Douglass learned to write using letterpresses. He first became interested in writing after reading the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It wasn’t until he was 34 years old that he started giving it serious thought. In that time he spent in Germany, he fell in love with a girl who didn’t speak any English. One of her friends, a teacher, inspired him to learn the language, which was a huge sacrifice given the fact that he was a highly trained, skilled professional who worked as a lawyer. He completed correspondence courses and passed the bar exam. In his spare time, he translated Goethe’s work into English and began to write his own poetry. In 1838, he published his first book, a set of poems he called “The Blot On The Leaf.” He then made the big decision to leave his law practice and settle in New York. He rented a small apartment on Fifth Avenue, sold everything he could, and began traveling around the country giving lectures on German philosophy and literature. It wasn’t long before he was considered a prominent orator, and even got his own show on television. In 1845, he married the daughter of a wealthy New York businessman. In the late 1840s and early 1850s, he wrote his most famous works, such as “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,” and started a national organization called the Afro-American Association. In 1871, he was appointed minister to Haiti by President Grant. While there, he helped to found public schools and wrote an anti-slavery novel called “The Conquest Of Canaan.” After returning to the US, he bought a large estate in Massachusetts and started an off-shoot of the Afro-American Association called the Colored People’s Review. In 1881, he moved to Lenox, Massachusetts where he established a school for children and a community center for adults. He also started a newspaper there called the North Star. He continued to write and publish articles until his death in 1902. One of his last projects was a massive, hand-written, multi-volume history of the United States called “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.” It was published posthumously.
That’s quite a life. It’s quite a story, actually. The man wrote a lot. A lot. During his lifetime, he wrote over 40 books, including poetry, novels, and non-fiction. Not bad for a lawyer who worked his way up from the bottom. He was actually born a slave and named William Wells. His master, Samuel A. Harrington, renamed him Frederick after the famed abolitionist William A. Wells. In an effort to prove that he could be just like any other white boy his age, he began copying out speeches and works by British poets like Byron and Shakespeare. After sneaking a peek at some of his father’s books, he decided he wanted to be a writer. In 1803, he was hired as an office boy at the age of 12. He worked his way up to partner, then manager of a real estate company. At the age of 22, he quit his law practice to pursue writing. In 1838, he published “The Blot On The Leaf,” a set of poems he wrote while in Germany. The following year, he published “Folios,” a book of his poetry. In 1845, he published his first novel called “The Prose Works of William Wells, Esquire.” That’s how he got his name change. In 1847, he became interested in American history and decided to learn to write in English. He started studying English literature and grammar with the help of the Internet. He would spend hours a day researching various authors, reading their books, and copying out chunks of speech or writing. During one of his research sessions, he came across a biography of British abolitionist William A. Wells by Horace Greeley. He was so inspired by what he read that he decided to write his own autobiography. In 1848, he started working on “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” In 1851, he published it. That famous autobiography detailed the author’s life from a slave’s perspective. Since then, it’s been considered one of the important founding texts of African-American literature. In the 1800s, writing an autobiography was a pretty big deal for a black man. Before the Civil War, publishing an autobiography was the only way an African-American could get his or her voice heard. After the war, it became a way for black people to define themselves and their culture. Between the years 1847 and 1901, he wrote 15 more novels. In 1880, he started a national organization called the Afro-American Association which promoted the advancement of African-Americans and helped them get a voice in American society. In 1881, he was appointed minister to Haiti by President Grant. While there, he helped to found public schools and wrote an anti-slavery novel called “The Conquest Of Canaan.” After returning to the United States, he bought a large estate in Massachusetts and started an off-shoot of the Afro-American Association called the Colored People’s Review. In 1881, he moved to Lenox, Massachusetts where he established a school for children and a community center for adults. He also started a newspaper there called the North Star. In 1888, he collaborated with abolitionist Frederick Douglass on a revised and expanded edition of the famous “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass.” In 1901, he started a new collaboration with Douglass, this time on a massive, three volume history of the United States called “The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.” That same year, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He had to cancel some of his travels and speeches. Towards the end, he stopped writing altogether. He didn’t want to ruin the last months of his life. In his last year, he mostly just slept and made long speeches to the well-wishers who came to see him. Toward the end, he even stopped responding to his mail. He died in 1902, one day before his 74th birthday. His funeral was held at the Baltimore Cathedral and he was buried at the Frederick Douglass Cemetery in North Carolina. One of his wives, Anna, outlived him by 23 years. She passed away in 1915. In 1928, Anna and Frederick’s home, The Douglass Farm, was opened to the public as a museum. It still operates today and is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world. In 1940, Congress passed a law designating August 26th as “National Frederick Douglass Day.”
That’s a lot of information, but I think you get the point. It’s been said that he wrote so much because he felt that his life was so extraordinary. It really was. Through his works, we get a sense of someone who was incredibly complex, with layers and layers of feelings. He was a man of strong opinions and there wasn’t anything he didn’t dare to say. It was only natural that he would want to document such an important part of his life. Maybe it’s not coincidental that his final project was such a massive, hand-written multi-volume history of the United States. For someone who spent so much of his life advocating for African American pride, it seems fitting that he would want to leave behind a record of his life and times. Even from the little I’ve read about him, I think he would have liked to believe that his works would inspire future generations, even if it was only one man at a time.