Frederick Douglass (February 14, 1818 - February 20, 1895) He was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining prestige for his oratory and critical writings against slavery. In his time, abolitionists described him as an example of clarity in the arguments against slave owners, indicating that slaves were denied the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. At that time, northerners found it hard to believe that a great speaker had been a slave.
