Time Line

1838-Borrowing papers from a free black sailor, he escapes from slavery to New York and changes his last name to Johnson.

1839-Douglass subscribes to William Loyd Garrison's abolitionist weekly The Liberator. Hears Garrison speaking in April.

1841-Speaks at an antislavery meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Abolitionist William C. Coffin talks him into speaking about his life as a slave at a Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society convention. William Loyd Garrrison follows his remarks with speech of his own, encoureging Douglass. The society is impressed and he hired as a speaker. Douglass becomes closely allied with Garrison and his abolitionist veiws.

1845- Publishes Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. In it, he reveals details that could lead to his arrest as a fugitive slave.
1848-Begins sheltering escaped slaves fleeing north on the "underground railroad."

1851-Merges North Star with Gerrit Smith's Liberty Paper with smith that the constitution is antislavery document, reversing his earlier statements that it was proslavery, an opinion he had shared with William Loyd Garrison. This change of opinion ,as well as some political differences, create a rift between Douglass and Garrison. Douglass begins to assert his independence in the
antislavery movement. 

1859-John Brown and other abolitionist followers raid the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, then in Virginia. He plans to start a slave insurrection and provide reefuge for fleeing slaves. Federal troops capture him, and is eventually tried and hanged. Authorities find a letter from Douglass to Brown. Douglass flees to Cananda and then to a planned lecture tour of England to escape arrest on charges of being an accomplice in Brown's raid.

1863-Douglass becomes a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry, the first regiment of African-American soldiers; his sons Lewis and Charles join the regiment. Eventually his son Frederick Douglass Jr. becomes an army recruiter also. About 180,000 African American serve in the Civil War on the Union side.

1865- The thirteenth Amendment to the constitution, outlawing slavery, is ratified.

1875-Congress passes Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination in public places.