This Day in History: Frederick Douglass is the first African-American to be nominated as US president in 1888
Frederick Douglass is a prominent figure in African-American history, and one of the most influential intellectuals of his time. He was a runaway slave turned activist, social reformer, author, and public figure who championed the abolition of slavery before the Civil War and pushed for equality and human rights. Douglass was the first black person to ever hold a government position in his lifetime, and on this day, June 23, 1888, he became the first African-American to receive a vote for nomination as the president of the United States at the Republican National Convention.
Douglass (née Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey) was born into slavery to a Native American mother and a European father, in Tuckahoe, Talbot County, Maryland around 1818. There were no solid records of his birth, and Douglass himself wasn't sure of his birth date or age. He took on his mother's name, and only changed it when he escaped slavery. He was separated from his mother as an infant and lived with his maternal grandmother until he was six, after which he moved to Wye House plantation in Maryland to work for Thomas Auld. From there he was sent to Baltimore to work, where his employer's wife first taught him the alphabet.
Despite being a gifted orator and public speaker in his later years, Douglass never had any formal education. He taught himself to read and write. He also began teaching other slaves to read using the Holy Bible. However, when word spread about him imparting education to fellow slaves, he was transferred to Edward Covey, a farmer who was notorious for his brutal treatment of slaves. Douglass, who was roughly 16 at the time endured regular whipping at Covey's hands. At such an age, Douglass had borne witness to all sorts of horrors and cruelties of slavery.
After failing to escape several times, Douglass finally managed to flee Covey's farm in 1838 and boarded the first train to Havre de Grace, Maryland. Then he traveled through Delaware (another slave state), and arrived in New York, where he settled down. Shortly after, he sent for Anne Murray, a black woman he'd met in Baltimore while in captivity with Auld. The two married that same year, moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, and went on to have five children.
Douglass began attending meetings of the abolitionist movement in New Bedford, where he began to speak of his experiences as a slave and the story of his escape. William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist writer and journalist, whose works Douglass would read avidly, encouraged him to become a speaker and leader in the abolitionist movement. Douglass became a part of the American Anti-Slavery Society's 'Hundred Conventions' project in the 1840s. It was a six-month-long tour through the United States, and Douglass was often assaulted by those who opposed his views on the abolitionist movement.
During the American Civil War, Douglass continued to preach and work tirelessly towards abolishing slavery and the rights of emancipated black Americans to vote. Although he was favored by President Abraham Lincoln in the early years of the Civil War, they would have a fall out after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 that effectively ended slavery. Dougless felt let down by Lincoln for not granting former slaves the right to vote, despite their loyal services alongside soldiers of the Union army. It is said that prior to Lincoln's assassination, the two had reconciled.
In the post-war Reconstruction years, Douglass held many official government positions. He was an ambassador to the Dominican Republic, becoming the first black man to hold high office. He also continued to speak and advocate for the rights of black people and women. He especially fought for women's right to vote, which he also penned down in his autobiographies, that served as a touchstone for the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
In the 1868 presidential elections, Douglass backed the candidacy of former Union general Ulysses S Grant, who promised to tackle insurgencies led by white supremacists in the South. Grant also oversaw the implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1871, designed to subdue the growing Ku Klux Klan activities. In 1988, Douglass received one vote from the Kentucky delegation at the Republican convention in Chicago, which effectively placed his name among the nominees for US President. However, Benjamin Harrison became president, that year.
Douglass died from a heart attack in 1895, while on his way home from a meeting of the National Council of Women, a women's rights group that was only starting out in Washington DC. He remained an active speaker, author and activist until his death. His name has been a subject of political discourse in the 21st century following Barack Obama becoming the first black president of the US in 2008, and an imminent mention by President Trump for Black History Month in 2017.