Frederick Douglass: Download the PDF
In the 1800’s Frederick Douglass played a pivotal role in the debate about women’s right to vote.
“I believe no man, however gifted… can voice the wrongs and present the demands of women with the skill and effect, with the power and authority of woman herself.”
– Frederick Douglass, 1888
”
- Art Institute of Chicago
The word “suffrage” is derived from the Latin word “suffragium” meaning “a vote” or the “right of voting in the assemblies of the people.”
In the Beginning
After escaping slavery in Maryland, Frederick Douglass settled first
in Massachusetts and lectured for William Lloyd Garrison’s American
Anti-Slavery Society. He later established an independent newspaper,
The North Star, in Rochester, New York. One of his Rochester
neighbors was abolitionist and suffragist Susan B. Anthony. He
also collaborated with feminist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
- Alamy
Frederick Douglass at Seneca Falls
Frederick Douglass’s lifelong commitment to women’s rights reflected a belief that rights should be universal, not limited by race or gender. He believed that disenfranchised groups should support each other. Douglass played a critical role in the 1848 Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention. Debating a number of issues, some delegates thought that a resolution on women’s suffrage was too radical, beyond reach in nineteenth century America. Speaking forcefully, Douglass helped secure approval for a suffrage resolution.
After the Civil War
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, although dedicated abolitionists, objected to providing voting rights for black men if women’s suffrage was not included. The issue split the suffragist movement.
- National Portrait Gallery
The Douglass home in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C.
- Library of Congress
Conflict Among Allies
In 1869, the proposed Fifteenth Amendment provided voting rights for black men, but not women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton objected, “Surely there is no greater monopoly than that of all men in denying to all women a voice in the laws they are compelled to obey.” Frederick Douglass favored ratifying the Amendment, arguing that voting rights for black men were a matter of life and death, while also supporting a separate amendment for women’s suffrage.
Fighting for The Cause
On the final day of his life, Frederick Douglass participated in a women’s rights meeting in Washington, D.C. with Susan B. Anthony. During the meeting someone noticed Douglass rubbing a hand as if numb. Returning to his home, he died that evening of a likely stroke. Anthony was shocked. She delivered a eulogy at his funeral and read a tribute from Elizabeth Cady Stanton in which Stanton named Douglass a “women’s rights man.”