Frederick Douglass

https://www.nps.gov/frdo/index.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass_National_Historic_Site The Frederick Douglass National Historic Site is located at 14111 W Street, SE, in Anacostia, a neighborhood east of the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington, D.C. The site preserves the home and estate of Frederick Douglass, one of the most prominent African Americans of the 19th century. Douglass lived in this house, which he named Cedar Hill, from 1877-1888 until his death in 1895. Perched on a hilltop, the site offers a sweeping view of the U.S. Capitol and the Washington, D.C., skyline. Frederick Douglass spent his life fighting for justice and equality. Born into slavery in 1818, he escaped as a young man and became a leading voice in the abolitionist movement. People everywhere still find inspiration today in his tireless struggle, brilliant words, and inclusive vision of humanity. Douglass's legacy is preserved here at Cedar Hill, where he lived his last 17 years. The site can be reached by car, public transportation, or on foot. See the directions page of the website for more detailed information. There is parking on site. Frederick Douglass NHS Visitor Center The Visitor Center of the Frederick Douglass NHS is located at the bottom of the hill near the parking lot. Inside of the Visitor Center you will find staff who can facilitate your visit, a bookstore run by America's National Parks, handicap accessible restrooms, a water fountain, exhibits and historic objects, as well as a theater with seating, where a 20 minute closed-captioned film on the life of Frederick Douglass is played. The visitor center and a free parking lot are at the bottom of the hill near the intersection of W and 15th Streets SE. Check in at the visitor center at the beginning of your visit. Cedar Hill Visitors take photos in front of a historic house Rangers guide daily tours of the historic house at scheduled times. The Growlery A tiny stone cabin surrounded by fall foliage Frederick Douglass retreated to this stone cabin to read, write, and think in seclusion. View of Washington, D.C. View of downtown Washington, D.C., including the Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol Frederick Douglass's view from Cedar Hill continues to impress visitors today. Bust of Frederick Douglass A plaster bust of Frederick Douglass Hundreds of original objects, such as this bust, furnish the historic house. Frederick Douglass Bicentennial Weekend A park ranger gestures to a group of people outside the Frederick Douglass home. A park ranger speaks to park visitors. Cedar Hill: Frederick Douglass's Rustic Sanctuary The hilltop residence where Frederick Douglass spent his final years, known as Cedar Hill, is surrounded by a sprawling landscape and expansive views toward the Capitol. The landscape reflects both his ascendance in the civic world and his deep appreciation for the natural world. Here, Douglass took nature walks, planted trees, and cultivated a vegetable garden. He also brought the natural world into his home through flower pressing and the display of botanical paintings. Mature trees shade lawn around a two story house with a long front porch, on a slight hill. District of Columbia: Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Often called the “Father of the Civil Rights Movement,” Frederick Douglass was one of the most famous abolitionists and civil rights advocates in American history. Frederick Douglass National Historic Site preserves the final home and legacy of this profoundly influential figure at Cedar Hill, Douglass’s home from 1878 until his death in 1895. Frederick Douglass dedicated his life to freedom and justice for all Americans, especially African Americans. Frederick Douglass portrait Frederick Douglass National Historic Site Cultural Landscape The Frederick Douglass National Historic Site landscape preserves the home and property where Frederick Douglass lived from 1877 until 1895. The house stood strong on a prominent knoll in what is today the neighborhood of Anacostia, overlooking the city of Washington, D.C. During the years that he and his family lived at the "Cedar Hill" property, they made many of the improvements and additions that still define the landscape today. A large tree, its leaves aflame in Autumn color, stands on a hillside below a house. Reconstruction During Reconstruction, the Federal government pursued a program of political, social, and economic restructuring across the South-including an attempt to accord legal equality and political power to former slaves. Reconstruction became a struggle over the meaning of freedom, with former slaves, former slaveholders and Northerners adopting divergent definitions. Faced with increasing opposition by white Southerners and some Northerners, however, the government abandoned effor Picture depictsing former slaves and free blacks voting following the passage of the 15th amendment Emancipation and the Quest for Freedom Although the abolition of slavery emerged as a dominant objective of the Union war effort, most Northerners embraced abolition as a practical measure rather than a moral cause. The war resolved legally and constitutionally the single most important moral question that afflicted the nascent republic, an issue that prevented the country from coalescing around a shared vision of freedom, equality, morality, and nationhood. Slave family seated in front of their house Visiting Cedar Hill for Frederick Douglass Birthday Frederick Douglass’s annual birthday celebrations provide a stage for new voices to reflect on the world-renowned abolitionist, writer, speaker, and long-time champion of civil rights. A girl gives a presentation on a stage Frederick Douglass and the Civil War Frederick Douglass was born into a life of slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore as Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey in February, 1818. He was mistakenly taught to ready at an early age, and by his mid-teens was educating other slaves. Photograph of Frederick Douglass with white hair. Memorials for the Future Memorials for the Future, is a competition that aims to rethink the way we develop and experience memorials in Washington, D.C. Memorials for the Future Logo The Civil War in American Memory America's cultural memories of the Civil War are inseparably intertwined with that most "peculiar institution" of American history - racial slavery. But in the struggle over Civil War memory which began as soon as the war was over and continues to this day, rival cultural memories of reconciliation and white supremacy have often prevailed. Therein lies the challenge as the National Park Service - a public agency - seeks to "provide understanding" of the Civil War era's lasting impact upon the development of our nation. Elderly Union and Confederate veterans shake hands at the fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg Suffrage in 60 Seconds: African American Women and the Vote African American women often found themselves marginalized by both Black men and white women in the fight for equality. How did they ensure that their voices were heard? Ranger Titus has the story. Photo collage of several African American suffragists. Suffrage in 60 Seconds logo Using Their Voices: Founding Women of National Parks As we commemorate both the centennial of the 19th Amendment and the 104th birthday of the National Park Service, we’re highlighting a few women who harnessed their public voices to protect powerfully important American places. A Great Inheritance: Introduction The abolition movement was one of the leading factors in the formation of the 19th century women’s rights movement. This series explores the connections between the abolition movement and the women’s rights movement to reveal the relationship between the two campaigns. Black and white photo of a tall building. Site of the 1869 AERA meeting. Library of Congress A Great Inheritance: Abolition and the Women's Sphere Prior to the 1830s, American antislavery organizations were formed and controlled by white men. This changed in December of 1833 when African American men were invited to participate at the first convention of the American Anti-Slavery Slavery Society (AASS) held in Philadelphia. Some women were also invited to the convention, but as spectators rather than as members. Excluding women from full participation was customary of the period’s social conventions. Drawing of the exterior of a five story, rectangular building A Great Inheritance: Conclusion and References The abolition movement helped form and influence those who built and led the women’s rights movement. The beliefs and practices of the abolition movement provided a backdrop against which antislavery women could challenge gender roles and leave the woman’s sphere to enter the public sphere. Black and white drawing of the exterior of a building, three stories with a peaked roof A Great Inheritance: Abolitionist Practices in the Women's Rights Movement Some abolitionist women found the confidence needed to reject social conventions and participate in public activities by denying the authority of clerical rules. Abolitionist feminists also found resolve to contradict gender roles in the abolitionist belief of the common humanity of all people. The belief in common humanity was used by abolitionists to argue for the definition of African American slaves as people, not property. Color drawing of Pennsylvania Hall, a three story building with peaked roof A Great Inheritance: The Abolition Movement and the First Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls The Seneca Falls Women’s Rights Convention is regarded as the beginning of the US women’s rights movement. The organizers of the first women’s rights convention in Seneca Falls were neighbors, friends, and relatives who decided to arrange the convention over their shared convictions. Each had backgrounds in the abolitionist movement and were dedicated to the anti-slavery cause which prepared them to organize the first women’s rights convention in 1848. Portrait of Lucretia Mott wearing a bonnet A Great Inheritance: Prejudice, Racism, and Black Women in Anti-Slavery Societies The establishment of Female Anti-Slavery Societies in the 1830s facilitated the formal beginnings of women’s political participation in the abolitionist movement. One women’s antislavery society that formed in the wake of the first American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) convention was the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society (PFASS). The AASS organized itself as an interracial organization, and PFASS was founded in the same manner. A Black woman kneels, her hands are chained and raised asking for help "Am I Not A Woman" Fraught Friendship: Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass News of the death of Frederick Douglass reached Metzerott’s Music Hall in Washington, D.C., in the early evening of February 20, 1895. There, at a session of the National Council of Women’s triennial meeting, sat Susan B. Anthony. After remarking on her usual “wonderful control over feeling,” a reporter noted, “last night she could not conceal her emotion.”[1] Just hours before his death, Anthony and Douglass had been in the same room. black and white photo of frederick douglass A Great Inheritance: Reflected Shortcomings in Abolition and the Women's Rights Movement It is a disservice to consider the abolitionist movement for all of its triumphs and none of its problems. It is likewise naïve to consider the positive influences of abolition on the women’s rights movement without acknowledging the negative. The following is an examination of the problems within the abolition movement and how these issues are reflected in the early women’s rights movement. Series: A Great Inheritance: Examining the Relationship between Abolition and the Women’s Rights Movement This series was written by Victoria Elliott, an intern at Women's Rights National Historical Park. The abolition and women’s rights movements are deeply connected. This series looks at the connections, as well as how the movements differed for Black and white women. Drawing of a Black woman kneeling, her hands chained. Text: "Am I Not A Woman And A Sister?" Series: On Their Shoulders: The Radical Stories of Women's Fight for the Vote These articles were originally published by the Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission (WSCC) as a part of the WSCC blog, The Suff Buffs. The Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission was created by Congress to commemorate 100 years of the 19th Amendment throughout 2020 and to ensure the untold stories of women’s battle for the ballot continue to inspire Americans for the next 100 years. In collaboration with the WSCC, the NPS is the forever home of these articles Logo of the Women's Suffrage Centennial Commission Series: Suffrage in Sixty Seconds When was the last time you voted? For the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution enfranchising women, park rangers at the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument created these one-minute videos that highlight suffrage subjects and the heroes who made woman suffrage a reality—including those women who continued the fight for full enfranchisement beyond 1920. Alice Paul raises glass above ratification banner Tina Short and Kym Elder: "The Story of People that Look Like Me" For Tina Short and Kym Elder, African American history is personal. The mother and daughter have expanded the stories the NPS tells while serving their home community. This article was developed from oral history interviews in which they discuss their careers in DC area parks. The interviews contribute to "Telling Our Untold Stories: Civil Rights in the National Park Service Oral History Project" and "Women’s Voices: Women in the National Park Service Oral History Project." Two NPS park rangers in uniform, both African American women, stand in front of a double door Sea Level Rise in the DC Area Learn about current and projected rates of sea level rise in the greater DC area, based on local water level data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) A tall white cylinder attached to a wooden pier with Hains Point in the background. Frederick Douglass and the Power of Photography The story of Frederick Douglass begins with a photograph. The power that photography would have in his life would be coupled with his powerful rhetoric for freedom and equality for all. Portrait of Frederick Douglass, Eva and Helen Pitts Realizing the Dream: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Beyond Signed into law July 2, 1964, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Many national parks were created to preserve and tell the story of the struggle for civil and human rights leading up to the Act and beyond as we continue to work towards realizing the dream for all people. Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. at night Guide to the Vera B. Craig Papers This finding aid describes the Vera B. Craig Papers, part of the NPS History Collection. Vera Craig holding a book and standing in front of a shelf of muesum objects

To those who have suffered in slavery I can say, I, too, have suffered... to those who have battled for liberty, brotherhood, and citizenship I can say, I, too, have battled." Frederick Douglass Home Washington,DC National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Welcome to Cedar Hill, the home of Frederick Douglass. A little more than a century ago Frederick Douglass, one of the most commanding figures in America's battle for equal rights, came to live in Washington, D.C. This black American and former slave lived at Cedar Hill, a beautiful Victorian home on the heights overlooking Anacostia with a view of the U.S. Capitol. Douglass, who never attended school, was wholly self-educated and became an eloquent spokesman for oppressed people, black and white. As a young man Douglass fled from slavery and worked tirelessly for abolition. In the years following the Civil War, he was the conscience of national politicians, never failing to remind them of the promises that they had m a d e to the country's black citizens. As an advocate of women's rights, he was o n e of the first to join the movement, urging women to remember that blacks, like w o m e n , knew what it was to be without a political voice. And in his final years at Cedar Hill, he continued the reading and writing that was so important to his life's work. two places for this: a library in the main house and a small, one-room structure he called the "Growlery," which stood a short distance behind the main house. The Growlery was a special spot for Douglass. Inside could be found a large fireplace in which a few logs usually burned, a desk filled with books and papers, and a leather couch w h e r e he could stretch out to ponder or rest. T h e Growlery was reconstructed in 1 9 8 1 and is now open to the public. The Growlery: Douglass always made certain that he had the time and a place to be alone to think and work in peace. H e had A Douglass Chronology 1817 or 18 is born in Talbot County, Maryland, in February, exact date unknown; son of a slave woman and unknown white man; is christened Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey 1835 is hired out as a carpenter to a Baltimore shipbuilder; meets many of Baltimore's free blacks, among them Anna Murray 1838 leaves Baltimore in September to go to freedom in the North; marries Anna Murray in New York City; settles in New Bedford; Mass., at end of month and adopts surname of Douglass, taken from Sir Walter Scott's Lady of the Lake 1841-47 becomes prominent in abolition movement and friend of aboiitionist William Lloyd Garrison; gives lectures throughout New England and New York; publishes Narrative of the Lite of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave in 1845; in August leaves for Europe to escape slave hunters now that he and his owner are revealed in his autobiography; English friends purchase his freedom November 30, 1846; returns to United States a national figure; begins publication of the North Star, later renamed Frederick Douglass' Paper, in Rochester, New York, in 1847 1855 publishes My Bondage and My Freedom, second autobiographical volume 1863 in wake of Emancipation Proclamation issues his "Men of Color, to Arms!" urging free blacks to volunteer for the U.S. Army; meets with President Abraham Lincoln on treatment of black soldiers 1881-84 Anna Murray Douglass dies, 1881; publishes Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, third autobiographical volume; marries Helen Pitts, a white woman, 1884 1868 works for election of Ulysses S. Grant as President and again in 1872 1872-81 moves to Washington, D.C,and purchases house at 316 A Street, NE; purchases Cedar Hill, 1876; and breaks "whites only covenant in doing so; becomes U.S. Marshal of District of Columbia in 1877; becomes recorder of deeds for District of Columbia in 1881 1889 speaks on 26th anniversary of Emancipation Proclamation and denounces national government for having abandoned black Americans; appointed minister-resident and consul-general to Haiti; resigns this post in 1891 1894 gives lecture, "The Lesson of the Hour," against lynching 1895 dies at Cedar Hill, February 20 Cedar Hill After Douglass's death in 1 8 9 5 , his second wite, Helen Pitts Douglass, spared no effort in preserving Cedar Hill intact as a memorial to him. T h e Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association, which she organized in 1 9 0 0 , joined forces with the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs in 1 9 1 6 to open the house to visitors. In 1 9 6 2 the National Park Service was entrusted with the care of the house and its continued preservation was assured. The Visitor Center: Tours of Frederick Douglass H o m e begin at the visitor center, which contains exhibits and audiovisual programs that reflect Douglass's life and work. A small sales area stocks publications and other items pertaining to Douglass. Public restrooms with facilities for the handicapped are also located here. Parking is available adjacent to t h e