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Antislavery in the United States 1776-1865:
A Pathfinder

Frederick Douglass

Books - Newspapers- Websites

Books

Douglass, Frederick. Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.
Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., 1881. Various editions are available. See below for online texts.
The final autobiography of Frederick Douglass.

Douglass, Frederick. My Bondage and My Freedom.
New York ; Auburn [NY]: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855. Various editions are available. See below for online texts.
Douglass wrote this item ten years after Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to provide additional information about his life and slavery.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself
Boston : Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. Various editions are available. See below for online texts.
The first written work by Douglass about his life as a slave.

McFeely, William S. Frederick Douglass.
New York : Norton, 1991.
Freudian interpretations by the authors are a bit overblown. Despite this flaw, the book is a good secondary source about Douglass. Frederick Douglass. contains an excellent bibliography listing primary and secondary sources.

Frederick Douglass’s Newspapers 1847-1863

Douglass’ Monthly (Rochester, NY) 1859-1863.

Frederick Douglass’ Paper (Rochester, NY) 1851-1860.
Douglass changed the North Star to this name in 1851.

North Star (Rochester, NY) 1847-51.
The first paper started by Douglass to give himself a separate voice from the Garrisonians.

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Websites

Addresses of the Hon. W. D. Kelley, Miss Anna E. Dickinson, and Mr. Frederick Douglass, at a mass meeting ...
This digitized pamphlet contains a 6 July 1863 Philadelphia speech by Douglass promoting the enlistment of black troops in what he viewed as a fight against slavery. This resource is part of the Library of Congress From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection.

The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed
A good starting point for locating information about people involved in the antislavery movement, including Frederick Douglass. Links to other resources/websites are also included.

Carr, Glynis. Index to The Liberty Bell.
The Liberty Bell is an American Anti-Slavery publication containing essays and poetry from various abolitionists, including Frederick Douglass.

CivilWar@Smithsonian
The CivilWar@Smithsonian website highlights Smithsonian items pertaining to Civil War history. This website briefly covers Douglass’s involvement in the abolition movement. Below are links to two pieces of art with Douglass as the subject:

The Claims of the Negro, Ethnologically Considered . . .
Full text of a speech given 12 July 1854 at Western Reserve College. This resource is part of the Library of Congress From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection.

Documenting the American South
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries maintains this website containing resources pertaining to the South. Included in this collection are Frederick Douglass materials. The site contains a brief biography and Selected Readings Related to Frederick Douglass. Both pages lead to online texts written by Douglass and a few full text biographies written in the late 19th Century.

The Frederick Douglass Papers at the Library of Congress
This website contains finding aids for the Frederick Douglas Papers. Some items can be viewed online. A Family Tree and Timeline may also be viewed. The In His Own Words page contains links to online texts of The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, My Bondage and My Freedom, and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass.

Free church alliance with manstealers. Send back the money. Great anti-slavery meeting in the City Hall, Glasgow . . .
This digitized pamphlet contains a 1846 speech given by Douglass in Scotland blasting the Free Church of Scotland for their acceptance of funds from American slaveholders. This resource is another item available from the Library of Congress From Slavery to Freedom: The African-American Pamphlet Collection.

Gilder Lehrman Center Bibliography of Online Documents
This resource lists online primary sources pertaining to slavery. Included are speeches and correspondence of Frederick Douglass.

Hathi Trust Digital Library
This digital repository makes available collections from numerous research libraries. Use the Catalog for locating items about Frederick Douglass.

Internet Archive
This digital library provides a gateway to online antislavery documents, including those by and about Douglass.

Making of America (MOA) - Joint venture between Cornell University and the University of Michigan.
This digital library contains scanned images of US primary sources from 1850 to 1877. Some material pertaining to Douglass may be found in this site. The Cornell version focuses on popular journals of the time, but also contains the War of the Rebellion series. The University of Michigan version focuses on books/monographs.

Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
The Cornell University Library Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections maintains this excellent resource containing antislavery material. One may search or browse this website for digitized pamphlets by Frederick Douglass.

Speeches by Frederick Douglas
A portal to Douglass’s speeches available online. The site is authored by Lucia Knoles, Professor of English at Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts. Please pay heed to her advice on reading Frederick Douglass’s speeches listed on the web.