1411 W St SE

Washington, DC

Frederick Douglass (b. February 1818; d. February 20, 1895) was born into slavery, the son of an enslaved woman and a white man. He lived on a plantation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore until age 8, when he was sent to Baltimore to live and work for relatives of his slave master. He remained there for seven years. After first arriving, his mistress taught him the alphabet. It was, however, illegal to teach slaves to read and his master put an end to his education. Undeterred, Douglass enlisted local boys to teach him to read and write in exchange for food and became a voracious learner. When he was sent back to the Eastern Shore at age 15, Douglass was brutalized, “broken in body, soul, and spirit," and resolved to escape. He did so in 1838 at 20 years old. He traveled to New York and became a prominent abolitionist known for his incredible oratory abilities, eloquent prose and unshakable moral compass on issues of justice—for all Americans, but especially for African Americans and women. He also worked for numerous presidential administrations and in 1878 moved into this house located at 1411 W St SE on Cedar Hill in DC’s Anacostia neighborhood. He died there in 1895.