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The Frederick Douglass Organization
Frederick Douglass Biography
1866 - 1887
- 1866 “soft” reconstruction plan; serves on delegation
Black people to interview President Johnson and criticizes his programs;
endorses Radical Republican proposals, including black suffrage throughout
South.
- 1867, July Meets brother Perry for first time in forty years, arranges
for him and his family to live in Rochester.
- 1868, August-October Campaigns for Ulysses S. Grant for president.
- 1869, May Breaks with feminist leaders when they refuse to support
ratif ication of Fifteenth Amendment unless it includes right to vote
for all women as well as black men.
- 1870, January Joins staff of New National Era as corresponding editor;
later in year becomes editor.
- 1870, May 19 Hailed at great ratification of Fifteenth Amendment celebration
in Baltimore.
- 1870, December 12 buys the Washington-based paper and its printing
plant.
- 1871, January 12 Named assistant secretary of commission of inquiry
to Santo Domingo; tours Santo Domingo January 18 to March 26; later
defends Grant's proposal to annex Santo Domingo.
- 1872, May 11-12 Nominated for Vice-President of United States on ticket
with Victoria C. Woodhull by the Equal Rights Party, but instead campaigns
for re-election of Grant.
- 1872, June 2 Rochester home destroyed by fire, many important papers
lost. Suspecting arson.
- 1872, July 1 Douglass moves his family to Washington on 'Al Street
NE.
- 1874, March Named president of Freedmen's Bank.
- 1874, September Closes down New National Era; Douglass suffers serious
financial losses from the demise and failure of Freedmen's Bank.
- 1876, April 14 Main speaker at great meeting on occasion of unveiling
of freedmen's memorial monument to Abraham Lincoln.
- 1877, March 18 Senate confirms his appointment by President Hayes
as United States Marshal for the District of Columbia.
- 1877, June 17 Returns to St. Michaels after forty-one year absence;
there meets with Thomas Auld, speaks to racially mixed audience.
- 1878 Purchases “Cedar Hill”, fifteen-acre estate in Anacostia,
D. C.
- 1878, November 23-26 Visits Easton; there delivers lecture at courthouse;
locates site of his birth on Tuckahoe Creek.
- 1879, June Bust of Douglass presented to city of Rochester.
- 1881, January Publishes third autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick
Douglass. It is a financial failure, as is a revised edition published
in 1892.
- 1881, March Appointed by President Garfield Recorder of Deeds for
the District of Columbia.
- 1881, June 12 Revisits Lloyd Plantation, called Wye House.
- 1882, August 4 Anna, his wife of nearly forty-four years, dies.
- 1883, April Delivers address at twenty-first anniversary of emancipation
in District of Columbia.
- 1884, January 0 Marries Helen Pitts, his former white secretary.
- 1886, January 5 Resigns as Recorder of Deeds for District of Columbia.
- 1886- September Travels with Helen on extended trip to England,
- 1887 August Ireland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Egypt, and Greece.
1888 - 1895