Frederick Douglass: Liberty's Hero

Abstract

Frederick Douglass was devoted to self-improvement. He absorbed books and newspapers, particularly The Liberator, an abolitionist paper. Douglass read The Liberator at work by sticking it on the wall of the blacksmith shop where he was a bellows operator. Eventually, he joined The Liberator editor, William Lloyd Garrison, as a speaker for the abolitionist movement. However, he eventually parted ways with Garrison over his belief that the Constitution protected slavery, and was, therefore, a “pact with hell,” which abolitionists should shun.