2-832-305 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

African-American diplomat, abolitionist and writer Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) escaped from slavery in Maryland aged 21. He became a national leader of the abolitionist movement. Famous for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings, he was described by abolitionists as a living counterexample to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. The wet plate ambrotype plates are housed in a folding leather case with tooled gilt oval mat and red velvet lining.