Frederick Douglass, a former slave, was a passionate abolitionist, a forceful speaker, and a prolific writer. Douglass started a newspaper called The North Star and he also wrote three autobiographies. Frederick Douglass gave a speech on July 5, 1852 in Rochester, NY. The State Library has a copy of this speech titled: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,” on page 379 in a book called The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, edited by Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Nellie Y. McKay.
The State Library’s online catalog contains records for several of his publications, and the Library’s Flickr site has pictures of Frederick Douglass and other people involved in the emancipation of slaves and in the Civil War.
Naomi Allen
Reference Librarian
