Yours truly, Frederick Douglass

This campaign launched in celebration of Douglass Day 2024. Thank you to all Douglass Day organizers and volunteers!

Discover the many lives of Frederick Douglass by transcribing letters to and from the great orator, writer, and activist.

After escaping from slavery Frederick Douglass risked his freedom by becoming an outspoken antislavery lecturer and writer. In 1847 he founded the North Star, beginning a long career as a newspaper editor and publisher. During the Civil War he advised President Lincoln and recruited African American soldiers for the Union. After emancipation he continued fighting for civil rights for African Americans, but also advocated for women’s rights and other oppressed members of society. In his later years he served as a bank president and in several government posts.

This campaign consists generally of the General Correspondence series of the Frederick Douglass Papers which documents his personal and public life. It primarily consists of letters received by Douglass, arranged chronologically. Some drafts and retained copies of his outgoing correspondence are also included, as well as letters to and from his wife Helen Pitts Douglass as she worked to preserve his legacy. The campaign also includes correspondence, notes, and notebooks from the Addition I series of the collection and invitations filed in the Miscellany series.

Thanks to the long-running Frederick Douglass Papers Project for collaboration to ensuring volunteers would not duplicate editorial effots. Following this campaign, Douglass Papers Project transcriptions of Library of Congress correspondence will also be incorportated into loc.gov.