Also American

September 1838

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Events

  1. September 3, 1838
    Frederick Douglass Escapes Slavery and Arrives in New York City

    Frederick Douglass, then 20, escaped from Baltimore by boarding a train north disguised as a free Black sailor using borrowed sailor's papers. He reached New York City on September 3, 1838, and within days married Anna Murray and moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, launching one of the most consequential abolitionist careers in American history.

  2. September 3, 1838
    Frederick Douglass Escapes Slavery and Enters the Abolitionist Movement

    Frederick Douglass, 20, escaped from Baltimore by dressing as a sailor and traveling by train and steamboat to New York, then New Bedford, Massachusetts. Within three years he was speaking for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. His first autobiography, 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass' (1845), sold 11,000 copies in its first three years and became the most influential slave narrative in American letters.

  3. September 3, 1838
    Frederick Douglass Escapes Slavery and Enters Abolitionist Movement

    Frederick Douglass, 20, escaped from Baltimore by dressing as a sailor and traveling by train to New York, then New Bedford, Massachusetts. Within three years he was speaking for the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. His 1845 'Narrative' sold 11,000 copies in three years and became the most influential slave narrative in American letters.