In defense, he wrote the first of three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Published in 1845, it revealed his slave name and owner. Immediately Douglass became the target of bounty hunters eager to return him to his owner and collect a reward. He escaped to Europe where English friends eventually bought his freedom. Douglass' study is the most intriguing room in the house.
Books fill one wall up to the ceiling, many in different languages.
He taught himself French, Spanish, German and Italian. The Three Musketeers was his favorite book. Included in his collection of canes is President Abraham Lincoln's, given to Douglass by Mrs. Lincoln after the president's assassination. In this room, he conducted his personal business as well as aspects of his official positions as the U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia and then as the minister to Haiti. In the house's other rooms, he frequently entertained visitors like Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman and leaders of the women's suffrage movement, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.