page_title: Frederick Douglass
section_title: Fight for emancipation and suffrage
hierarchical_section_title: Frederick Douglass / Civil War years / Fight for emancipation and suffrage
caption_attribution_description: English: A printed broadside recruiting men of color to enlist in the U.S. military after the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. The broadside was written by Frederick Douglass, signed by Douglass along with 54 leaders in the Philadelphia African American community, and published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Signers were: Robert M. Adger, Rev. W.J. Alston, P.J. Armstrong, Rev. J. Asher, E.D. Bassett, Ebenezer Black, Rev. J. Boulden, Thomas J. Bowers, David B. Bowser, John P. Burr, Rev. J.P. Campbell, A.S. Cassey, J.W. Cassey, O.V. Catto, Rev. Wm. T. Catto, I.D. Cliff, Daniel Colley, Henry M. Cropper, Elijah J. Davis, N.W. Depee, Augustus Dorsey, Thomas. J. Dorsey, Frederick Douglass, Wm. D. Forten, Daniel George, Rev. J.C. Gibbs, Wm. E. Gipson, Jesse E. Glasgow, Jameso R. Gordon, A.M. Green, Morris Hall, J.P. Johnson, Robert Jones, Jas. McCrummell, Henry Minton, James Needham, J.W. Page, John W. Price, Rev. J.B. Reeve, L.R. Seymour, J.W. Simpson, S. Morgan Smith, Rev. Stephen Smith, Rev. A.L. Stanford, Samuel Stewart, Rev. J B Trusty, D.D. Turner, Franklin Turner, Rev. J. Underdue, Rev. Elisha Weaver, Jacob C. White, J.C. White, Jr., Wm. Whipper, Rev. J.A. Williams, Dr. J.H. Wilson Español: Un volante (hoja de propaganda) que les llamó a hombres de color a alistarse en las fuerzas armadas estadounidenses, después de la Proclamación de Emancipación en 1863. La hoja fue escrita por Frederick Douglass y publicada en Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Height: 41.5 in (105.4 cm); Width: 29.5 in (74.9 cm) dimensions QS:P2048,41.5U218593;P2049,29.5U218593
context_page_description: Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Likewise, Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.
  Douglass wrote several autobiographies, notably describing his experiences as a slave in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which became a bestseller, and was influential in promoting the cause of abolition, as was his second book, My Bondage and My Freedom. Following the Civil War, Douglass remained an active campaigner against slavery and wrote his last autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. First published in 1881 and revised in 1892, three years before his death, the book covers events both during and after the Civil War.
context_section_description: Douglass and the abolitionists argued that because the aim of the Civil War was to end slavery, African Americans should be allowed to engage in the fight for their freedom. Douglass publicized this view in his newspapers and several speeches. In August 1861, Douglass published an account of the First Battle of Bull Run that noted that there were some blacks already in the Confederate ranks. A few weeks later, Douglass brought the subject up again, quoting a witness to the battle who said they saw black Confederates "with muskets on their shoulders and bullets in their pockets." Douglass conferred with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 on the treatment of black soldiers, and with President Andrew Johnson on the subject of black suffrage.
  President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect on January 1, 1863, declared the freedom of all slaves in Confederate-held territory. (Slaves in Union-held areas and Northern states were freed with the adoption of the 13th Amendment on December 6, 1865.) Douglass described the spirit of those awaiting the proclamation: "We were waiting and listening as for a bolt from the sky ... we were watching ... by the dim light of the stars for the dawn of a new day ... we were longing for the answer to the agonizing prayers of centuries."
  During the U.S. Presidential Election of 1864, Douglass supported John C. Frémont, who was the candidate of the abolitionist Radical Democracy Party. Douglass was disappointed that President Lincoln did not publicly endorse suffrage for black freedmen. Douglass believed that since African-American men were fighting for the Union in the American Civil War, they deserved the right to vote.
  With the North no longer obliged to return slaves to their owners in the South, Douglass fought for equality for his people. He made plans with Lincoln to move liberated slaves out of the South. During the war, Douglass also helped the Union cause by serving as a recruiter for the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment. His eldest son, Charles Douglass, joined the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, but was ill for much of his service. Lewis Douglass fought at the Battle of Fort Wagner. Another son, Frederick Douglass Jr., also served as a recruiter.
caption: 1863 Broadside listing Douglass as a speaker calling men of color to arms
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