Frederick Douglass was born in 1817 in Maryland. As a young boy, he was taught to read by his mistress who kept him as a house slave. Upon the death of her husband, he was sent out to the fields to work. His consistent resistance to slavery found him severely flogged time and again.

After one unsuccessful attempt at escaping, Douglass managed to reach New York where he soon became the voice of the anti-slavery movement. An eloquent speaker and a gifted writer, Douglass became popular as an abolitionist. In 1845, he published Narrative, an account of slave life. He traveled to England, giving lectures on slavery and the rights of women. From his fees, he earned enough money to purchase his own freedom. Later, in an effort to publicize the atrocities of slavery, he began publishing a newspaper, The North Star.

Douglass constantly challenged the system and its claim to be founded on Christian beliefs. In his narrative, The Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Douglass says: "I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slave-holding, women whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land."

Douglass held several important federal posts, including Consul General to the Republic of Haiti, prior to his death in 1895.