Frederick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman.
Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave..
In his time, he was described by abolitionists as a living counter-example to slaveholders\' arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens.
After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writings.
Frederick Douglass was an African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman