Diplomatist; born in
Tuckahoe,
Talbot co., Md., in
Feb ruary, 1817; was a mulatto, the son of a slave mother; lived in
Baltimore after he was ten years of age, and secretly taught himself to read and write.
Endowed with great natural moral and intellectual ability, he fled from slavery at the age of twenty-one years, and, going to New Bedford, married, and supported himself by day-labor on the wharves and in work shops.
In 1841 he spoke at an anti-slaver convention at
Nantucket, and soon after wards was made the agent of the
Massachusetts Anti-slavery Society.
He lectured extensively in
New England, and, going to
Great Britain, spoke in nearly all the large towns in that country on the subject of slavery.
On his return, in 1847, he began the publication, at
Rochester, N. Y., of the
North Star (afterwards
Frederick Douglass's paper). In 1870 he
became editor of the
National era at
Washington City; in 1871 was appointed assistant secretary of the commission to
Santo Domingo; then became one of the Territorial Council of the District of Columbia; in 1876-81 was United States marshal for the
District; in 1881-86 was n recorder of deeds there; and in 1889-91 was
United States minister to
Haiti.
He we was author of
Narrative of my experiences in slavery (1844);
My bondage and my. Freedom (1855); and
Life and times of Frederick Douglass (1881). He died near
Washington, D. C., Feb. 20, 1895.