Charles Dickens
This English novelist was born in 1812 and became a successful writer. He died in 1870, leaving his last story unfinished.
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Frederick Douglass raised money to get his own freedom as he was a slave.
Frederick Douglass
Douglass, Frederick (1817-1895), American journalist and orator, was a leading anti-slavery campaigner. The son of a black mother and white father, he was born a slave in Tuckahoe, Maryland. In 1838, he escaped and went to New Bedford, Massachusetts. Under federal law, however, the 'free' states had to return escaped slaves to their masters. To avoid recapture, Douglass went abroad. In 1845-47 he lectured in Britain. He gained public support in Britain against slavery, and the money was raised to buy his freedom.
He returned to America, and until 1860 edited an anti-slavery newspaper, Frederick Douglass's Paper. During the Civil War (1861-65), Douglass supported the use of black troops in the Union army. Later, he held several government posts, including that of American consul in Haiti (1889-91).
