In 1838, a young Anna Murray met an even younger Frederick Bailey at an African American church in Baltimore, Maryland. She was 25 and a free Black woman in a state with a huge slave population. Even more unique for the time, she had been working as a domestic helper for white families for several years and had an income and savings. In contrast, Bailey was 21 and had only known life as a slave; he had been born into slavery and was an indentured servant with no prospects for freedom.

Little is known about the courtship between Murray and Bailey beyond the fact that it was short. Marriage between an enslaved person and a free one was out of the question, so wedding plans must have included ideas of how Bailey could escape from his slaveowner. The plan was this: Bailey would borrow a freedman’s protection papers which would allow him to travel. Then, posing as a sailor in a uniform Murray made, Bailey would buy a train ticket -- likely with her money – and escaped to freedom.

Bailey’s previous escape attempts had failed, but this time, it worked. Shortly after he arriving safely in New York City, Murray followed, bringing all her savings and household items to start their life together: a featherbed, linens, cutlery and trunks of clothes.

On September 15, 1838, they were married in the home of African American abolitionist David Ruggles. To avoid being captured and taken back to his slaveowner, Bailey changed his name twice before he permanently took the name of Douglass. According to Leigh Fought, Douglass’ biographer, Murray took a risk when she married Bailey.

“It was a leap of faith on her part, but there were not many free black men to marry, and even that could be precarious. If she marries Frederick and goes north, she might be working, but she’s got a husband who’s free and in the North there are schools and their children can be educated.”

For Douglass, the freedom acquired through his wife’s financial independence and support was the catalyst that set him on the road to becoming a great abolitionist whose oratory, books and activism would change America.

After their marriage, the Douglasses moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts, a center of anti-slavery activism. They worked at menial jobs and housekeeping until their children were born: Rosetta, Lewis, Charles and Frederick Junior. A fifth child, Annie, would be born later.

Despite being a free woman, Anna Douglass had no formal education and was not literate. Frederick was taught to read and write by one of his slaveowner’s wives. The couple began attending abolitionist meetings. Frederick became a frequent speaker, traveling to tell stories about his life as a slave. He was such a compelling and eloquent speaker that some did not believe he had been a slave, leading him to write a memoir.

In 1845, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself, was published by the abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. The book became a best seller, providing much needed income and turning Douglass into a celebrity. Now, he was in demand more than ever on the speaker circuit, increasing fears that as a runaway slave, he could still be arrested as a fugitive.

To avoid the chance of capture, Douglass lived abroad for almost two years, traveling through Britain, Ireland and Scotland spreading his anti-slavery and abolition messages to large audiences. His eye-opening accounts of his story as a slave often attracted standing room crowds and by the end of his tour, a group of supporters raised enough money for him to return home a free man.

During this difficult time, Anna became a single parent, and her housekeeping and financial skills were put to the test. To supplement her husband’s income from book sales and speaking engagements, Anna took in laundry and mended shoes, managing to pay the bills out of the money she made. All the while, she made sure the children were safe, fed and educated. Reportedly, when Douglass returned home in 1847, expecting to find unpaid bills, he was astonished. They were debt free and Anna had even saved some of the money he had sent home.

Frederick was now able to devote all his time to the abolitionist cause as a free man. The family moved to Rochester, New York where the Douglass home, forty miles from Canada, became the last stop on the Underground Railroad. Frederick began publishing The North Star, an anti-slavery newspaper and Anna took on the additional responsibilities of housing and feeding runaway slaves.

Their home was an abolitionist hub; white and black visitors who arrived to work with Frederick sometimes stayed for weeks, all needing to be housed and fed. All this activity attracted attention, some of it negative and often directed at Anna. A private person who preferred privacy over the spotlight, Anna was apparently criticized for being not intelligent enough for her husband. She was also judged for her dark complexion. There were also rumors about infidelity and scandalous behavior when white female abolitionists stayed at the Douglass home for long periods of time.

Because Anna was illiterate, she wrote no letters or notes explaining how she felt about her husband’s career and her life with him. In keeping with the protocols of the time, where wives were not supposed to draw attention to themselves, she was careful about being quoted and misquoted, so there are few comments attributed to her in the press accounts of the time.

However, the Douglass children strongly confirmed in their memoirs, that Anna’s energy, common sense and financial support was critical to Frederick’s success. Her ability to keep their family together also created a strong counter-narrative to the stereotypes about broken impoverished African American families. We know now that Anna not only provided the means for him to achieve his own freedom, but supported his efforts to free thousands of slaves.

Without his truly remarkable wife at this side, Frederick Douglass might have never become one of the most important figures in American history.

Following a series of strokes, Anna passed away at age 69 in 1882. Two years after her death, Frederick shocked everyone by marrying Harriet Pitts, twenty-one years younger and a distant relation to President John Quincy Adams. The interracial marriage was opposed by nearly everyone including both their families. Yet when Frederick passed away, Helen spent the rest of her life preserving his legacy, borrowing money to buy his home to turn it into a memorial. Today it is a National Historic Site in Washington, D.C.

By Alice Look, February 2023