FREDERICK DOUGLASS - DEED SIGNED 07/20/1885 - HFSID 148410

FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Authentic 1885 deed signed by Frederick Douglass, American abolitionist and civil rights leader!
Deed Signed: "Fredk Douglass" as Recorder on docket panel, 4p integral leaf, 8½x14. District of Columbia, 1885 July 7.  Release from "Benjamin P. Davis " to "Ida U. Marshall, of ground located in the City of Washington". In part: "This Indenture, made this Seventh___ day of ___July___ in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five___ byand between Benjamin P. Davis and Jessie S. Davis, his wife, of the City of Washington, in the District of Columbia". In 1881, Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) was appointed the Recorder of Deeds for Washington D.C., a position he served in for five years. He is perhaps one of the most important civil rights leaders in the history of the United States. Born as a slave, he taught himself how to read and write before he escaped in 1838, travelling from Maryland to Delaware to Pennsylvania, then finally arriving in New York City. Douglass spent the rest of his life fighting for an end to slavery and the rights of African Americans and women to vote. From 1847 to 1851, he published the abolitionist newspaper The North Star. He became known throughout the abolitionist North as a great orator and writer. Perhaps his best-known publication is his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). Douglass's fight for the equality of all races and women continued well after the Civil War; women did not gain the right to vote until the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920, and in practice, many African Americans were denied the right to vote until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. His home in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington D.C. was named a National Historic Site in 1988. Normal mailing folds. Worn at folds with minor notches at edges of folds. Soiled and toned. Pencil notes (unknown hand). Otherwise, fine condition.