Frederick and Anna Douglass in Rochester, New York: Their Home was Open to All

In his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Douglass wrote about the harshness of slave life and how he came to flee to New York City. Douglass retells his story more accurately in his second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom, which describes his early years up to fleeing to New York City and moving to New Bedford, Mass.Both his autobiographies and others' biographies give a clear view of his early years but much less of the decades when Frederick and Anna’s children were young. Despite living through one of our nation’s most bitter and terrifying times, Frederick and Anna raised five children in loving homes with flower, fruit and vegetable gardens. Their house was open to fugitives, visitors and guests who stayed for weeks, months and years at a time. Their grown children moved back into their parents’ house when jobs were scarce in Rochester and later in Washington, D.C. All of these comings and goings went on while Anna, whose health was weak after five children, stayed home and Frederick traveled."Frederick and Anna Douglass in Rochester, New York" fills in the gaps in their family history with information and vintage images of their times before and after their twenty-five years in Rochester, New York.