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The Frederick Douglass Organization
Frederick Douglass Biography
1888 - 1895
- 1888, February Dedicates remainder of life to struggle for full Negro
freedom at surprise birthday party given him by Bethel Literary society
in Washington, D.C. on occasion of his seventy-first birthday.
- 1889, July 1 Appointed Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti
by President Benjamin Harrison.
- 1889, September Appointed Charge' d'Affaires for Santo Domingo as
well as Minister to Haiti.
- 1891, July 30 Resigns Minister Resident and Consul General to Haiti;
disgust over maneuvering by State Department and American business to
acquire Mole St. Nicolas.
- 1892, July 26 Son Frederick, Jr. dies.
- 1892- Serves as Commissioner of Haitian exhibit at World's Fair
- 1893 in Chicago.
- 1893, March Announces plans to establish Freedom Manufacturing Co.,
a textile manufacturing firm, on a site near Norfolk, Virginia, where
he hopes to employ 300 blacks. The scheme proves to be a sham by unscrupulous
promoters using his name and prestige.
- 1893, March Visits Talbot County for third time amid reports that
he plans to buy an estate and spend his final years there. Does not
buy.
- 1894, January Delivers his last great address, “Lessons of the
Hour,” a powerful burst of his old-time fury against lynch law
in the South.
- 1895, February 20 Attends morning sessions of National Council of
Women in Washington, D.C.; dies at Cedar Hill in the evening.
- 1895, February 25 Family funeral services held at “Cedar Hill”;
body lies in state at Metropolitan African Methodist Church in Washington.
- 1895, February 26 Body lies in state at Rochester City Hall; funeral
services held in Rochester Central Presbyterian Church; buried in Mount
Hope Cemetery, Rochester.
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