1860 | March Daughter Annie dies in Rochester. April November December |
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1861 | The Civil War begins. | ||
1862 | Congress abolishes slavery in Washington, D.C. | ||
1863 | Jan. 1 Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation takes effect, abolishing slavery in the states that are "in rebellion." February August 10 |
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1864 | August 19 Meets with Lincoln again. In case the war is not a total Union victory, Lincoln asks Douglass to prepare an effort to assist slaves escaping to the North. | ||
1865 | April 14 Lincoln is assassinated. December 18 |
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1865-95 | Douglass lectures on Reconstruction and women's rights. | ||
1870 | Edits and then owns the New National Era, a weekly newspaper for African Americans. He loses ten thousand dollars when the paper folds in 1874.
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution adopted. This amendment states that the rights of citizens to vote cannot be denied "on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." | ||
1871 | President Ulysses S. Grant appoints Douglass to the commission investigating the possibility of annexing the Dominican Republic to the U.S. | ||
1872 | The Equal Rights Party nominates Douglass for vice-president of the United States on a ticket headed by Victoria C. Woodhull.
Douglass moves his family to Washington, D.C., after a mysterious fire destroys his home in Rochester. He attributes the fire to arson. | ||
1874 | March Becomes president of the troubled Freedmen's Savings and Trust Company. Works with the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee to save the bank, which ultimately fails. | ||
1875 | Congress passes a Civil Rights Act prohibiting discrimination in public places. |