Anna Murray Douglass
1813 – 1882
By Kathi Santora
Many historians say that Frederick Douglass may not have reached his legendary place in history without Anna Murray Douglass.
Anna Murray was born free (her parents had been manumitted in Denton, Maryland a month before her birth) but spent most of her life as an abolitionist and member of the Underground Railroad.
The meeting that changed history
By age 17, Murray was independently working as a laundress and domestic worker. She met Frederick Douglass, an enslaved man, when she was working on the docks in Baltimore. He was engaged as a ship’s caulker.
Her status as a free woman may have ignited a desire for his own freedom. Murray supplied money and a sailor’s outfit that allowed Douglass to escape to the North. She soon followed. Frederick and Anna married and started a family, eventually settling in Massachusetts and, later, Rochester, NY.
Building a life and a quest for abolition together
Throughout their married life, Frederick Douglass embarked on noted speaking engagements and abolitionist causes while Anna kept a household operating with a growing family. She took in laundry and shoe binding work to supplement Frederick’s sporadic earnings.
She played a dramatic part in the Underground Railroad by establishing a stop in their Rochester home, providing not only shelter but the clothing, money and other support needed for people on their way to Canada.
She was said to be most comfortable in this role. However, many misunderstood her reticence and judged her to be intellectually inferior to her husband. Historians paid her little mind. Douglas himself barely mentions her in his autobiographies.
Several of her children, however, publicly reinforced her contributions to history.
According to historians at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site: ”There is a speech written by their oldest child, Rosetta Douglass Sprague, which later became a book, “My Mother As I Recall Her.” Her sons, Lewis and Charles Douglass also offered another viewpoint of Anna’s impact on Frederick’s success in their speeches. The Douglass children wanted the public to know how having a Black family supporting Frederick’s work was extremely critical to his success.”
Anna Murray Douglass’s life is an example of how the impact of women’s stories have been undertold. Records are sparse since she did not leave letters or many personal records behind since she did not read or write.
Sources:
50 Black Heroes From Maryland You Need To Know, by Nehemiah Bester, ACLU Maryland, February 26, 2025, accessed 10/13/25
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Murray_Douglass, accessed 10/15/25
Frederick Douglass National Historic Site https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/anna-murray-douglass.htm
Accessed 10/15/25
The Hidden History of Anna Murray Douglas, Smithsonian Magazine, by Lorraine Boissoneault, March 5, 2018, accessed 10/15/25