Frederick Douglass
1818–1895 · Abolitionist, orator, statesman
The escaped-slave-turned-abolitionist and the most prominent African American of the 19th century spent the final two decades of his life in Anacostia. In 1877 he bought a hilltop Victorian house on roughly nine acres east of the Anacostia River and named it Cedar Hill, breaking a whites-only covenant in the Uniontown subdivision. He lived there until his death on February 20, 1895; the home is now the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.
Connection to Anacostia: Lived at Cedar Hill, 1411 W Street SE, from 1877 until his death in 1895.