Frederick Douglass was the most influential Black American leader of the nineteenth century because he was able to rise from slavery and become respected among the white Americans where he worked tirelessly as a reformer and an abolitionist. Source A, a photograph of Douglass, shows him baring the appearance of a wealthy, white American of that era. As such, he became a powerful voice of change for African American slaves. Born from a slave in Marylands, Frederick spent his early years working on plantations with his grandmother until he was eight when he was sent to Baltimore to live as a house servant. At age twenty he escaped slavery and then chose to adopt the name of the hero of The Lady of the Lake, Douglas. The character Douglas