Letter From The President

Abolition Today!

The Frederick Douglass Family Foundation (FDFF) exists to honor and preserve the legacy of our famed ancestor and to create awareness about modern-day slavery in an effort to expedite its demise.

When contemplating the mission of the FDFF, we came to the conclusion that anything we decided to do would have to be true to the character of this great man.  First and foremost, Frederick Douglass was an abolitionist who fought for human rights for all.  In the U.S., we were raised to believe slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation.  In many parts of the world, however, the scourge of slavery still exists on levels equally as deplorable as the history of slavery with which we’re most familiar.  The U.S. government estimates that 800,000 people are enslaved around the world each year, of which 17,000 are brought into the U.S. against their will into some sort of indentured servitude, or other means of forced labor. Of these, 80% are women and 50% are children.

The primary mission of our organization is to carry out my great, great, great grandfather’s goal of ending slavery.  If he were alive today, what would he say about these horrible injustices?  What would he do about this serious humanitarian problem enslaving some 27 million people around the globe?  Americans generally don’t know about modern-day slavery and human trafficking.  Most don’t know that Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000.  Most don’t know that in many U.S. states, there are no laws on the books addressing human trafficking.  Most have no idea that there are forms of forced labor hidden right under their noses in their own communities.  Frederick Douglass fought for human rights for all people.  Modern-day slavery is a human rights abuse and a humanitarian problem.  In 2003, the U.S. State Department said, “Trafficking in persons is one of the greatest human rights challenges of all time.”

As direct descendants of one of America’s most well known abolitionists, we believe we have an obligation to stand on the platform he built, through struggle and through sacrifice, to bring this issue into the world spotlight where it belongs with other important issues of our time.  Frederick Douglass once said, “If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning.”

We are honored that you have taken an interest in our ancestor’s remarkable life story and we thank you for visiting our site.  Please take a look around and be sure to click on the Take Action page where you can register to join our family tree.  Let’s take on this struggle together and fight to put an end to slavery around the world.  Frederick Douglass believed in agitation and he would have expected nothing less from his family.

Kenneth B. Morris, Jr.
President
Frederick Douglass Family Foundation