• slave from Maryland 1817 or 1818
• loved to read, escaped from slavery in 1838
• attended abolitionist meetings in Massachusetts
• wrote abolitionist newspapers called the North Star
• autobiography called Narrative of Life of Frederick Douglas, an American Slave

Thomas Edison

• 1847-1931 born in Ohio
• little schooling, deaf in one ear
• loved science and mechanics
• improved telegraph and typewriter in 1868
• made an electric vote recorder and stock ticker
• at 23 he had enough money to open an invention factory
• he and his team perfected the telephone and created phonograph
• invented incandescent light bulb
• worked on motion picture camera, taking movies, a car batter, and x-ray machine

• 1706-1790 born in Boston
• publisher, inventor, enterpreneur, statesman
• setteld in Philadelphia, purchased the Philadelphia Gazette in 1729, which later ran "Join or Die" political cartoon
• published first edition of Poor Richard's Almanack in 1732
• wrote the Albany Plan  of the Union at the convention
• became famous in England as a defender of American rights
• British branded him a traitor
• negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris
• believed the Articles of Confederation to be too weak and joined fall for a Consitutional Convention
•  a cabinet was established to advise the president 
• he called for blacks to be counted as citizens, hoping to encourage abolition, but this proposal was rejected
• in 1787, elected as president of Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery
• Franklin's Autobiography was published the year after his death and covers the years of his life only to the 1760's

• (1805-1879) bron in S. Carolina
• Quaker and abolitionist, published an anti-slavery letter called "An Appeal to the Christian Women of the South"
• in it she urged women to convince the men in their lives that slavery was wrong, a crime against God and man
• threats promted her to move to New York
• during Civil War, she spoke out in support of Lincoln
• she celebrated the passage of the 13th amm. 
• she tested the 14th amm. by attempting to cast a vote
• spoke out for suffrage and Biblical equality of men and women

• (1917-1977) fought for her right to vote
• bron in Mississippi
• attended a voter registration meeting
• she learned that the 15th ammn. protected AF. Am. ability to vote
• took initiative to organize registration drives
• thrown in jail in 1963
• Montgomery County guards beat her and fellow rights workers
• lost her job and received death threats
• spoke out at the Dem. presidential convention about people being illegally prevented from voting
• a year later Pres. LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act
• this law removed many barriers to voting, and many see it as a fulfillment of the 15th ammnd's promise

• (1757-1804) born in the West Indies, the illegitimate son of a poor Scottish merchant and a woman of Frech descent
• sent to America by a local businessman, became active in New York's Patriot movement
• General Washington asked Hamilston to join his personal staff and made him a lieutenant colonel
• served in the Conf. Congress where he and Madison both desired a strong central govt.
• he called for a strong executive branch with a president who would serve for life
• took the lead in promoting the ratif. of the Cons in NY
• teamed with Madison and John Lay to write the Fed. Papers, writing 52 of the 85 essays
• served as Sec. of the Treasury under Washington
• proposed the establishment of a national bank- something not in  Congress's enumerated powers
• this plan was opposed by Thomas Jefferson and others who feared growing federal power
• 1st party system in America formed around these 2 men
• after leaving the Washington admin. in 1795 he acted as the defense lawyer in People v. Croswell (1803) in which he made the arugment that truth could be used as a defense for libel
• 15 yrs. after his death in a duel with Aaron Burr, Chief Justice John Marshall held in McCullough v. Maryland (1819) that the creation of a national bank was an implied power of the federal legislature and was therefore consitutional

• (1737-1793) famous for his signature on Dec. of Ind.