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Quaker abolitionists Anna and Ellen Richardson raised £150 to purchase his freedom from his American owner, Thomas Auld, with support from local reformers like John Bright.
The transaction faced criticism from some uncompromising white American abolitionists, including Henry C Wright, who argued Douglass had always been naturally free.
Douglass responded in a letter from Manchester dated December 22, 1846, clarifying his legal status and the necessity of the purchase.
"I am legally the property of Thomas Auld, and if I go to the United States, Thomas Auld, aided by the American government can seize, bind and fetter, and drag me from my family," Douglass wrote.
"It was not to compensate the slave-holder, but to release me from his power; not to establish my natural right to freedom, but to release me from all legal liabilities to slavery."
Return to Britain and Lasting Impact
Douglass returned to Britain in 1859 amid a pro-slavery backlash in the United States following John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry.
By his second visit, racial attitudes in Britain had hardened, forcing him to counter scientific racism and pro-slavery advocacy.
Despite shifting sentiments, the abolitionist spirit endured, culminating in Lancashire cotton workers boycotting slave-produced cotton during the American Civil War.
In March 1847, before returning home, Douglass delivered a farewell address in London reflecting on his transformative journey.
"I go back to the United States not as I landed here – I came a slave; I go back a free man.
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I came here a thing – I go back a human being," he said.
