Question

Once free, why did Frederick Douglass let a white man choose a name for him?

Answer 1

According to his own words, he had been Frederick Bailey, had fled under the name of Stanley, and then became Johnson. When it turned out he needed still another name, he probably didn't much care what it was. He says, "I gave Mr. Johnson the privilege of choosing me a name, but told him he must not take from me the name of "Frederick." I must hold on to that, to preserve a sense of my identity."

So this was a small thing Douglass could do for a man who'd been a good friend to him, to allow that man to pick his new last name. Douglass doesn't seem to have been prejudiced against white people at all, despite his hardships at their hands.