In his travel diary for his 1886-87 tour of Europe and Africa, Frederick Douglass reveals the racialized context of his travels abroad. Douglass’s comments on race, slavery, and the presence of his black body in various spaces disrupt the conventional capitalist and dominant narratives about tourism, travel, and leisure. Early in the trip, he notes that other passengers on the transatlantic voyage do not seem “disturbed” by his or his white wife Helen’s presence, and on board a steamer bound for Egypt, he expresses gratitude that, born a “slave marked for life under the lash,” he is “abroad free and privileged to see these distant lands so full of historical interest.” Douglass’s attention to his and others’ racialized relationship to various kinds of spaces, histories, and labor emphasizes the ways in which nineteenth-century black travelers reframe conventional ideas about mobility and leisure.