[1] She was married to Frederick Douglass, Jr.[2] Hewlett was born June 1, 1849, in Cambridge, Massachusetts,[3][4] the daughter of the first African-American instructor at Harvard University (from 1859 to c. 1871), Aaron Molyneaux Hewlett and physical education instructor, Virginia Josephine Lewis (c.1821–1882).

[4] When her sister-in-law, Mary Elizabeth Murphy (married to Charles Remond Douglass), died in 1879, Virginia and Fredrick raised their two minor children, Charles Frederick and Joseph Henry.

[8][9] The petition had been part of a movement organized by National Woman Suffrage Association.

[9] On September 21, 1881, she wrote a letter to the editor of the Washington Sunday Item newspaper against school segregation and prejudice.

[4] She died on December 14, 1889 in Washington, D.C., at the age of 40, and her death was listed as from consumption.