Frederick Douglass: Prophet Of Freedom

Frederick Douglass was an extraordinary man, and thus deserves an extraordinary biography. David W. Blight is up to the challenge, and his cradle-to-grave bio, which won the Pulitzer Prize presents the man warts and all. He was a great man, but a complicated one (as most great people are). "His literary genius ranks with that of many of America’s greatest writers of his century. But he was also vain, arrogant at times, and hypersensitive to slights. He did not take well to rivals who challenged his position as the greatest spokesman of his race, although he also mentored many younger black writers and leaders. He liked being on a pedestal and did not intend to get knocked off. Douglass was thoroughly and beautifully human."

The basic facts of his life tell the tale: "Douglass lived twenty years as a slave and nearly nine years as a fugitive slave subject to recapture. From the 1840s to his death in 1895 he attained international fame as an abolitionist, editor, orator of almost unparalleled stature, and the author of three autobiographies that are classics of the genre." He was the most photographed person of the 19th century, and possibly the most traveled (Mark Twain is his competition). His birth name was Frederick Bailey, and he never knew who his father was. It was most likely his master, or one of the family, and he was half white. He grew up yearning for education, and was taught how to read by one of the women in his owner's family, but she came to regret it.

He escaped bondage not by some dramatic daring-do, but by simply stepping on a train. He changed his name to Douglass and was a fugitive, but gaining a name as an orator. He traveled to England, and traveled with the circle of abolitionists, whom he sometimes got along with, and sometimes not William Lloyd Garrison, the foremost white abolitionist of the era, became an enemy.

The subtitle, Prophet Of Freedom, refers to Douglass' frequent invocation of the Hebrew prophets, such as Jeremiah and Isaiah. "The Old Testament prophets helped make Douglass a great ironist and a great storyteller; they fueled his growing militancy and brought pathos and thunder to his voice as they also shaped his view of history itself. Douglass not only used the Hebrew prophets; he joined them."

Blight does not write a hagiography. For one thing, he goes over his personal life. Douglass was married to Anna, who in comparison was a simple woman, tending to the home and children. While married, Douglass had friendships with other women, notably Ottilie Assing, a German woman who was something of a hanger-on. Blight can not say for sure if the two were lovers, probably not, but Assing was not shy about voicing her contempt for Anna. Later, after Anna's death, Douglass shocked America by marrying a white woman, Helen Pitts.

I enjoyed Blight's passages about Douglass' interaction with other leaders, including presidents. From Lincoln, Douglass knew them all. He was the first black man to have an audience with a president in the White House, that was Lincoln, whom he ran hot and cold on, until much later when he proclaimed him the greatest man who ever lived. More comical and appalling was his one meeting with Andrew Johnson, an open racist, with whom Douglass verbally jousted. He was also a friend of John Brown's, and I did not know that after Brown's futile raid on Harper's Ferry, Douglass was wanted as a co-conspirator, and hot-footed it to England until things died down.

Douglass preached self-reliance, and was against the back to Africa movement, believing, I think rightly, that he was as American as anyone, and had nothing to with some mystical notion of Africa the mother-land. "Douglass engaged in public arguments about black identity and destiny, contending against those who, in frustration over American racism, considered themselves “not Americans but Africans.” Douglass had no sympathy for the latest surge of emigrationism. With anger, he argued that neither slavery nor prejudice nor vicious mobs could change one’s nationality and human worth:"

What comes across most is that Douglass, though a great man, was not an easy one to get along with. He had many enemies, black and white, and did not suffer insults in silence. "He made no apologies for defending himself, and at this stage of his life he was particularly sensitive to preserving his historical legacy. He had a “duty” to respond forcefully, he said, because the “charges vitally affect one’s standing with the people and the government of one’s country.”' But he was also the most famous black person in the world, gaining nicknames like "Old Man Eloquent," and "The Sage of Anacostia," or "Cedar Hill," depending on where he was living, and his physical bearing, especially later in life when he had a gray mane of hair, made him instantly recognizable. He also suffered a great deal of tragedy. In addition to his wife dying, one son died pre-deceased him, and a staggering ten grandchildren died while he was living.

Douglass died in 1895, so while he did see the freeing of his people, there was still a long way to go. During the Benjamin Harrison administration he served as ambassador to Haiti, and fought hard for anti-lynching laws. He supported Republicans, always, as Democrats, at the time, were the pro-slavery and lynching party. He was giving speeches right up until the end, and dropped dead of a heart attack the day he had an engagement that night.

I think what mostly resonates about Douglass, and what Blight is so good at capturing, is the incredible nature of his rise: "Similar to Lincoln, Douglass offered an original American to those who sought such images; he was the sui generis former slave who found books, the boy beaten into a benumbed field hand who fought back and mastered language and wielded a King James–inspired prose at the world’s oppressions with a genius to behold. He was spiritual and secular, consummately political and deeply moralistic, romantic and pragmatic, a philosopher of democracy and natural rights and a preacher of a firm doctrine of self-reliance. Douglass provided a living symbol by his physical presence and skill that refuted all manner of racist notions and reinforced others for the ignorant and the fearful."