Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom — David W. Blight
A beautiful, honest, and sometimes-inspiring biography with a stunning scope
Frederick Douglass was a prodigy, a prophet, and a pioneer. As a slave named Fred Bailey, he learned to read. He had a life-defining salvation experience. He escaped from slavery. With help from members of the Underground Railroad, he made a life for himself with a new name. He became a nationally-renowned, then internationally-renowned, traveling speaker. He wrote an internationally-bestselling autobiography that is still considered a classic of American and Western literature. All before age 29. He became the most well-known African American in the United States. He wrote and edited his own newspaper for years. He was a close adviser to Abraham Lincoln, sometimes called Lincoln’s “conscience”. He was a significant leader in the re-birthed nation through the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln’s assassination, and the unfinished revolution that is Reconstruction. He was the first African American to become marshal of Washington D.C. Oh, and he wrote two more autobiographies for a total of three. Add to all that the fact that Douglass was one of the most well-known faces of his time due to the sheer number of portraits, daguerrotypes, and photographs for which he sat. He was quite a remarkable man.
David W. Blight has been studying Douglass his whole life, and the result is Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, a biography that explores everything one would want to know about Douglass in vivid detail, in a style and substance that is unmatched by any but the best in the biographical genre. (Personally, the only biography I’ve read that I would mention in the same breath as Frederick Douglass is John Farrell’s Richard Nixon: The Life).
Even before getting to the merits of the book on content, I have to relate the beauty of Frederick Douglass in aesthetic terms. The cover image is breathtaking, in full color as Douglass should be. The design of the pages evokes an antique feel when viewed from the sides, and the images inside the book are presented in-line rather than in separated page spreads in the middle of the book. So you can be reading about Douglass’ wife Anna and see a picture of her on the same page. This is not a flippant decision by the publisher, as it is more expensive to produce a book with in-line photographs. But this work of art is worth whatever extra few dollars you might have to pay for its beauty and breadth.
The most impactful aspect of the way Blight approaches Douglass’ life might be his exploration of Douglass’ religious beliefs and how that impacted him. There are many lengthy passages of the book that discuss how his belief in God, in redemption, in forgiveness, that truly all are created equal, served as the foundation for everything Douglass did. In comparison to his identity as a former slave, he seems to have held his identity as a Christian slightly closer: a remarkable thought. This is what makes Douglass a prophet, and that theme is both pervasive and perpetually in the background, making such a theme worthy of being included in Blight’s subtitle. Blight makes frequent comparisons between Douglass and the Old Testament prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, from whom Douglass mined significant portions of his Biblical references.
This Christian worldview is probably part of what made Douglass so ardent a supporter of Lincoln after years of disagreements with him. Lincoln’s support of black colonization (freeing slaves and sending them to the Caribbean islands or some other “tropical” locale, only voluntarily, of course) caused a significant rift between the two men early in Lincoln’s presidency, but by the time of the Emancipation Proclamation and then Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, Douglass was all in. (If you haven’t read Lincoln’s Second Inaugural in a while, I highly recommend taking a look. I’m more amazed by it every time I encounter it. It’s my favorite speech of all time.) Lincoln might have been the most outwardly vocal Christian believer of any American president, and the Second Inaugural is a prime example of how he worked out his faith in the public eye. Blight relays that Douglass quoted the address for years afterward, whole sections verbatim.
Another refreshing and novel angle from Blight is his focus on the women in Douglass’ life, coupled with the voice he gives them. His wife Anna is the most confounding of all, as she leaves no writing of her own, but Blight manages to infer much from the sources that do exist, shedding light on some of her personality. Detail is given to the character of Julia Griffiths, his abolitionist editing partner and friend while he published his newspaper, and much time is devoted to his (probably intimate?) relationship with the German intellectual Ottilie Assing. Almost everything we know about Douglass and Assing’s personal relationship comes from Assing’s hand, and these writings are extensively used to give voice to Assing’s feelings and speculate on those of both Frederick and Anna Douglass. The Douglass’ relationship was complicated to say the least, as he was absent often and he could not have the same intellectual conversations with Anna as he could with Griffiths or Assing. Blight repeatedly returns to this story, and it only becomes more interesting due to all the unresolved questions.
The best decision Blight makes, however, is to let Douglass speak for himself wherever possible. Hearing Douglass in his own voice is tremendous, as he and Lincoln are two of the greatest wordsmiths of the 19th century. Preserving his words is wise, but allowing outside voices is necessary due to the fact that he only tended to write about his political life, leading to the detriment of our knowledge of his personal life.
Frederick Douglass is just terrific in every way. It is hefty, at 769 pages of reading (not counting notes, index, etc.), but it is well worth it. If you like big biographies or want a great one to start your new obsession, pick up a copy of Blight’s.
I borrowed a copy of Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom from my local library. Borrow it, request it, or consider donating to your library today.
