F rederick Douglass, U.S. Grant, Winston Churchill and Napoleon were all subjects of recent celebrated biographies. These modern portraits, at times romantic, shocking or disillusioning, illuminate their subjects’ lives with new honesty. We can’t put these page-turners down.
The improbabilities of their lives stun us. By some miracle, they were there at the right time with unique skills and character. But they were not perfect, as these magnificently researched accounts remind us.
No life trajectory was steeper or more stunning than that of Frederick Douglass. Yale scholar David Blight’s comprehensive portrait of the escaped slave, abolitionist, journalist, intellectual, and above all, orator, whose life spanned much of the 19th century, is arguably the nonfiction book of 2018.
Beginning life as an illiterate slave on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Douglass taught himself to read at great personal risk. Within years he was a polished writer whose prose resonated with rhythms of the St. James Bible, Shakespeare — he often quoted Othello — and his own sense of prophesy. His personal experience living and escaping from the violence and humiliation of slavery gave him unique authority, creating a public persona that remained in public demand from the 1840s to the 1880s.
There were many noted abolitionists — white and black, male and female, American and European — but Douglass drew the big crowds.
It was Douglass’ orations that eclipsed even his magisterial writing style. Early in life, his booming voice became the powerful instrument lifting him from slave — his escape from cruel slave owners is unforgettable — to the leading exponent of the abolition movement. Blight estimates that Douglass’ speeches, often three or four in one day, were heard by more Americans than any other public figure of his day.
A tireless, driven orator who would speak anywhere an audience gathered, Douglass may have given more speeches than any American in history. His best-known speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July” (1852), is ranked No. 3 on Time magazine’s 10 best speeches of all-time, ahead of Abraham Lincoln. Only Patrick Henry and Socrates rank higher.
For all Americans
At Douglass’ death in 1895, his photographs — showing arresting dignity, polished attire and signature gray hair — had appeared on nearly all magazine covers of his time. To millions throughout the world, he was America, as much as Mark Twain or U.S. Grant, or even Lincoln himself.
Douglass and Lincoln, both prominent Republicans, were not immediate allies. Each had an immutable purpose: Lincoln to preserve the Union and Douglass to abolish slavery. Finally, Lincoln found his moment to issue the Emancipation Proclamation, opening the door to their friendship.
An unforgettable scene in Blight’s monumental narrative is Douglass’s first meeting with Lincoln. Initially skeptical of Lincoln’s political maneuverings, Douglass was won over, writing after the meeting “I can see why they call him Honest Abe.” Douglass mourned Lincoln’s assassination both personally and as a severe blow to African-American rights.
With Lincoln gone, Douglass lived on through the horrors of the Reconstruction period. Often despairing at the growing power and violence of the Ku Klux Klan, he never diminished his efforts. His longtime family home in Rochester, N.Y., was burned to the ground and he experienced Jim Crow discrimination throughout his life. But he was driven to continue speaking, writing and publishing, while supporting his large and complex family. His extended family proves a moving and surprising topic in itself.
Republicans owe him special recognition. Douglass devoted countless hours attempting to guide and improve an all-too-imperfect Republican Party from its founding through to the 1880s. Surely, Douglass belongs to all Americans and merits full-throated celebration during Black History Month.
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