Douglass Frederick - Frederick Douglass

Further Praise for FREDERICK DOUGLASS

Succeeds in humanizing one of the most influential blacks of the 19th century.... Frederick Douglass has a freshness of fact and boldness of interpretation that is admirable.

HERBERT MITGANG , New York Times

Almost too good, too moving for nonfiction.... McFeely has found a hero fit for his best writing.

MARK W. SUMMERS , Lexington Herald-Leader

It restores full human stature to the mythic figure of Frederick Douglass and, in every respect, is a worthy successor to McFeelys Grant .

JUSTIN KAPLAN

An eloquent and illuminating study of a great nineteenth-century American about whom we know less than we may think. William McFeely gives us a human and appealing, but not unflawed, Frederick Douglass.

TOM WICKER

Comprehensive, insightful and well-written... deserves a wide readership... because its subject reveals so much about the dramatic complexities of human nature and American history, particularly that large and vexing aspect of our history that is rooted in the race question.

RANDALL KENNEDY , Chicago Tri bune Books

A triumph of scholarship and literary style.... McFeely has produced an absorbing and provocative account of the life and times of one of this countrys most significant and often-neglected social crusaders.

DENNIS B. DOWNEY , Philadelphi a Inquirer

A stunning biography of... one of the giants of nineteenth-century America, a great orator in the age of orators, the creator of a self-portrait that shaped black sensibilities. This illuminating portrait dispenses with the myths.

Finan cial Times

A meticulously researched biography of one of the most important figures to emerge during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods.

Atlanta Journal-Co nstitution

BOOKS BY WILLIAM S. McFEELY

Frederick Douglass

Grant: A Biography

Yankee Stepfather: General O. O. Howard and the Freedmen

Sapelos People

Lines from Ovid, Metamorphoses , translated by Rolfe Humphries (copyright 1955) are reprinted by permission of the publisher, Indiana University Press.

Copyright 1991 by William S. McFeely

All rights reserved.

First published as a Norton paperback 1995, reissued 2017

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact W. W. Norton Special Sales at specialsales@wwnorton.com or 800-233-4830

Book and design by JAM Design

Production Manager: Lauren Abbate

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA / UIG / GETTY IMAGES

The Library of Congress has cataloged an earlier edition as follows:

McFeely, William S.

Frederick Douglass/by William S. McFeely.

p.cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-393-02823-2

1. Douglas, Frederick, 18181895.2. AbolitionistsUnited StatesBiography.

3. Afro-AmericansBiography.4.SlaveryUnited StatesAntislavery movements.

I. Title

E449.D75M3741991

973.7092dc20

89-36517

ISBN:978-0-393-35442-3

ISBN: 978-0-393-63411-2 (e-book)

W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

500 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10110

www.wwnorton.com

W. W. Norton & Company Ltd.

15 Carlisle Street, London W1D 3BS

For Mary, again
and for Matthew, Eric, and Samuel

Contents

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

THE FOLLOWING PHOTOGRAPHS APPEAR BETWEEN PAGES 160 AND 161

F REDERICK D OUGLASS . National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

T UCKAHOE C REEK . William S. McFeely.

B ALTIMORE , 1838. Francis F. Beirne, Baltimore: A Picture History (New York, 1957).

N EW B EDFORD , 1840 S . Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Mass.

M AIN S TREET , N ANTUCKET . From the collection of the Nantucket Historical Society, Nantucket, Mass.

B IG S HOP , N ANTUCKET . From the collection of the Nantucket Historical Society, Nantucket, Mass.

A FRICAN B APTIST C HURCH , N ANTUCKET . From the collection of the Nantucket Historical Society, Nantucket, Mass.

S USAN B. A NTHONY . Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, et al., editors, The History of Woman Suffrage . 6 vols. (Rochester and New York, 18891922).

L UCRETIA C OFFIN M OTT . Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, et al., editors, The History of Woman Suffrage . 6 vols. (Rochester and New York, 18891922).

A NNA D ICKINSON . Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, et al., editors, The History of Woman Suffrage . 6 vols. (Rochester and New York, 18891922).

M ARIA W ESTON C HAPMAN . Boston Public Library.

S OJOURNER T RUTH . National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

W ILLIAM L LOYD G ARRISON . National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

W ENDELL P HILLIPS . National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

H ARRIET T UBMAN . J. B. Leib Photo Company.

A BBY K ELLEY F OSTER . American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

T HE F UGITIVES S ONG . American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

R OCHESTER . University of Rochester Library, Rochester, N.Y.

N OTE FROM D OUGLASS . University of Rochester Library, Rochester, N.Y.

N OTE FROM D OUGLASS . University of Rochester Library, Rochester, N.Y.

A MY P OST . University of Rochester Library, Rochester, N.Y.

A NTISLAVERY M EETING . J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, Calif.

F REDERICK D OUGLASS . American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.

THE FOLLOWING PHOTOGRAPHS APPEAR BETWEEN PAGES 300 AND 301

F REDERICK D OUGLASS . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

R OSETTA D OUGLASS . Anacostia Neighborhood Museum, Smithsonian Institution.

A NNA M URRAY D OUGLASS . Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Collection, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

L EWIS H ENRY D OUGLASS . Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Collection, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

C HARLES R EMOND D OUGLASS . Courtesy of Prints and Photographs Collection, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

F REDERICK D OUGLASS , J R . Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University.

A S TREET H OUSE . Frederick Douglass Papers, Yale University.

F REEDMANS S AVINGS B ANK . Courtesy of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

C EDAR H ILL . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

L IBRARY , C EDAR H ILL . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

W EST PARLOR , C EDAR H ILL . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

B EDROOM , C EDAR H ILL . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

D INING ROOM , C EDAR H ILL . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

H ELEN P ITTS D OUGLASS . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

F REDERICK D OUGLASS . National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution.

F REDERICK AND H ELEN D OUGLASS . National Park Service, Frederick Doug-lass National Historic Site.

H AITIAN PAVILION . Glimpses of the Worlds Fair , 1893.

E LIZABETH C ADY S TANTON . National Park Service, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.