Frederick Douglass: A Novel (HC) (2024)

Frederick Douglass: A Novel by Sidney Morrison skillfully encompasses the life and times of the most famous American antislavery activist. Douglass's escape from slavery and his public achievements as an ardent abolitionist, journalist, memoirist, and orator are juxtaposed with his complex long-term relationships with his wife, Anna Murray Douglass; English abolitionist Julia Griffiths; and Ottilie Assing, who died by suicide shortly after the death of Anna Douglass and Frederick's remarriage to his younger white secretary, Helen Pitts. After the Civil War, despite Douglass's significant efforts, Reconstruction failed to establish Black equality. One hundred and twenty years later, white supremacy continues to occupy the American psyche and impact modern politics, as on flagrant display during President Barack Obama's two terms and the subsequent Trump years. Douglass believed that the written word had the power to affect change and move us forward as a truer democracy, and his life's work for racial equality still resonates deeply today, as seen in just a few examples below:

Nikole Hannah-Jones calls Frederick Douglass "one of the founders of American Democracy" (1) and "perhaps the greatest American this country has ever produced."(2)

Adam Serwer writes that Douglass is "one of the most eloquent abolitionist orators in the country." (3)

Colson Whitehead, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, regarding his novel Underground Railroad, said, "Actual slave narratives served as the foundation for the book, some of the most famous ones being Frederick Douglass's and Harriet Jacobs's." (4)

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. advocated to put Douglass's portrait on a U.S. dollar bill.

HBO released the documentary series Frederick Douglass in Five Speeches in 2022.

1. Hannah-Jones, Nikole. "1619-1624: Arrival." Four Hundred Souls, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain.

2. Hannah-Jones, Nikole. "Democracy." The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story.

3. Serwer, Adam. "1859-1864: Frederick Douglass." Four Hundred Souls, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

4. Parham, Jason. "Colson Whitehead on Writing, Slavery, and the True Origins of America." Fader magazine.