Frederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee

Front Cover
LSU Press, Jul 1, 1991 - History - 292 pages

In this sensitive intellectual biography David W. Blight undertakes the first systematic analysis of the impact of the Civil War on Frederick Douglass' life and thought, offering new insights into the meaning of the war in American history and in the Afro-American experience. Frederick Douglass' Civil War follows Douglass' intellectual and personal growth from the political crises of the 1850s through secession, war, black enlistment, emancipation, and Reconstruction. This book provides an engrossing story of Douglass' development of a social identity in relation to transforming events, and demonstrates that he saw the Civil War as the Second American Revolution, and himself as one of the founders of a new nation. Through Douglass' life, his voice, and his interpretations we see the Civil War era and its memory in a new light.

 

Selected pages

Contents

The Politics of Hope and Principle in the 1850s
26
Douglass and the Secession
59
Douglass War Propaganda
80
Frederick Douglass and the American Apocalypse
101
The Bugbear of Colonization
122
Douglass and the Meaning of the Black Soldier
148
Abolition WarAbolition Peace
175
Douglass and the Meaning
189
Douglass and the Struggle for the Memory of the Civil
219
Bibliography
247
Index
265
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

abolition abolitionism abolitionists American Apocalypse antislavery apocalyptic apocalypticism April argued August autobiography black enlistment black freedom black leaders black nationalism black soldiers black suffrage cause of black claimed colonization colonizationist Colored conflict contended Doug Douglass declared Douglass found Douglass never Douglass seemed Douglass wrote editorial election emancipation emigration enemy faith FD Papers LC fear federal Foner Fort Sumter Frederick Douglass Fredrickson free blacks Free-Soil freedmen freedpeople Frémont fugitive slave Garrisonians Gerrit Smith Griffiths Henry Highland Garnet hope human ibid idea ideology issue jeremiad July land lass liberty Lincoln McPherson meaning memory ment millennial Mind Moorhead moral nation Negro North northern orator political postwar president Quarles race racial racism radical Reconstruction recruiting reel Republican party rhetoric Rochester secession sense September Slave Power slaveholders slavery Society South southern speech spirit Struggle for Equality thought tion Union violence W. E. B. Du Bois Washington Writings York

References to this book

About the author (1991)

David W. Blight is also the author of Beyond the Battlefield: Race, Memory, and the American Civil War and Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, winner of the Frederick Douglass Prize, the Lincoln Prize, and the Bancroft Prize, among other awards. He is a professor of history at Yale University.

Bibliographic information

TitleFrederick Douglass’ Civil War: Keeping Faith in Jubilee
AuthorDavid W. Blight
Editionrevised
PublisherLSU Press, 1991
ISBN0807117242, 9780807117248
Length292 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / United States / Civil War Period (1850-1877)
  
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