Douglass in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

John Ernest

University of Iowa Press, 2014 - Biography & Autobiography - 247 pages

One of the most incredible stories in American history is that of Frederick Douglass, the man who escaped from slavery and rose to become one of the most celebrated and eloquent orators, writers, and public figures in the world. He first committed his story to writing in his 1845 autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Over the course of his life, he would expand on his story considerably, writing two other autobiographies, My Bondage and My Freedom and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, as well as innumerable newspaper articles and editorials and orations.

As valuable as these writings are in illuminating the man, the story Douglass told in 1845 has become rather too easy to tell, obscuring as much as it reveals. Less a living presence than an inspiring tale, Frederick Douglass remains relatively unknown even to many of those who celebrate his achievements. Douglass in His Own Time offers an introduction to Douglass the man by those who knew him. The book includes a broad range of writings, some intended for public viewing and some private correspondence, all of which contend with the force of Douglass’s tremendous power over the written and spoken word, his amazing presence before crowds, his ability to improvise, to entertain, to instruct, to inspire—indeed, to change lives through his eloquent appeals to righteous self-awareness and social justice. In approaching Douglass through the biographical sketches, memoirs, letters, editorials, and other articles about him, readers will encounter the complexity of a life lived on a very public stage, the story of an extraordinary black man in an insistently white world.

Contents

• John Martin Hammond Wye House Talbot County Maryland Lloyd 1914: 1
• Parker Pillsbury From Acts of the AntiSlavery Apostles 1884: 5
• David N Johnson From Sketches of Lynn or The Changes of Fifty Years 1880: 7
• Vincent Y Bowditch From Life and Correspondence of Henry Ingersoll Bowditch 1902: 10
• James N Buffum From Commemoration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Organization of the American AntiSlavery Society in Philadelphia 1884: 12
• William A White The Hundred Conventions 1843: 17
• Nathaniel P Rogers Two Reports by an Antislavery Editor 1841 and 1844: 21
• Anonymous Farewell Soiree to Mr Frederick Douglass 1847: 26
• Anonymous Incident aboard the Cambria En Route to England 1848: 32
• Anonymous Reception of Frederick Douglass at the BelknapStreet Church Boston 1847: 34
• Samuel J May Frederick Douglass 1869: 40
• Jane Marsh Parker Reminiscences of Frederick Douglass 1895: 44
• Samuel R Ward and Frederick Douglass 1849: 51
• R R Raymond Outline of a Man 1853: 56
• Various Authors The Great Controversy 18471891: 63
• Frederick Douglass and William Wells Brown Exchange with William Wells Brown 1855: 102
• James McCune Smith Introduction to My Bondage and My Freedom 1855: 105
• Isaiah C Wears and Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass Religion and Politics 1870: 120
• M Frederick Douglass in the West 1873: 127
• William Wells Brown Frederick Douglass 1874: 129
• Grace Greenwood Sara Jane Lippincott Occasional Notes 1877: 133
• Francis J Grimké The Second Marriage of Frederick Douglass 1884: 137
• Thomas James From Life of Rev Thomas James by Himself 1886: 143
• Theodore Stanton Frederick Douglass in Paris 1887: 145
• I Garland Penn The North Star 1891: 151
• E W Blake An Account of the Tuskegee Institute Commencement 1892: 154
• One of the Most Remarkable of All Living Mena Nice Tribute 1893: 156
• James M Gregory From Frederick Douglass the Orator 1893: 158
• J E Rankin Frederick Douglasss Character and Career 1895: 168
• William Lloyd Garrison Jr Frederick Douglass as Orator and Reformer 1895: 176
• Anonymous Frederick Douglass Loved Music 1895: 182
• Theodore Tilton From Sonnets to the Memory of Frederick Douglass 1895: 183
• Cordelia Ray Frederick Douglass 1897: 190
• Paul Laurence Dunbar Two Poems 1897 and 1913: 194
• Elizabeth Cady Stanton From Eighty Years and More 1898: 198
• Charles Waddell Chesnutt From Frederick Douglass a Biography 1899: 200
• The Colored Orator 1891: 208
• Monroe Alpheus Majors A Tribute to Frederick Douglass 1906: 211
• John P Green Reminiscences of Frederick Douglass 1916: 216
• Horace McGuire From Two Episodes of AntiSlavery Days 1925: 219
• Booker T Washington From Frederick Douglass 1906: 222
• Essays on the Negro in America 1909: 231
• Index: 239

About the author

Professor and chair of the Department of English at the University of Delaware, John Ernest is the author or editor of twelve books and more than twenty-five journal articles and book chapters. His recent books include Liberation Historiography: African American Writers and the Challenge of History, 1794–1861, Chaotic Justice: Rethinking African American Literary History, and A Nation within a Nation: Organizing African American Communities before the Civil War. Before arriving at the University of Delaware, he was the Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of American Literature at West Virginia University for seven years. He also taught for twelve years at the University of New Hampshire, where he received several awards for teaching and for his commitment to social justice.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Douglass in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates; Book collections on Project MUSE; Writers in Their Own Time
• Editor: John Ernest
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Iowa Press, 2014
• ISBN: 1609382803, 9781609382803
• Length: 247 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / General; Biography & Autobiography / Historical