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Frederick Douglass: A Novel
Based on the life of Frederick Douglass, the most prominent African American of the 19 th Century, Sidney Morrison has created a mesmerizing and important historical novel richly detailing the Civil War Era and the Institution of Slavery that Douglass was instrumental in ending. Frederick Douglass escapes enslavement in Maryland and becomes a prominent abolitionist leader; one of the nation’s most skilled orators; and publisher of an antislavery newspaper called The North Star . He lives with his wife, Anna Murray Douglass, who helps him escape slavery, and their five children in Rochester, New York. Frederick participates in the underground railroad and works with William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, and Presidents Abraham Lincoln to Grover Cleveland. Frederick and Lincoln become friends as the president changes his war policies, issues the Emancipation Proclamation, and enlists Black soldiers, which include Frederick’s three sons. Frederick’s advocacy for equality includes women’s suffrage and his motto for The North Star "Right is of no sex, Truth is of no color, God is the Father of us all, and we are all Brethren." He attends the Seneca Falls Convention and befriends Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Frederick becomes the first African American to hold esteemed political positions including U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia and Minister to Haiti. Frederick zealously controls his public image by publishing an autobiography that he updates and republishes twice keeping his family life with Anna Murray Douglass and other intimate relationships private. Julia Griffith, an English abolitionist, moves into the Douglass family home and works with Frederick at The North Star until a scandalized community whispers about an extramarital affair and she returns to England. Ottilie Assing, a German writer, moves to New Jersey to translate Frederick’s autobiography and spends summers in the Rochester family home. She dies by suicide after years of waiting for Frederick to divorce and marry her. After Anna’s death Frederick marries Helen Pitts, a white suffragist and abolitionist 20 years his junior. Frederick and Helen’s marriage ignites a firestorm with the Douglass children and the public. These women and their stories are central to portraying Frederick Douglass beyond his public persona as a fully complex human being whose life was rich in conflict, drama, and suspense.
Frederick Douglass dedicated his life to racial equality and making the United States a truer democracy. Despite his fierce activism discrimination continues. Sidney Morrison spent decades researching Frederick Douglass and his novel is an homage to this central figure in U.S. and African American History.
Frederick Douglass dedicated his life to racial equality and making the United States a truer democracy. Despite his fierce activism discrimination continues. Sidney Morrison spent decades researching Frederick Douglass and his novel is an homage to this central figure in U.S. and African American History.
688 pages, Hardcover
Published June 18, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 28, 2024
While the overview of Frederick Douglass' life and experiences is great historical information, I have never had to drag myself for so long through such boring writing. I can't imagine finding a way to fill 600+ pages and have Douglass sound like the most disengaging and droll fellow. I was determined to finish it but it took forever because I never really looked forward to picking it up.
October 18, 2024
*FREDERICK DOUGLASS A BOOK REVIEW. FREDERICK DOUGLASS, by SIDNEY MORRISON
Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts, hawthornebooks.com, Library of Congress Control Number 2023942521, First Edition, 2024.
Who on God’s green earth would want to write a book review of 665 page length. No, this is not a whiny teenager saying, “Do I have to read the whole thing?” This is from a writer of an older tone, but with the voice of a 35 year old. The answer is, “Me, baby, I’m going to write a review come hell or high water, despite the book’s length. This book blew the lid off my head!
Disclaimer; is that the right word? I have studied Literary Criticism, from Plato, and Coleridge, right on up to Sartre. My brain had not grown up to read in that capacity. Now, in the last chapters of my life my consciousness has given me that privilege.
Did I mention the book is heavy. The artwork by Diane Chonette Design is divine. This narrative is mighty, splendiferous, down to earth, realistically told, nuance filled in so that its words seem to nestle one right after another, like birds finding their spot on a branch.
Prologue 1844, Frederick Douglass has been a lecturer for three years. He was discovered by Garrison and other white abolitionists during an anti slavery convention on Nantucket Island. This accounting of his life had been told quite often in New England. Whites were always surprised. Where was his inarticulate speech? His dark skin? He had a bass-baritone voice, and besides extreme eloquence, a mob at this particular talk didn’t believe he was a former slave. A dark shadow of violence and mob voices and stomping feet had chased William Lloyd Garrison out of Boston. Three years later, The crowd filled with hatred suggesting lawlessness of a high order. Would Frederick Douglass be booted out of town?
By this time, the reader this narrative could be swallowed whole. But, I read this in patches of time. Each time I sat down, I fell into the language. The smoothness of it, as the author brought a real flesh and blood, intelligent, paradoxical, intense, inexplicable man to his pages. He would show the doubting crowd his scars to prove he had been a slave, and would be given a standing ovation.
From this point on, as a book reviewer, I wanted to reveal Morrison, the author’s, descriptions, and the details. That intent, however, was not realistic: imagine a 500 page book review. I tucked in my insanity and now I feel like a humble gnat but will share my take on Frederick Douglass, the man, the husband, the stubborn, the profound, the attractor of large crowds, the fearful black man escaping the south, fear and trembling within the culture. Think of walking into a door, an electronic sliding door. You see it, you see white people with luggage sliding through, and then you see a black man in that time arrive at that door, and it slams in front of his face. This is an aspect of the ethos revealed in Frederick Douglass, a Novel, by Sidney Morrison.
Sidney Morrison reveals Douglass’ intent to write an autobiography and inscribe in its pages names of family, masters, and plantations. He would not reveal the details of his escape, “All he had was his word.” (p.60) and the reader read the last sentence, “Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey Douglass had a book to write.”I was hooked. Such is the nobility and character of Frederick Douglass. 1836-1845 -Douglass loved his church choir and loved perhaps more the debates of the East Baltimore Improvement Society. He had 3 loves: singing, talking, but even more, arguing. At a gathering, he meets a cook and domestic servant, not a looker to use a present term. They will marry, and the plot thickens. She was not beautiful, not educated, but she was the key to a gate which enabled them to escape to the Northern cities.
He would make his escape, but he was very afraid. Anna, a freed slave was and will be invaluable. What’s more she’s tough and savvy. They will get to New York, and then Philadelphia where he would meet former slaves and whites. New Bedford was an ultimate destination.
New Bedford astonished him. “Negroes live here? They stayed with a man and wife, the Johnsons, the most successful merchants in New Bedford. They were black, and Nathan Johnson was the most prominent Negro in town, Mrs. Johnson taught Anna to cook as she had a thriving catering business. What times ensued would reveal a stubborn man, never kowtowing to white’s demands. Whites of both kinds: fascinated or angry.
Douglass reveals the innards of a man of tensile steel, and each chapter widens, as he meets many women, travels to London, argues with white antislavery men of prominence.
He will travel and speak a great deal. Abroad in England and Scotland the complicity of British churches that remained affiliated to American churches that continued to support slavery were taken to task by many speeches behind a lecturn.
He was gone a great deal from Anna, as she remained in their home in Bedford. She was illiterate; did not write to him, but behind the man Frederick Douglas, she was a pillar of certitude for him. They had many children, and the novel breathes passion, life and death struggles, always a mountain to climb every day. The Civil War, white superiority, a fabric invisible to the human eye, but blacks knew that fabric quite well. With these forces as a background, Douglass’ stubbornness would carry him ever forward. How did he maintain his strength?
This modest reviewer finds Frederick Douglass, a novel by Sidney Morrison, a masterpiece of telling and showing. All of the characters well. If I were on the Pulitzer Board, I’d nail this novel to the wall in a large hallway. Do you catch my drift? Readers, this is a must for all of our generations. I feel a depth of deep gratitude to its author. May the name of Frederick Douglass be shouted out over our lands for the ever arching future we will enter.
Esther Bradley-DeTally
April 11, 2025
Kudos to the author for tackling such a subject, for his decision not to do a hagiographic portrayal of Douglass, and his attention to detail, but the utterly pedestrian prose somehow managed to make the story of one of the 19th century’s most fascinating people tedious and boring. The exhaustive detail was . . . exhausting.
April 18, 2025
At 660 pages, this was a long read, but one I enjoyed and took in spurts. I wanted to know about Frederick Douglass and this really filled in some gaps of this most-photographed man of the era, as photography came in during the Civil War, and he'd become quite a famous orator among abolitionists by then.
His childhood was a mixed story where he was certainly an orphan raised by grandma, rarely seeing his mother, never certain of his father, although knew him to be a white man, so likely Thomas Auld the master. The leaving of him by his grandma was clearly abandonment, as no warning or good-bye, as she took him to his seeming first family and father's estate. The woman of the house taught him as she did their other all-white son, as they were to be playmates. So, there was some favoritism, but also a reminder to the Auld owner of his parentage which was at times more unkindness and harshness than others.
A free Black woman, Anna Murray, met him at a gathering and pursued him despite his enslaved status. She risked helping him escape, and then he called for her from north, where he had to quickly relocate or be identified. Changed his name from Bailey to a random choice of "Douglass". They then married and over the decades had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls.
There's lots of speculative fiction of the internal life of Douglass by author Sidney Morrison, as several women, one from England (Julia Griffith (abolitionist of some intellectual capacity), and another less beloved, but later in Frederick's evolution from his spouse, a German journalist who spots Frederick and is besotted, and pursues him from afar, Ottilie Assing.
Frederick's rise to fame in oratory and as an abolitionist, seems to coincide with his distancing from Anna, who withstands much separation, as Frederick travels the speaking circuit, and ultimately goes to England for two years. Anna can neither read nor write, and over time this too erodes their closeness. The death of the favored youngest, also Ann, seems to bring so much grief that-- over time, this tragedy pulls them back from the brink of being estranged, and Frederick takes a bit more notice of Anna at this later point, and she seems to heal from some sickness, and takes on a more attractive mood.
He'd established the newspaper, The North Star, and abolitionist paper, and over time, his mentor, the white abolitionist, Lloyd Garrison, and he have a falling out over issues of best strategy, with both having started as pacifists. However, Frederick changes over the long wait to outlaw slavery. He encourages John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, and leaves home under fear that he might be arrested after this failed.
Once this fear is quelled, other things emerge, but overall we come to see Frederick, as a man of some talent, some great ego, and a man who does not "abide fools gladly". He stands for his rights, and is apologetic or appreciative to few, as he is a strident and proud man who prioritizes abolition above all else. A few see him as petty and overly self-absorbed, and some relationships over time fall away, including that with Garrison.
He comes to meet Lincoln, who admires him, and gives him a commission, just prior to his 2nd election when the war ends, and Lincoln is shot. Douglass has always realized Lincoln as a white man's president, but gives Lincoln the grace of ---though slow to come to abolition, ---sincerity in his later commitment to abolition, even though a true politician with an ear for what is doable, and the timing to only begin what he can finish.
Lincoln originally was not for freeing slaves, but then having them go to an African nation (Colonizer), while freeing them, and ultimately removed his view for having them live the US. Frederick never felt this migration to an African country was a rightful thing to do.
Emancipation was celebrated, but many also were suspect as to its hold, in that many saw the states already beginning to pass laws that restricted Blacks, and so "States' rights" as a means to re-enslave Black folks was an early strategy, as was the emergence of "capitalism" which came to mean, the wealthy white men and landowners should get to keep all their wealth.
I was struck by the complexity of Frederick's life, a talented, strident and courageous abolitionist, who was a relatively weak and inattentive father and husband.
He was a man whose talents matched what was needed at that particular moment, demanding respect and having the gift of a golden tongue. He certainly deserves the accolades he's given, as he was so astute at discerning the fine repercussions of any capitulation or agreements with powerful people. He stood firm, and respect was given.
His childhood was a mixed story where he was certainly an orphan raised by grandma, rarely seeing his mother, never certain of his father, although knew him to be a white man, so likely Thomas Auld the master. The leaving of him by his grandma was clearly abandonment, as no warning or good-bye, as she took him to his seeming first family and father's estate. The woman of the house taught him as she did their other all-white son, as they were to be playmates. So, there was some favoritism, but also a reminder to the Auld owner of his parentage which was at times more unkindness and harshness than others.
A free Black woman, Anna Murray, met him at a gathering and pursued him despite his enslaved status. She risked helping him escape, and then he called for her from north, where he had to quickly relocate or be identified. Changed his name from Bailey to a random choice of "Douglass". They then married and over the decades had 5 children, 3 boys and 2 girls.
There's lots of speculative fiction of the internal life of Douglass by author Sidney Morrison, as several women, one from England (Julia Griffith (abolitionist of some intellectual capacity), and another less beloved, but later in Frederick's evolution from his spouse, a German journalist who spots Frederick and is besotted, and pursues him from afar, Ottilie Assing.
Frederick's rise to fame in oratory and as an abolitionist, seems to coincide with his distancing from Anna, who withstands much separation, as Frederick travels the speaking circuit, and ultimately goes to England for two years. Anna can neither read nor write, and over time this too erodes their closeness. The death of the favored youngest, also Ann, seems to bring so much grief that-- over time, this tragedy pulls them back from the brink of being estranged, and Frederick takes a bit more notice of Anna at this later point, and she seems to heal from some sickness, and takes on a more attractive mood.
He'd established the newspaper, The North Star, and abolitionist paper, and over time, his mentor, the white abolitionist, Lloyd Garrison, and he have a falling out over issues of best strategy, with both having started as pacifists. However, Frederick changes over the long wait to outlaw slavery. He encourages John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, and leaves home under fear that he might be arrested after this failed.
Once this fear is quelled, other things emerge, but overall we come to see Frederick, as a man of some talent, some great ego, and a man who does not "abide fools gladly". He stands for his rights, and is apologetic or appreciative to few, as he is a strident and proud man who prioritizes abolition above all else. A few see him as petty and overly self-absorbed, and some relationships over time fall away, including that with Garrison.
He comes to meet Lincoln, who admires him, and gives him a commission, just prior to his 2nd election when the war ends, and Lincoln is shot. Douglass has always realized Lincoln as a white man's president, but gives Lincoln the grace of ---though slow to come to abolition, ---sincerity in his later commitment to abolition, even though a true politician with an ear for what is doable, and the timing to only begin what he can finish.
Lincoln originally was not for freeing slaves, but then having them go to an African nation (Colonizer), while freeing them, and ultimately removed his view for having them live the US. Frederick never felt this migration to an African country was a rightful thing to do.
Emancipation was celebrated, but many also were suspect as to its hold, in that many saw the states already beginning to pass laws that restricted Blacks, and so "States' rights" as a means to re-enslave Black folks was an early strategy, as was the emergence of "capitalism" which came to mean, the wealthy white men and landowners should get to keep all their wealth.
I was struck by the complexity of Frederick's life, a talented, strident and courageous abolitionist, who was a relatively weak and inattentive father and husband.
He was a man whose talents matched what was needed at that particular moment, demanding respect and having the gift of a golden tongue. He certainly deserves the accolades he's given, as he was so astute at discerning the fine repercussions of any capitulation or agreements with powerful people. He stood firm, and respect was given.
November 29, 2024
If you want to understand the United States of America, who and what we are in the 21st century, read this book: Frederick Douglass: A Novel. It gave me an informed and captivating window into our 19th century life-and-death struggle for racial equality and human dignity. Sidney Morrison tells the story of this great American with frankness, fidelity, exquisite detail, and shorn of lionizing tropes in many Douglass biographies. The scope of the work, the intimacy of the details, the framing of issues and its resonance with our continuing struggles left me feeling what it was like to be there, how our past remains present in my life and helps me contemplate where to go from here.
I concur with the many accolades already given to this book and its author, so need not repeat them here. Instead let me recount a few points that I found personally interesting and useful.
1. The writing enchants me. When I had to take a break to do some chore or other I found myself itching to get back to the story. The book’s imagery, profound questions, and compelling dialog made it a non-stop reading experience. As an aspiring writer I kept underlining sentences and thinking, “wow, wish I could write like that!”
2. The novel masterfully blends fact and fiction. It is like a literary estuary where the river of historical record meets the sea of Morrison’s imagination to create a narrative teeming with excitement, unexpected insights and surprising characters. When so little was recorded about the lives of Black people in the 1800s, Sidney Morrison’s efforts to fill in the gaps with credible scenes makes the story all the more relevant and relatable.
3. A hint: Read the Sources and Acknowledgments placed at the end of the book before you get too far into the story. I read it after I was mid-way through Part 1 and it really helped me understand the factual basis of the account and Morrison’s orientation to the story for the parts filled in from his imagination.
4. I’m a white guy, and for all my white brothers and sisters out there, if you want to really know what Black folks talk about when you aren’t around, then read this book! The story does not just stop at a description of public events. It goes into the hearth and home of Douglass (and other leading figures of the day) to let us hear what is really on their minds. Informative, to say the least!
5. My own roots go back to the South (Tennessee). I have learned about my forebears and the people they enslaved. The story of Frederick Douglass gave me an up close, personal account of what they did like I have read nowhere else. The interactions between the slavers and the enslaved, the capricious separation of family, the beatings and whippings, the daily insults and indignities, the casual rape of women, and the perversion of Christian gospel to make it all palatable so they could sleep at night and do it all again the next day - its all there. I have no reason to believe my ancestors were any different than the Maryland slavers that sought to control Douglass and his kin. The book doesn’t make me feel guilty or complicit, but it gives me a lot to think about.
6. The book clears away the fog of reconstruction in U.S. history. What happened in the aftermath of the Civil War? Frederick Douglass interacted with four U.S. presidents - Lincoln, Johnson, Grant and Hayes. We get a front row seat to the anti-slavery movement, civil war, white political compromises and eventual betrayals that undid many of the gains in civil rights. By the end of the book I felt like I learned how we got to where we are today! It’s treacherous and arcane, but at least I know.
When I finished the book I kept thinking about Robert Hayden’s immortal eulogy:
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.
Sidney Morrison has done a great service to help us remember Frederick Douglass befittingly. I recommend the book to everyone.
I concur with the many accolades already given to this book and its author, so need not repeat them here. Instead let me recount a few points that I found personally interesting and useful.
1. The writing enchants me. When I had to take a break to do some chore or other I found myself itching to get back to the story. The book’s imagery, profound questions, and compelling dialog made it a non-stop reading experience. As an aspiring writer I kept underlining sentences and thinking, “wow, wish I could write like that!”
2. The novel masterfully blends fact and fiction. It is like a literary estuary where the river of historical record meets the sea of Morrison’s imagination to create a narrative teeming with excitement, unexpected insights and surprising characters. When so little was recorded about the lives of Black people in the 1800s, Sidney Morrison’s efforts to fill in the gaps with credible scenes makes the story all the more relevant and relatable.
3. A hint: Read the Sources and Acknowledgments placed at the end of the book before you get too far into the story. I read it after I was mid-way through Part 1 and it really helped me understand the factual basis of the account and Morrison’s orientation to the story for the parts filled in from his imagination.
4. I’m a white guy, and for all my white brothers and sisters out there, if you want to really know what Black folks talk about when you aren’t around, then read this book! The story does not just stop at a description of public events. It goes into the hearth and home of Douglass (and other leading figures of the day) to let us hear what is really on their minds. Informative, to say the least!
5. My own roots go back to the South (Tennessee). I have learned about my forebears and the people they enslaved. The story of Frederick Douglass gave me an up close, personal account of what they did like I have read nowhere else. The interactions between the slavers and the enslaved, the capricious separation of family, the beatings and whippings, the daily insults and indignities, the casual rape of women, and the perversion of Christian gospel to make it all palatable so they could sleep at night and do it all again the next day - its all there. I have no reason to believe my ancestors were any different than the Maryland slavers that sought to control Douglass and his kin. The book doesn’t make me feel guilty or complicit, but it gives me a lot to think about.
6. The book clears away the fog of reconstruction in U.S. history. What happened in the aftermath of the Civil War? Frederick Douglass interacted with four U.S. presidents - Lincoln, Johnson, Grant and Hayes. We get a front row seat to the anti-slavery movement, civil war, white political compromises and eventual betrayals that undid many of the gains in civil rights. By the end of the book I felt like I learned how we got to where we are today! It’s treacherous and arcane, but at least I know.
When I finished the book I kept thinking about Robert Hayden’s immortal eulogy:
When it is finally ours, this freedom, this liberty, this beautiful
and terrible thing, needful to man as air,
usable as earth; when it belongs at last to all,
when it is truly instinct, brain matter, diastole, systole,
reflex action; when it is finally won; when it is more
than the gaudy mumbo jumbo of politicians:
this man, this Douglass, this former slave, this Negro
beaten to his knees, exiled, visioning a world
where none is lonely, none hunted, alien,
this man, superb in love and logic, this man
shall be remembered. Oh, not with statues’ rhetoric,
not with legends and poems and wreaths of bronze alone,
but with the lives grown out of his life, the lives
fleshing his dream of the beautiful, needful thing.
Sidney Morrison has done a great service to help us remember Frederick Douglass befittingly. I recommend the book to everyone.
March 28, 2025
Frederick Douglass is one of the greatest civil rights and abolitionist icons in US history, and so I was interested in reading a novelization of his life.
The only problem is, he did a lot of things, and a lot of things happened to him, which requires a lot of exposition from the author to explain what is happening - which made this book kinda swing back and forth between fiction and biography. It was very interesting to hear Morrison engage with Douglass' internal battles about the fight to end slavery and securing civil rights for Black people. It was also fascinating to learn about his love life, and his repeated affairs with different abolitionists over the years. Douglass was one of the most important people in modern American history, and this aspect of his story has usually been ignored, but it reminds us of his humanity and his flaws as a person, and I appreciated the author for grounding the character in such a way.
This book was quite long and definitely had some tangents and over exposition, but an otherwise interesting look at such an important person!
The only problem is, he did a lot of things, and a lot of things happened to him, which requires a lot of exposition from the author to explain what is happening - which made this book kinda swing back and forth between fiction and biography. It was very interesting to hear Morrison engage with Douglass' internal battles about the fight to end slavery and securing civil rights for Black people. It was also fascinating to learn about his love life, and his repeated affairs with different abolitionists over the years. Douglass was one of the most important people in modern American history, and this aspect of his story has usually been ignored, but it reminds us of his humanity and his flaws as a person, and I appreciated the author for grounding the character in such a way.
This book was quite long and definitely had some tangents and over exposition, but an otherwise interesting look at such an important person!
February 20, 2025
I absolutely loved this book! Everything I had ever read was strictly historical information about his incredible rise from slavery. Period. This book put meat and bones, intelligence, sexuality, drive and character around the dry facts. I looked forward to each time I could run back and join his amazing experiences and was inspired by the way he saw America in his lifetime. I love history even at it’s driest, but this was a grand read!
February 11, 2025
Morrison makes history come alive. An engaging and informative look at this exceptional historical figure and the extraordinary events of his time. The complex
relationship between Frederick and Anna, as imagined and reconstructed by Morrison, provides an interesting counterpoint to the well-documented achievements that Douglass achieved in his lifetime.
relationship between Frederick and Anna, as imagined and reconstructed by Morrison, provides an interesting counterpoint to the well-documented achievements that Douglass achieved in his lifetime.
January 9, 2025
I learned a lot, but I couldn't slog through the last 100 pages. I got tired of boring details of his buying yet another house, every encounter with his current mistress, and how cold he was toward his long suffering wife. It could have been 300 pages shorter.
February 10, 2025
Frederick Douglass: A Novel is a demanding read, but well worth the time and effort. It is detailed, beautifully written and moving. Douglass, a truly remarkable, influential man of his time, is vividly portrayed, and 19th century history comes to life.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews