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Frederick Douglass A Biography
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58 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1899
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About the author
Charles W. Chesnutt
168 books107 followersCharles Waddell Chesnutt was an author, essayist and political activist, best known for his novels and short stories exploring complex issues of racial and social identity.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
February 26, 2023
Frederick Douglass’s extraordinary life receives a suitably inspiring exegesis in this fine, concise 1899 biography by the eminent author Charles W. Chesnutt – one great African American paying tribute to another.
In his Preface for this biography, Chesnutt modestly states that he “can claim no special qualification for this task, unless perhaps it be a profound and in some degree a personal sympathy with every step of Douglass’s upward career.” But I think that Chesnutt is being too modest here, for he was one of the major American writers of the 19th century.
Born in Ohio, Chesnutt was taken as a child to his parents’ home area of North Carolina, and his perceptive observation of life in the South helped make him one of the most important writers of his time. His mixed-race background meant that he could have “passed for white,” had he wanted to, but Chesnutt identified proudly with his African-American heritage. His books were as diverse as The Conjure Woman (1899), a collection of folklore-inflected short stories, and The Marrow of Tradition (1901), a grimly realistic novel about the 1898 coup d’état through which white-supremacist conspirators seized control of the government of Wilmington, North Carolina – deposing, in the process, the multiracial and democratically elected leaders of what was then the state's largest city. In every way, Chesnutt was eminently well-qualified to tell the story of Frederick Douglass.
Chesnutt’s admiration for Douglass’s life, work, and example comes through clearly throughout, as when he writes, near the beginning of Frederick Douglass: A Biography, that “Circumstances made Frederick Douglass a slave, but they could not prevent him from becoming a freeman and a leader among mankind.”
In recounting Douglass's early life, Chesnutt emphasizes well the paradoxes inherent in the circumstances of Douglass’s birth and upbringing: “Douglass was born the slave of one Captain Aaron Anthony, a man of some consequence in eastern Maryland, the manager or chief clerk of one Colonel Lloyd, the head for that generation of an old, exceedingly wealthy, and highly honored family in Maryland, the possessor of a stately mansion and one of the largest and most fertile plantations in the State.”
As a Marylander who has travelled extensively amongst the nine counties of my home state’s Eastern Shore – the part of Maryland east of Chesapeake Bay, where the plantation system was entrenched from early colonial times forward – I appreciated Chesnutt’s thoughtful and accurate reflections: all that well-known grace and elegance of estates like Edward Lloyd IV’s Wye Plantation were founded upon the cruelty and brutality of plantation slavery.
It is moving to read Chesnutt’s reflections upon how slavery affected Douglass’s life from its very beginnings. When it comes to Douglass’s relative lack of contact with his mother early in his life, for example, Chesnutt writes that “It was always a matter of grief to [Douglass] that he did not know her better, and that he could not was one of the sins of slavery that he never forgave.”
Readers who are already familiar with Douglass’s renowned autobiography, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave (1845), will recognize many familiar elements that resonate further in Chesnutt’s biography of Douglass. With regard to the time when Douglass was moved from the plantation slavery of the Eastern Shore to urban slavery in Baltimore, Chesnutt writes movingly of Douglass’s early efforts to educate himself, of slaveholder Sophia Auld’s initial encouragement of Douglass in that regard, and of slaveholder Hugh Auld’s resistance to those efforts: “The mere fact that his master wished to prevent [Douglass’s] learning made him all the more eager to acquire knowledge. In after years, even when most bitter in his denunciation of the palpable evils of slavery, Douglass always acknowledged the debt he owed to this good lady who innocently broke the laws and at the same time broke the chains that held a mind in bondage.”
Chesnutt, a writer himself, places appropriate emphasis on the way in which Douglass’s determined efforts to gain intellectual freedom, by teaching himself to read and write, prefigured his successful gaining of actual, physical freedom from the bondage of slavery. He writes that Douglass “never forgot that God helps them that help themselves, and so never missed an opportunity to acquire the knowledge that would prepare him for freedom and give him the means to escape from slavery.”
It is one of the most moving parts of Douglass’s Narrative, and Chesnutt captures its significance well: “Douglass’s desire to write grew mainly out of the fact that in order to escape from bondage, which he had early determined to do, he would probably need such a ‘pass,’ as this written permission was termed, and could write it himself if he but knew how.” The odds against the young Frederick Douglass were high; but “In time he learned to write, and thus again demonstrated the power of the mind to overleap the bounds that men set for it and work out the destiny to which God designs it.”
The manner of Douglass’s ultimate escape from slavery is dramatic and inspiring: “He simply masqueraded as a sailor, borrowed a sailor’s ‘protection,’ or certificate that he belonged to the navy, took the train to Baltimore in the evening, and rode in the negro car until he reached New York City.” It is good that Chesnutt lets Douglass speak for himself regarding the significance of this decisive moment: “A new world had opened up to me. I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions. My chains were broken, and the victory brought me unspeakable joy.”
For readers of Douglass’s Narrative, the story might seem to stop with Douglass’s escape; but Douglass took on a whole new life, in the Northern U.S.A. and in Europe, as an advocate for freedom worldwide. Chesnutt remarks how “Douglass’s style and vocabulary and logic improved so rapidly that people began to question his having been a slave.” Douglass wrote the Narrative in part to refute such accusations. His greatness as an orator was central to his work – “For, while his labors as editor and in other directions were of great value to the cause of freedom, it is upon his genius as an orator that his fame must ultimately rest.”
While it does not provide the depth and level of detail of later biographies, like William S. McFeely’s Frederick Douglass (1990) and David W. Blight’s Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018), this fine little biography by an important American writer provides a good way for the reader to get a first impression of the life of a great American and great champion of human rights.
In his Preface for this biography, Chesnutt modestly states that he “can claim no special qualification for this task, unless perhaps it be a profound and in some degree a personal sympathy with every step of Douglass’s upward career.” But I think that Chesnutt is being too modest here, for he was one of the major American writers of the 19th century.
Born in Ohio, Chesnutt was taken as a child to his parents’ home area of North Carolina, and his perceptive observation of life in the South helped make him one of the most important writers of his time. His mixed-race background meant that he could have “passed for white,” had he wanted to, but Chesnutt identified proudly with his African-American heritage. His books were as diverse as The Conjure Woman (1899), a collection of folklore-inflected short stories, and The Marrow of Tradition (1901), a grimly realistic novel about the 1898 coup d’état through which white-supremacist conspirators seized control of the government of Wilmington, North Carolina – deposing, in the process, the multiracial and democratically elected leaders of what was then the state's largest city. In every way, Chesnutt was eminently well-qualified to tell the story of Frederick Douglass.
Chesnutt’s admiration for Douglass’s life, work, and example comes through clearly throughout, as when he writes, near the beginning of Frederick Douglass: A Biography, that “Circumstances made Frederick Douglass a slave, but they could not prevent him from becoming a freeman and a leader among mankind.”
In recounting Douglass's early life, Chesnutt emphasizes well the paradoxes inherent in the circumstances of Douglass’s birth and upbringing: “Douglass was born the slave of one Captain Aaron Anthony, a man of some consequence in eastern Maryland, the manager or chief clerk of one Colonel Lloyd, the head for that generation of an old, exceedingly wealthy, and highly honored family in Maryland, the possessor of a stately mansion and one of the largest and most fertile plantations in the State.”
As a Marylander who has travelled extensively amongst the nine counties of my home state’s Eastern Shore – the part of Maryland east of Chesapeake Bay, where the plantation system was entrenched from early colonial times forward – I appreciated Chesnutt’s thoughtful and accurate reflections: all that well-known grace and elegance of estates like Edward Lloyd IV’s Wye Plantation were founded upon the cruelty and brutality of plantation slavery.
It is moving to read Chesnutt’s reflections upon how slavery affected Douglass’s life from its very beginnings. When it comes to Douglass’s relative lack of contact with his mother early in his life, for example, Chesnutt writes that “It was always a matter of grief to [Douglass] that he did not know her better, and that he could not was one of the sins of slavery that he never forgave.”
Readers who are already familiar with Douglass’s renowned autobiography, Narrative of the Life of an American Slave (1845), will recognize many familiar elements that resonate further in Chesnutt’s biography of Douglass. With regard to the time when Douglass was moved from the plantation slavery of the Eastern Shore to urban slavery in Baltimore, Chesnutt writes movingly of Douglass’s early efforts to educate himself, of slaveholder Sophia Auld’s initial encouragement of Douglass in that regard, and of slaveholder Hugh Auld’s resistance to those efforts: “The mere fact that his master wished to prevent [Douglass’s] learning made him all the more eager to acquire knowledge. In after years, even when most bitter in his denunciation of the palpable evils of slavery, Douglass always acknowledged the debt he owed to this good lady who innocently broke the laws and at the same time broke the chains that held a mind in bondage.”
Chesnutt, a writer himself, places appropriate emphasis on the way in which Douglass’s determined efforts to gain intellectual freedom, by teaching himself to read and write, prefigured his successful gaining of actual, physical freedom from the bondage of slavery. He writes that Douglass “never forgot that God helps them that help themselves, and so never missed an opportunity to acquire the knowledge that would prepare him for freedom and give him the means to escape from slavery.”
It is one of the most moving parts of Douglass’s Narrative, and Chesnutt captures its significance well: “Douglass’s desire to write grew mainly out of the fact that in order to escape from bondage, which he had early determined to do, he would probably need such a ‘pass,’ as this written permission was termed, and could write it himself if he but knew how.” The odds against the young Frederick Douglass were high; but “In time he learned to write, and thus again demonstrated the power of the mind to overleap the bounds that men set for it and work out the destiny to which God designs it.”
The manner of Douglass’s ultimate escape from slavery is dramatic and inspiring: “He simply masqueraded as a sailor, borrowed a sailor’s ‘protection,’ or certificate that he belonged to the navy, took the train to Baltimore in the evening, and rode in the negro car until he reached New York City.” It is good that Chesnutt lets Douglass speak for himself regarding the significance of this decisive moment: “A new world had opened up to me. I lived more in one day than in a year of my slave life. I felt as one might feel upon escape from a den of hungry lions. My chains were broken, and the victory brought me unspeakable joy.”
For readers of Douglass’s Narrative, the story might seem to stop with Douglass’s escape; but Douglass took on a whole new life, in the Northern U.S.A. and in Europe, as an advocate for freedom worldwide. Chesnutt remarks how “Douglass’s style and vocabulary and logic improved so rapidly that people began to question his having been a slave.” Douglass wrote the Narrative in part to refute such accusations. His greatness as an orator was central to his work – “For, while his labors as editor and in other directions were of great value to the cause of freedom, it is upon his genius as an orator that his fame must ultimately rest.”
While it does not provide the depth and level of detail of later biographies, like William S. McFeely’s Frederick Douglass (1990) and David W. Blight’s Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom (2018), this fine little biography by an important American writer provides a good way for the reader to get a first impression of the life of a great American and great champion of human rights.
March 11, 2020
A good biography that told the highlights of a great man.
December 17, 2022
I’ve just listened to this book and I’ve never heard of Fredrick Douglass before. But after hearing it my interest in him grew. I had to research different statues of him around the US and was keenly interested in the places he visited while in England. A great man with a great desire for equality. Born a slave without the knowledge of reading and writing yet becoming a man who sits with President. A lover of Jesus Christ being saved as young as 13/14. Having two great sons and sadly losing a daughter. God kept this man and used him for his glory and the good of man kind. Well worth a read. He is a contemporary of William Wilberforce and the great Abraham Lincoln. Well written and easy to listen to. Highly recommended
August 6, 2009
This book changed my life. Frederick Douglass was a powerful and optimistic man despite all his challenges. This is THE book people should read if they want to understand slavery.
February 26, 2014
Frederick Douglass was really a fascinating character, and if the truth is for those who look for it, Douglas honored this. His statement about changing his view about dis-union speaks for him:
"My first opinions were naturally derived and honestly entertained. Brought directly, when I escaped from slavery, into contact with Abolitionists, who regarded the Constitution as a slave-holding instrument and finding their views supported by the united and entire history of every department of the government, it is not strange that I assumed the Constitution to be just what these friends made it seem to be. I was bound, not only by their superior knowledge, to take their opinions in respect to this subject, as the true ones, but also because I had no means of showing this unsoundness.
"But for the responsibility of conducting a public journal, and the necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite views from Abolitionists outside of New England, I should in all probability have remained firm in my disunion views. My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject and to study with some care, not only the just and proper rules of legal interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and duties of civil government, and also the relations which human beings sustain to it. By such a course of thought and reading, I was brought to the conclusion that the Constitution of the United States, inaugurated ' to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty,' could not well have been designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system of rapine and murder like slavery, especially as not one word can be found in the Constitution to authorize such a belief. Then again, if the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern the meaning of all its parts and details, as they clearly should, the Constitution of our country is pure warrant for the abolition of slavery in every state of the Union.
" The Constitution knows no man by the color of his skin. The men who made it were too noble for any such limitation of humanity and human rights. The term 'white' is a modern term in the legislation of this country. It was never used in the better days of our republic, but has sprung up within the period of our national degeneracy."
"My first opinions were naturally derived and honestly entertained. Brought directly, when I escaped from slavery, into contact with Abolitionists, who regarded the Constitution as a slave-holding instrument and finding their views supported by the united and entire history of every department of the government, it is not strange that I assumed the Constitution to be just what these friends made it seem to be. I was bound, not only by their superior knowledge, to take their opinions in respect to this subject, as the true ones, but also because I had no means of showing this unsoundness.
"But for the responsibility of conducting a public journal, and the necessity imposed upon me of meeting opposite views from Abolitionists outside of New England, I should in all probability have remained firm in my disunion views. My new circumstances compelled me to re-think the whole subject and to study with some care, not only the just and proper rules of legal interpretation, but the origin, design, nature, rights, powers, and duties of civil government, and also the relations which human beings sustain to it. By such a course of thought and reading, I was brought to the conclusion that the Constitution of the United States, inaugurated ' to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty,' could not well have been designed at the same time to maintain and perpetuate a system of rapine and murder like slavery, especially as not one word can be found in the Constitution to authorize such a belief. Then again, if the declared purposes of an instrument are to govern the meaning of all its parts and details, as they clearly should, the Constitution of our country is pure warrant for the abolition of slavery in every state of the Union.
" The Constitution knows no man by the color of his skin. The men who made it were too noble for any such limitation of humanity and human rights. The term 'white' is a modern term in the legislation of this country. It was never used in the better days of our republic, but has sprung up within the period of our national degeneracy."
February 4, 2012
Even though this is an old book, 1935 about, I enjoyed it and learned more about Doughlass and the Abolition era. This author, however, did not mention anything about the work Douglass also did for Women and their right to vote. He worked hard to get black men the vote then lent his hand to the women's movement.For the oppression is the same.
March 8, 2016
Recommended as Classic and History.
— available in audio version Librivox.org (free) audio.com (not free) and on Gutenberg as etext (free).
— available in audio version Librivox.org (free) audio.com (not free) and on Gutenberg as etext (free).
January 1, 2019
Quick read on an important figure in American history. A great primer for deeper study. A life that helped to define America at a pivotal time in our history. A must read.
April 1, 2025
This book reveals the true political feelings of Booker t. Washington’s who met Fredrick Douglas and spoke at Tuskegee those two have much in common. Booker t. Washington hid much of his true political opinions by writing about Fredrick Douglas’s in this book one finds the hidden opinions of Booker t Washington
October 18, 2019
An Important Read
Frederick Douglass by Booker T. Washington, another of my favorite people, is a very enlightening read concerning the emmancipation of the black race, and from a great black man.
Frederick Douglass by Booker T. Washington, another of my favorite people, is a very enlightening read concerning the emmancipation of the black race, and from a great black man.
November 4, 2024
A good and quick biography of an important man in history but it just lacks a lot and I wish it had more in depth information
September 6, 2013
A beautiful short biography on Douglass. It covers from early life in slavery , to a man man on the run from his past to the great orator compelling people from both races to join his cause to free his people. A very inspiring read. Especially as a free read on Kindle!
August 11, 2016
Story of a great orator
This book follows the story of Douglass as a slave to his days as a great orator. He spoke not only for the fair treatment and freedom of Black Americans, but also for women.. very well written, and exceptionally well documented.
This book follows the story of Douglass as a slave to his days as a great orator. He spoke not only for the fair treatment and freedom of Black Americans, but also for women.. very well written, and exceptionally well documented.
April 4, 2023
a remarkable man
I enjoyed this book written some 120 years ago. This book helps cement the foundation of the respect I have for Black Americans who despite slavery kept a strong moral compass and not only endured but also rose to be admirable, respectable human beings.
I enjoyed this book written some 120 years ago. This book helps cement the foundation of the respect I have for Black Americans who despite slavery kept a strong moral compass and not only endured but also rose to be admirable, respectable human beings.
June 17, 2019
Quick look into the life of the great Frederick Douglass.
July 5, 2021
Good introduction to Frederick Douglass' life. Stands up well over a century since its first publication.
August 25, 2021
Anaemically thin and heavily reliant on referring to other publications the author presumes the reader is familiar with.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews