Reader Responses, 1881-93

The following are contemporary published reviews of located by the editors. Those lengthy passages excerpted from have been abridged. Deleted passages are indicated by ellipses and by bracketed notations of their page and line numbers in the Yale edition.

LITERARY. [Anon.]. Trenton Sentinel, 29 October 1881.

An excellent autobiography. Mr. Douglass has written much concerning himself, but nothing so full, complete and interesting as this. The introduction, by Geo. L. Ruffin, of Boston, is a deserved and graceful tribute to Mr. Douglass' worth and services. The mechanical execution is all that could be desired. Price, cloth, $2.50. For sale by John T. Ray. Trenton. N.J.

FRED. DOUGLASS' LIFE. A REMARKABLE VOLUME OF ADVENTURE AND REMINISCENCE. THE CAREER OF THE NEGRO PATRIOT AND MARTYR. AS WRITTEN BY HIMSELF—THE INSTITUTION OF SLAVERY AS A SLAVE KNEW IT. Erasmus. Philadelphia Press, 26 December 1881. Also reprinted in Washington. D.C. National Republican, 31 December 1881.

NEW YORK, Dec. 23.—Every once in a while we hear of the extraordinary success of a subscription book, yet I never knew a person who had ever bought one. Indeed I do not know how people buy them who want them unless they happen to run across an agent. Sometimes a subscription book finds its way into a bookstore, but as a general thing they cannot be purchased in the ordinary way. They are seldom sent to a paper for review, in truth the publishers prefer that they should not be reviewed. Some time ago I sent THE PRESS a few extracts from Frederick Douglass' account of his escape from slavery. That interesting paper was a chapter printed in the Century Magazine, in advance of publication, from "The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass," by himself. This volume was published a short time after by a Hartford subscription book house, and I have been trying ever since to get a copy, and have only just succeeded. It took as much wire-pulling and correspondence as to get a Government position. No one had it but the agents, and no book seller knew who the agents were. I have just finished reading this autobiography, and a remarkable one it is. Certainly Frederick Douglass is one of the most extraordinary men of his time. Born in slavery, of a despised race, allowed to run wild as a child, starved and beaten as a man, he managed to learn to read and write, this by the greatest stealth, and finally to so educate himself that after his escape from slavery he took rank among the orators of the day, and attained a position his "old master"

might have envied. After reading the biographies of most of the great men, I have come to the conclusion that obstacles in the path are the best incentives to those who would climb the hill of fame. If Douglass had been born in the North, a free man, he would probably never have risen above some humble position; but where every step he made cost him a blow, he determined to conquer, and he did. The story of his life is told in the simplest and most straightforward manner. I have never read a book on the subject of slavery, not even "Uncle Tom's Cabin," that made that institution appear so awful. Douglass does not seem to be straining after a sensation. There is no attempt at word painting. He gives the facts just as they were, and they need no coloring to make them more terrible.

Who his father was Douglass never knew, and his mother he only saw once, I believe. Then she walked twelve miles and back in the night to see him for a few minutes. His grandmother, who seemed to have a better position than usually fell to the lot of slaves, took care of him until he was seven years old; then he was sent to the "old master's." This "old master" was Captain Aaron Anthony, who was the "chief clerk and butler" on the home plantation of Colonel Lloyd, the owner of the "great house." Douglass belonged to Colonel Lloyd, an immensely wealthy man who owned a thousand slaves, and lived in Oriental splendor on the eastern shore of Maryland. The description of the manner of living at this mansion reads like a romance. Fifteen noiseless slaves glided about the dining room waiting upon the guests, or fanning them with large fans as they ate. A "Yankee" tutor taught the young people, who spent their leisure in every sort of enjoyment. Colonel Lloyd was a kind husband and father, but he would have none but brutes as overseers of his slaves, and would even take the whip in his own hand and beat his most devoted and faithful servants. Douglass was accustomed to see men and women beaten in the most cruel manner from his earliest childhood. The first woman he ever saw beaten was his own cousin, who was tied up with her arms over her head, and lashed until her back was cut to the bone and the floor was red with her blood. The crime for which she suffered this terrible punishment was having spoken to a young negro with whom she was in love, but of whom her owner did not approve. As a child Douglass escaped severe floggings, hut when he grew up and displayed what was considered too independent a spirit, he was beaten as cruelly as any other slave, and more so than most because he resisted. He did not shirk his work, and as he was a big, strong fellow, he accomplished a great deal, and made himself valuable to his master. When he was hired out he brought good wages home to the master, but even this did not make him show any solicitude for his health or well-being. The man who employed him was the worst sort of a brute, yet Douglass tells us that he went to church and prayed with the loudest. When Douglass was working one day, he fell twice to the ground from exhaustion and real illness. Instead of letting him rest, his employer hit him over the head with a stick of wood and kicked him with all his might. I should think a selfish motive, if nothing else, would have made him more considerate. You wouldn't want to maim a horse if he was temporarily laid up, and

why any more a man? But slavery days are over, and these stories are now things of
history. Let us hope that history will not repeat itself in this instance. There is no
doubt but that Douglass was an "ugly customer." He was ever really with a knock
down blow or a bitter word. It is hardly surprising that he did not feel very amiably
towards the people who kept his race in bondage, maltreating innocent children and
degrading defenseless women . Perhaps if he had been less of a fighter he would not
have accomplished the great object of his life. The story of Douglass' escape from
slavery has already been told in THE PRESS. After establishing himself at New
Bedford, he was drawn into the current of anti-slavery demonstration then flowing
from Massachusetts all over the country. As a runaway slave, his words carried great
weight. He visited England more than once in the interest of the cause, and was
warmly received by some of the best people in the country. He was very intimate
with the Howitt's, and visited their house for some time. Here he met Hans Christian
Anderson, but as he spoke no Swedish and the poet spoke no English, their acquain
tance did not become very intimate.

There is no more interesting part of Douglass's book than that which describes
his connection with John Brown. When they first met in Rochester Brown was a
respectable and prosperous merchan, who owned a large brick store on one of the
principal streets. After seeing the store Douglass expected that the house would be
proportionately fine. On the contrary, it was a small wooden building on a back
street, and the inside was plainer than the exterior. Its furniture "would have satisfied
a Spartan," and there was an "air of plainness about it that almost suggested destitution." The first meal Douglass ate there was called "tea," but it consisted of "beef
soup, cabbage and potatoes." The table was "innocent of paint, veneering, varnish
or table-cloth.'' and the mother and daughters cooked the meals and did the waiting.
The master of this household "fulfilled St. Paul's idea of the head of the family. His
wife believed in him, and his children observed him with reverence." Douglas
describes Brown as his face is known to us through the illustrated papers of those
stormy days: "In person he was lean [213.6-18] neither seeking nor shunning
observation."

After tea Brown cautiously approached the subject that was nearest his heart—
the freeing of the slaves— and he laid his plan before Douglass. It was a bold one,
and one that would send him down the pages of history either as a murderer or a
martyr. He was ready to take his life in his hand, and all the money he had saved by
living in the most economical manner was to be devoted to the cause. "I can but be
killed," he said. There is nothing in our history better known than the John Brown
raid, and there are few of us who do not respect the misguided man whose body "lies
a-mouldering in the grave" while " his soul goes marching on."

Of course Douglass met Mrs. H.B. Stowe whose "Uncle Tom's Cabin'' was one
of the strongest weapons with which the anti-slavery tight was fought . Mrs. Stowe
invited him to her house to talk over a plan for the bettering the condition of the
colored people. She wanted a college at first but Douglass convinced her that shops

to teach them how to earn their living would be of greater practical value. Another
person whom Douglass admired and loved was Abraham Lincoln, and well he
might. "I shall never forget my first interview with this great man." he writes; "I was
accompaned to the [271.26–272.4] without reserve or a doubt." The fairmindedness
and humanity of Abraham Lincoln's character were never better shown than in this
interview with Douglass. The latter came on behalf of the colored troops. He wanted
more favors for them. He was not satisfied with the entering of the wedge, but he
wanted to drive it up to the head with one blow. First, he wanted them paid the same
as the white soldiers; second, he wanted a Southern prisoner of war hanged for every
colored prisoner of war hanged in the South, and, third, he wanted them to be
rewarded by promotion for bravery the same as the white men. If Mr. Lincoln had
granted his requests Jefferson Davis would have been the next President of the
United States, and there would have been a national riot, exceeding in its horrors the
one in New York. I will give Mr. Lincoln's reply, as Douglass reports it:

"He began by saying that [272.29- 273.14] War should commend to him."

I have given up my entire letter to this book, but as your readers will probably
never meet it or know anything more of its contents, and as it is really an important
chapter in the history of the anti-slavery movement and of the war, it is well worth
the space.

ERASMUS

THE CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH OF A SLAVE. E.L.W. London Sunday Magazine, (1882), 11.

SLAVERY in the British dominions was swept away by an outburst of generous
and humane feeling. In the United States the same institution was destroyed amid
the blood and fire of a tremendous revolutionary convulsion. Easy-going people are
now too ready to assume that slavery is a thing of the past, and that to dwell upon
its miseries and wrong at this time of day is to rake up an old story which had better
be forgotten. There could not be a greater mistake. Those who take the trouble to
inquire, or indeed to observe the statements contained in publications of the day,
know too well that slavery still exists, and not only so, but that in the interior of
Africa and on the African coast the slave-trade goes on in all its enormity. Thousands
of men, women, and children are every year captured, sold, driven long distances,
chained, beaten, starved, and dying "like flies" by the wayside and on board ship.
Slavery is not yet an extinct institution, and it is well that British people should
retain a vivid realisation of what slavery means, in order that sentiments of common
humanity and compassion may move them to sustain that honourable crusade
against this accursed system to which it is the distinction of the British Government
to have committed itself. It is therefore no mere old-world narrative. calculated only
to harrow the feelings and lead to no practical result, which we find in the pages of
the volume which has prompted us to write these lines.

The autobiography of Frederick Douglass. who was once well known in

England as a "fugitive slave" and a lecturer on the subject of slavery, and who for
many years past has occupied an honourable position as a public man in the United
States, has lately been published in America and in this country. A more thrilling,
tragic, and romantic narrative has seldom been given to the world. The record is
brought down to the present year, and it thus includes not only a sketch of an indi
vidual career of quite exceptional interest, but also of the course of a great national
movement and upheaval, abounding in heroic and terrible episodes, and in illustra
tions, on a stupendous scale, of the awful penalties of national wrong-doing and of
the inexorable certainty with which the wheels of Divine Providence "grind small,"
although they may, as so often happens, "grind slowly." "Yes," we cannot but say to
ourselves as we read these pages, "the cry of the negro in America as certainly and
as truly went up into the cars of God as did the cry of the Israelites in Egypt; and the
sea of blood through which the slaves of the United States passed to freedom told of
the wrath of the Lord against the oppressor not less distinctly and emphatically than
did the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in that great catastrophe which called
forth Miriam's impassioned song of thanksgiving and of victory."

The child-life of Frederick Douglass. as described in his reminiscences, affords
pathetic pictures of sorrows and wrongs. such as. no doubt, millions of slave chil
dren had to endure, but which, as we read of them now, seem as if they must have
belonged to a far-off age and to a country upon which the light of Christianity had
not dawned, instead of belonging, as they do, to our own time and to a social condi
tion professedly, and indeed actually, penetrated by many Christian influences. He
was horn about the year 1817, on one of the great slave-holding plantations of the
Southern States. There were about a thousand slaves on the estate; and however
various the outward lot of these might be, from that of the sleek and pampered
household servants to that of the hard-driven, ill-fed, overtasked field labourers, all
alike were subject to the appalling degradation of being regarded and treated as
property and as such were just as absolutely at the disposal of their owner as the
cattle, horses, and dogs of the establishment.

Frederick Douglass's first recollections are of a cabin which served as a rough
shelter for himself and a number of other children, placed with him under the charge
of an old slave woman, whom he was taught to regard as his grandmother. His
mother was a "field hand," and it was only by a walk of many miles, after her day's
labour was done, that she was able to snatch an occasional visit to her little child.
Brief and rare as those interviews were, the child caught from them some glimpses
of a mother's heart, and the impression made was indelible. He recalls the image of
his mother still. and remembers her as "tall and finely proportioned, of dark, glossy
complexion, with regular features." and as having been "remarkably sedate and
dignified." She was the only slave of the district who could read, and her son's
impression, still fondly cherished, is that she was a woman richly endowed by
nature, and of tender maternal affections. Her visits, however, broke off abruptly,
and her child seems to have learned, in some dimly remembered way, that death had

brought her a merciful and comparatively early release from the bitter ignominy and
sorrows of her lot. He knew nothing of his father; for under the brutal system of
slavery, there was no recognition of fathers. Children were generally separated from
their mothers at an early age, often from the birth or nearly so, and were reared as if
they were the young of domestic animals.

There is something of heaven about us all in our infancy, and even the poor
slave-child had some alleviations in its lot. The old grandmother was kind and affec
tionate; the simple wants of healthy childhood were easily satisfied, and the little
cabin was a palace, and the sunshine and the woods and the birds and the squirrels,
and the numberless sights and sounds of nature, free to all, made a paradise which
the little slave could enjoy. But with the fuller dawn of intelligence and conscious
ness, black shadows soon came. The little children used to whisper to each other
such hints as they caught up about a certain "old massa," to whom in due time they
would be consigned, and about their impending and inevitable destiny as slaves.
What terror, and anguish. and apprehension, and tears these thoughts cost some of
the quicker and more imaginative of the children; how the idea of slavery brooded
like an awful nightmare over those young hearts; Mr. Douglass's narrative helps us
painfully to realise. At length the day came when the child had to leave his kind old
guardian. He was transferred to the care of a woman, "Aunt Katy," of a very differ
ent stamp, who lived on the plantation to which he was regarded as belonging. She
was bad-tempered, capricious, and cruel, and under her care, if care it could be
called, the poor child suffered great hardships. He was half starved, scantily covered
by a single garment, often kicked and cuffed, and altogether neglected. He had
opportunities now of seeing something of the actual miseries and diabolical cruelties
of the slave system. The autobiography supplies many illustrations; a brief reference
to one of them is all that we can find space for here. Early one morning the little
fellow was awakened by loud screams and voices in the room adjacent to the one in
which he slept. Peeping through a crevice he saw a slave girl—"tall, light-coloured,
and well formed"—with her arms tightly fastened by a rope around the wrists to a
beam above her head, while her owner, the "old master," who had been the terror of
his childish imagination, stood beside her, administering, with fierce vindictiveness
and many opprobrious epithets, a brutal flogging. The child trembled as he watched
the heavy cowhide lash descending again and again upon the bare delicate flesh of
the girl's back and shoulders, bringing blood and screams at every blow. The vile
wretch who was guilty of this inhuman deed was prompted by the basest motives.
and took this method of trying to put a stop to meetings between the young girl and
a fellow-slave, to whom she was honourably attached. Alas! this was but a typical
instance of experiences with which every slave soon grew familiar, and we dare not
blacken these pages by more than hinting at the revolting cruelties and crimes which
were constantly committed on every slave estate.

Describing the food, clothing, and general condition of the slaves, with whom
he was daily associated in the labours of the field, Mr. Douglass explodes altogether

the reports which used to be given by interested or misinformed persons about the
happy and contented condition of slavery, and the thoughtful care for their material
comforts which made the lot of the slave enviable as compared with that of most of
the peasantry of Europe. Besides the brooding shadow of an all-pervading and irre
sponsible tyranny, of the most absolute and cruel kind, this autobiography tells us of
"the close-fisted stinginess that fed the poor slave on coarse corn meal and tainted
meat, that clothed him in trashy tow-linen, that hurried him on to toil through the
field in all weathers, and that scarcely gave even the young slave-mother time to
nurse her infant in the fence-corner." As to his own experiences, as a boy, Mr.
Douglass considers that his lot was not a hard one as compared with that of many;
but he graphically describes the miseries which he endured from insufficient food
and clothing. The pigs had leaves and the horses had straw, but beds for the slave
children were never thought of. As for food, he says: "Our corn meal mush, which
[57.15–22] left the trough really satisfied."

No wonder that Mr. Douglass should say, that as a child he used to wish he had
never been born, and would often sadly contrast his condition with that of the black
birds, whose wild sweet song made him fancy them so happy. He adds, "There are
thoughtful days in [57.31–36] old, as I am now."

At about this time an unexpected change took place, which Mr. Douglass says
he regards as one of the most interesting and fortunate events of his life. He was
transferred from the plantation on which he had spent his earlier years to the City of
Baltimore, having been handed over in fact to his master's daughter and son-in-law,
to serve as a companion and guardian of their little son, a year or two younger than
himself. The news of the transfer gave him great delight. He had heard wonderful
tales of Baltimore, and in the change from the depressing surroundings of the famil
iar plantation-life then; was the opening up at any rate of a dimly discerned region
of possibilities and hopes. The three days before his departure were accordingly the
three happiest days he had ever known, and there is a pathetic significance in the
statement that he spent the greater part of them in the creek, "washing off the planta
tion scurf," and trying thus to prepare himself for the hitherto unknown luxury of
wearing a pair of trousers! He was received by his new master and mistress, Mr. and
Mrs. Hugh Auld, with kindness; he fell in love at first sight with the rosy-cheeked,
curly-headed boy who was to he his special charge; and he found himself at once in
something more nearly approachmg to a home than he had known since he had left
the humble cabin of his grandmother. Here. too, however, the iron was soon to enter
into his soul.

Under the comparatively favourable circumstances of his new position, the
boy's naturally bright intellect evidently began to unfold rapidly. One sign of this
was the growth of a strong desire to learn to read. His mistress was kind and was
also inexperienced, having never been a slaveholder; she therefore readily consented
to teach the boy at his request, and was delighted to find that he made rapid progress.
This, however, was a happiness for Frederick Douglass of very short duration. The

young wife naturally told her husband of her surprising success with her pupil;
"Master Hugh was astounded beyond measure. and probably for the first time proceeded to unfold to his wife the true philosophy of the slave system, and the peculiar
rules necessary in the nature of the case to be observed in the management of human
chattels." The philosophy and rules referred to were thus summed up. Teaching a
"nigger" to read was in the first place unlawful, and in the second place unsafe; for,
said he, "if you give a nigger [62.28–34] be running away with himself." And so the
pleasant reading-lessons came to an end, but not the determination of the slave boy
to master that invaluable art. He listened to his master 's cold and cutting words, and
grasped their significance with an intelligence and resolution beyond his years. Mr.
Douglass writes: "'Very well,' thought I, 'knowledge unfits a child to be a slave. I
instinctively assented to the proposition, and from that moment I understood the
direct pathway from slavery to freedom."

How steep and difficult that pathway was, the pages of this autobiography pro
ceed to tell. But the task of learning to read was achieved, and by yet more strenuous
efforts the accomplishment of writing was also added. One of the bitterest experiences connected with this effort was the opposition which the slave lad had to
encounter from the very mistress who had taught him his letters. She, having been
convinced by her husband's logic, had become in fact more violent in her opposition
than her instructor in the law and philosophy of slavery; and what is more, as time
passed on, she presented, in her own temper and conduct, a melancholy illustration
of the power of the institution of slavery to work havoc in the heart and life of the
slaveholder, even when that slaveholder is apparently a sweet, kindly, and pious
woman. The predictions of Mr. Auld, the boy's master, as to the dangerous consequences of teaching a slave to read, were, it must he owned, speedily verified. The
boy got hold of a volume called "The Columbian Orator," a favourite school-book
in those days, which seems to have been almost identical with the "Enfield's
Speaker" of our own school-days in this country. His imagination and feelings were
greatly roused by the eloquent orations on liberty, the rights of man, and other subjects which he found in that book, and which he eagerly stored in his memory. As
light flowed in, he realised more and more fully the wrong that had been done in
making him a slave. The sense of that wrong accompanied him like his shadow; he
became silent and gloomy, brooding with fierce resentment over his unhappy lot,
and chafing angrily against the system and the men responsible for it.

In his desolation and misery he learned from a white Methodist minister, whose
teaching was afterwards developed and continued by a good coloured man named
Lawson, that in God he would find the friend and protector for which his lonely and
sorrowful heart was longing, and through prayer and faith he realised the truth of
this message. The religion, which he thus found, was an unspeakable relief and
comfort to him. He says: "I loved all mankind, slaveholders not excepted, though I
abhorred slavery more than ever." His religious communion with old "Uncle
Lawson," however, awakened the wrath and suspicion of his master, who had been

so afraid of his learning to read, and who must have perceived that the poor boy was
becoming more and more "dangerously" enlightened. The threat of a flogging, however,
did not prevent Frederick Douglass from seeking the spiritual sympathy and
counsel he so much valued, and he continued his visits to Lawson as often as possible.
About this time he heard the word "abolition," and by dint of perseverance
found out its meaning, as understood by that noble band of philanthropists in
America, who made it their watchword through many many long years of darkness
and trial. He picked up, too, the information that if he could only get away somewhere
to the north he might gain his liberty, and the purpose to escape, notwithstanding
all difficulties, was formed in his breast. But, boy as he was, he was shrewd
enough to see that he must bide his time, and that it would be desirable that he
should be bigger and stronger, and know how to write, and many other things, before
he could successfully grapple with the difficulty of achieving his freedom. He had
indeed many terrible experiences to go through before that day should come,
although, happily for him, he could not foresee them.

The first step in this new and sad episode of his life was his removal from
Baltimore. Although nominally the property of Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Auld, he still
legally belonged to his "old master," Captain Anthony, as he was called. After he had
been in Baltimore about four years, Captain Anthony died, and as he died intestate,
his "property" in flesh and blood, as well as other chattels, had to be divided
between his son Anthony, a confirmed drunkard and profligate, and his daughter
Lucretia, the wife of Captain Thomas Auld, who was the brother of Frederick
Douglass's master in Baltimore. The terror and misery which such a "division of
property" often occasioned among unhappy slaves is powerfully described in the
autobiography. Referring to his own case, Mr. Douglass says: "The thought of
becoming the [76.31-39] should come into his possession." Fortunately, Frederick
escaped the cruel lot which seemed to threaten him, and by a family arrangement, to
his great relief, returned after six months' absence to Baltimore.

The uncertainties of a slave's position were. however, again speedily illustrated:
and a variety of circumstances, including the deaths of Andrew Anthony
and "Miss" Lucretia, brought him into the possession of Captain Thomas Auld
and his second wife, who lived at St. Michael's on Chesapeake Bay, not far from
the plantation on which Douglass was born. The boy's position at Baltimore had
become more uncomfortable than formerly, for his master, Hugh Auld, had given
way to brandy and had company, while his once pious and affectionate mistress
had been soured and spoiled by slavery and social isolation. Even this, however,
was better than the miseries of his new position, for Thomas Auld was wretchedly
and cruelly stingy and his wife was cold and hard. Their unfortunate slaves were
almost starved and were compelled to steal food in order to live. Thomas Auld
was also intensely selfish, weak, and cowardly: in short, "incapable of a noble
action." In August, 1833, six months after Frederick Douglass passed into his
hands, "Master Thomas" attended a Methodist camp-meeting in the neighbourhood

and "came out with a profession of religion." Alas! his "conversion"
seemed to make him worse instead of better, for in truth it would appear that it
only turned ThomasAuld, Thomas

Auld into a hypocrite. The slaves generally had very little
confidence in the piety of their masters, and such instances as this, which were
only too common, abundantly confirmed their scepticism. Any hopes that may
have been raised in Frederick Douglass's breast by news that his master had "got
through" were very speedily dashed to pieces: for there was a look upon his master's
face which seemed to say in answer to the slave lad's wistful glances. "I will
teach you, young man, that though I have parted with my sins, I have not parted
with my sense. I shall hold my slaves and go to heaven too." Although Thomas
Auld made great professions of piety, and hymns and prayers were constantly
heard in his house, his slave testifies. "If religion had any effect at all on him, it
made him more cruel and hateful in all his ways." There was no amelioration in
the lot of the poor creatures dependent upon him: "no more nor better meal
[86.2-6] stand on the camping ground." Notwithstanding the rule of the Methodist
Church that no holder of slaves should be admitted to membership, no difficulty
seems to have been made on this score with "Master Thomas," and he was
advanced to a leading position in the Church, and welcomed the preachers who
visited the district to his table and his home.

Soon after Thomas Auld's "conversion," Frederick Douglass was invited to join
with one or two others in forming a Sunday-school of coloured children. He joyfully
fell in with the proposal; but on the occasion of the second meeting of the school,
just as the teachers had got to work, "in rushed a mob, headed by two class-leaders,
Mr. Wright FairbanksFairbank, Wrightson

Wrightson Fairbank or Fairbanks (c. 1806-?) was a resident of Talbot County who in 1850 worked as a merchant and headed a household that included his wife, four children, and two female relatives. He owned neither land nor slaves. Fairbanks was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal Church in St. Michaels and ran unsuccessfully for the board of trustees of the parish in September 1835. 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 80; Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism," 725. and Mr. Garrison WestWest, Garretson

Garretson West (1800-53) was famous among Methodists in St. Michaels, Maryland, for his religious enthusiasm and moral zeal. Although he worked first as an oysterman and later as a teamster, West devoted himself primarily to spurring public prayer, exhorting the faithful at the Methodist classes he led, and-despite his illiteracy--conversing at length with others over the meaning of various biblical passages. In 1829 West was elected to the board of trustees of the Methodist church in St. Michaels and held that position until 1836. He also was appointed that church's sexton in 1830 and again in 1836. At the time of his death, West was married, had at least one child, and had accumulated little wealth. 1850 U.S. Census, Maryland, Talbot County, 80; Todd, Methodism of the Peninsula, 113-23; Sewell, "St. Michaels Methodism," 672-74, 680-81, 701, 707, 727; Tilghman, Talbot County, 2:400-401; Preston, Young Frederick Douglass, 116. , and with them Master Thomas. They
were armed with sticks and other missiles, and drove us off, commanding us never
to meet for such a purpose again." Another exemplification of the character of
Auld's religion was afforded by his treatment of an unfortunate slave woman who
was lame, and who was consequently a burden to him. "I have seen him," says Mr.
Douglass, "tie up this lame and [87.39- 88.8] already raw with repeated blows."

We will not pursue this harrowing story into further detail. Through many terrible
experiences, and several narrow escapes with his life, the youth grew up to
manhood, a striking example of the victory which a strong nature is sometimes
capable of achieving over the most adverse circumstances. Not only did his physical
frame grow into manliness and vigour, but his intellectual life began to give signs of
its capacity of rich development, and his inborn love of liberty and hatred of oppression
became a burning fire which was to illuminate a noble career. At twenty-one
years of age he made his escape to the north, taking the train in the disguise of a
sailor. On the 4th of September, 1838, after an anxious and perilous journey, he
arrived in New York. With unconquerable perseverance, great sagacity, and through
many severe trials, he grappled with the difficulties of his position, obtained an honest
livelihood, made many friends, and became one of the foremost and most powerful
advocates of the abolition movement. He has been permitted to see the

emancipation of his race, and to exult in the downfall in the United States of the
institution which can never be better described than as "the sum of all human
villainy."

The whole book is full of interest.

E.L.W.

[Untitled]. [Anon.]. Cleveland Leader, [n.d.], reprinted in Trenton Sentinel, 21
January 1882. Also reprinted in Washington, D.C. People's Advocate, 25 February
1882.

This book will gain instant recognition as one of the healthiest and most important
works ever contributed to American literature. It will take its place as a volume
indispensable in the complete records of our national history. The life struggle it
portrays will be erected as a standard of emulation to the youth and manhood of
America, who, without such examples, might well doubt the possibility of climbing
so high from a condition so low. And scarcely less important to the work and the
lesson it has to teach, it possesses advantages quite unparalleled for holding interest,
and stamping upon all classes of minds its inherent principles of freedom and manhood.
The narrative of Douglass's days of slavery and escape from bondage is hardly
less interesting than "Uncle Tom's Cabin," while the truth loses nothing in comparison
with the ideality of that work, and it carries its subject through a wider range of
accomplishment to a rank sufficiently exalted to win all admiration. It is needless to
speak of the literary style of the book: the accomplishments of the writer are known
to all who read Americans will be proud of this donation to their literature, and
thankful to Mr. Douglass that he has made it himself.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS. [Anon.]. Trenton Sentinel, 21 January 1882. Also
reprinted in Washington, D.C. People's Advocate, 25 February 1882.

Wc would invite attention to the advertisement of the Park Publishing Co., of
Hartford, Conn., who have recently issued the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass.
Our readers are all more or less acquainted with the history of Mr. Douglass and
should make themselves familiar with this book.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS. [Anon.]. New York Critic, 28 January 1882.

AN autobiography published in the lifetime of the author is rare enough to be
remarked upon. Ordinarily men do not care to put themselves in a position where
they will certainly be compelled to listen to a good deal of comment delivered with
perfect freedom, possibly not tempered with good nature- to a good deal of criticism
sure to be searching and not unlikely to be severe. An author may, like George
Eliot, read or not, as he pleases, the reviews of his books on any other subject than
his own life; but reviews of that, if he be in the flesh, he must read, whether he likes
it or not, for they may require replies which the public, as well as his own reputation,
has a right to demand. Here is reason enough why a man should wait till there is five

feet of good solid earth over him before he provokes the world to talk about him by
taking it into his confidence. The work before us is not indeed very likely to give
rise to controversies, because, from the nature of the case, great allowances will be
made, and provocations will be generally met, perhaps, with a good-natured 'It is
not worth while.' But this, probably, did not occur to Mr. Douglass: and while his
readers will be amused at his natural and almost child-like self-complacency, they
will not fail to admire, often, his frankness and boldness.

Ordinary rules cannot properly be applied to the biography of such a man, writ
ten by himself and published in his life-time. The world may be glad that he can
write his life at all, and quite content to receive it when it suits him, whether before
his death or afterward. As his career is unparalleled. so his character is not to be
measured in precisely the way that the characters of other men are measured. A man
who was born a slave: who never had an acknowledged father: who only at rare
intervals was permitted to see his mother: whose childhood was more desolate than
nature dares allot to the young of any wild animal: whose youth was a period or
almost unspeakable misfortune, of hunger. and cold. and nakedness. of scourgings.
of beatings well nigh unto death, and of a despair to which death would have come
as a mercy:- but a man over whose life, when manhood was reached. came a marvellous change: who rose presently to be an orator so gifted that even enemies listened with delight; who came to have his share. neither obscure nor unimportant. in
a great social movement which only the greatest civil war the world has ever known
could bring to an end; and who came, at length. before he was an old man. to fill
offices of dignity and trust in the capital of his country:-- the story of the career or
such a man as this may be written when and how he pleases. and the world may
accept it without carping and without criticism. and be glad to get it. If free thought
and free speech are not mere phrases and really belong to any body. they belong to
Frederick Douglass. They are not denied in fable even to the beasts: surely a slave
may earn them beyond all challenge if he achieves such a life as this one made for
himself. Had he been of another complexion. the ages would count him among their
heroes. Perhaps they will yet.

It is a pity that a work so unique. so altogether different from anything in auto
biographical literature. has so poor a setting. It is not absolutely had in type and
paper; but in its binding, its scant margins. its press-work. and its illustrations it
could hardly be worse. One must have a cultivated imagination to suppose that the
impression on the cover is meant for the Goddess of Liberty and the American
eagle, and not for a young woman preparing a dish of corn-meal and water for a
large and evidently hungry spring-chicken . The illustrations within the covers are
of that style of art belonging to the dime novel. suggesting to one who may casually
open it that the book had better not be read. or. if read. cannot possibly he true. Had
they been omitted altogether--excepting the portrait of Douglass, as a frontispiece-the book would have been attractive enough if left solely to the merit of the narrative.

AMERICAN LITERATURE. [Anon.]. London , 25 February 1882.

When the autobiography of Frederick Douglass was first published, it
attained a considerable and very natural popularity. Slavery was still existing,
and still excited the strong popular abhorrence with which it has always been
regarded in this country; and declamations against it appealed with even greater
force to the commoner and meaner than to the nobler and more generous qualities
and feelings of Englishmen. In the first place, the profound ignorance
which we shared with the great majority of Northern citizens enabled writers
like Mrs. Stowe and the author of The White Slave to colour their pictures as
highly as they pleased, in order to suit them to the taste of their readers, with
very little regard to the strict limits of truth and accuracy. Again, the jealousy
and resentment which the arrogance and boastfulness of the Northern populace
had excited found vent in contemptuous reproaches which made no distinction
between North and South, which thanked God that we were not like those slaveholding
Republicans who boasted with uncommonly little reason of the victories
gained over us at New Orleans and Bunker's Hill. Even those whose taste
and better knowledge were revolted by the violence of Mr. Douglass's language
felt no inclination to criticize the temper or the style of one who had every
excuse that the lack of education and the sense of bitter personal wrong could
afford. No such excuse, however, can be made for the republication of such a
work at the present moment. Republished with all its misrepresentations uncorrected,
with all its vulgar abuse unmitigated, and directed now against the conquered
and the unfortunate, it is simply an offensive libel. Those who are too
young to remember the feelings with which the elder among us watched the
American Civil War may hardly share the disgust with which we read the language
applied to the countrymen of Lee and Stonewall Jackson. For Mr.
Douglass every excuse is to he made. He is not more bitter, more vulgar, more
reckless, than Mrs. Stowe, or Sumner, or Thaddeus Stevens, or any of the
Republican leaders of the last twenty years. He learnt his style in the school of
Abolitionist fanaticism, and naturally he has not unlearned it. But that such a
work should have a prospect of popularity at the present day, that it should be
possible to ascribe to the Southern people generally, as Mr. Douglass does, the
cruelties and vices which even in the case of a few he grossly exaggerates, and
that it should pay to sell such a work at a low price, is not creditable either to
the good sense or good feeling of the Northern people, and does not augur well
for the future of the Union. It is clear that the worst passions and prejudices that
brought about the Civil War still linger in the North, and that a large proportion
of the victorious section still hate the conquered South with the insane hatred
that a certain Irish faction bears to England. American politics will never be
clearly understood or fairly interpreted by those who neglect or refuse to take
this element of Northern character and feeling into account....

REVIEW. LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS]]. (WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.) [Anon.). London . March 1882.

This is a very interesting work, and treats of a burning question during a very
exciting epoch. It is hardly necessary to tell our readers that Frederick Douglass is
an ESCAPED SLAVE, and that he has acted a stirring part in the great drama whose last
Act was written in characters of blood and flame, which resulted in the immediate
and unconditional freedom of five millions of slaves. He still lives and holds high
office under the United States Government. Mr. George I. Ruffin, of Boston, who
writes an introduction to the volume before us, thus speaks of his hero:--

''Our Pantheon contains many that [3.16---5.30] the examination of general
history."

In his opening chapter. Mr. Douglass gives us an insight into that terrible feature in Slave-life which prevented a man from knowing his own father. He says:--

"Of my father I know [24.36- 25.4] one drop of African blood."

AN OVERSEER'S REVENGE:

A SLAVE-GIRL, possessing the rare quality of personal beauty. was courted by a
young negro. Yet the overseer wished to discourage the match, and sternly forbade
it. But the lovers met contrary to orders and this is how the white man punished the
offending girl. It is described by an eyewitness whose veracity is unimpeachable.

"But to the case in [39.39-40.20] won't do so no more ....

But when the whipping was over, poor Esther "did do so" again, and the consequence was that this cruel punishment was repeated many times: and it was not only
for making love that the miserable slaves were tortured in this dreadful fashion.

"They were whipped for over-sleeping [46.6-11] a blow from the overseer."

VALUE OF A SLAVE'S LIFE.

"One of the commonest sayings [55 .7- 15] this there was no redress ...

CITY LIFE PLANTATION LIFE..

At a comparatively early age Douglass was removed from the plantation to
the City of Baltimore. There he was kindly treated . At first his mistress
taught him to read, but this was soon stopped by the master. who sternly forbade
her, saying, "It was unsafe to teach him, as learning would spoil the best nigger
in the world." But it was too late, for the boy had tasted of the .
and no power on earth could prevent him from drinking more deeply of its for
bidden waters. He picked up scraps of knowledge from little white street boys;
made a little collection of torn leaves from old Bibles which he found in the gut
ters, washed them clean, and then read them eagerly. Thus he imbibed a few
ideas of religion, and his mind developed as his body grew into the stalwart form
of a strong and healthy negro. He worked in a ship-builder's yard at Baltimore.
and for three years or more led a fairly happy life. But death, which so often
destroys all the visions of happiness in a slave's life, now caused Douglass to be
sent back to his old work on the plantation, and here he was badly off indeed.
His master did not like his city ways, and determined to send him off to a poor

but man, a noted Slave-breaker, who very soon found some pretext for giving him

HIS FIRST FLOGGING.

"He ordered me to take [94.31~97.28] man transformed to a brute!"

After six months of this treatment his strength gave way, and he fell down faint
ing at his work. This is how Covey proceeded to rouse him from his fainting fit: -----

"He gave me a savage [ 100.33-101.9] the headache, I'll cure you.""

Disgusted with this treatment, he ran away to his real master, but this scoundrel
sent him back to finish the twelve months for which he was hired to Covey. He was
saved from further punishment by his strength and courage, for when the "breaker"
flew at him on his return, and attempted to cut him up with a cow-hide, the worm
turned. A fierce battle for two hours, resulted in Covey's discomfiture, and he never
laid hands on him again.

A futile attempt to escape resulted in imprisonment and being set to work at
ship-caulking in Baltimore. But the white apprentices would not work with him, and
one day four of them set upon him, and in the presence of fifty white men, pounded
him to a jelly and gouged his eye nearly out.

After this better times came, and he was allowed to work by piece, His soul rebelled at this. and he began to plan his
escape--fix as he himself remarks. "It is often when a Slave is well-off, that he
longs most for freedom." according to that law that seems to wish ever to scale a
higher peak when one has been already conquered. When a slave is really down-trodden, and is ever writhing under the lash, his manhood is flogged out of him, and
he is too cowed and broken to think of flight.

HE ESCAPES FROM BONDAGE.

On the 3rd September. 1838. being about 21 years old, Frederick Douglass
made his escape from Slavery. There was little romance in the manner by which he
accomplished this great event of his life. A staunch sailor friend lent him a United
States pass, by means of which he passed swiftly by rail from the land of bondage
to the free air of the North.

In New York some benevolent Quaker gentlemen put him on the "Underground
Railroad." and passed him on to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he was safe.
Here. dropping his old name of Frederick Bailey, he assumed that of Frederick
Douglass. which he still bears and has borne for 44 years. and which he has made
truly famous.

In New Bedford he worked hard and well with his strong hands, and supported
his wife. whom he had married in New York. She was a free-coloured woman, and
his early love.

HIS FIRST APPEARANCE IN PUBLIC.

In 1841 a Grand Anti-Slavery Convention was held in Nantucket, under the
auspices of William Lloyd GarrisonGarrison, William Lloyd

William Lloyd Garrison (1805-79) was the foremost white abolitionist of the nineteenth century and was credited with the discovery of Douglass as a speaker at an antislavery meeting in Nantucket in 1841. He began his career as an apprentice printer on the Newburyport (Mass.) Herald at the age of thirteen. Garrison became editor of the Newburyport Free Press in 1826, but the paper closed within a year. He was then associated with a series of periodicals in Boston that advocated reform before Benjamin Lundy offered the young journalist the opportunity to write for his antislavery newspaper. Garrison joined Lundy in editing the Genius of Universal Emancipation in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1829, during the last year of the paper's 1821-1830 run. In 1830 a libel suit against the editors forced the paper to close and landed Garrison in jail. After his release, he courted the wealthy merchants of New York and Boston in order to start the Liberator (1831-65), a weekly journal based in Boston in which he advocated an immediate end to slavery. Garrison's brand of abolition condemned any institution that would tolerate the existence of slavery, including churches, political parties. and even the United States itself and any scheme aimed at removing black people from the country. Instead, Garrison hoped to raise the public's awareness that slavery was morally wrong and thereby force its end in an almost millennial moment of emancipation. His approach appealed to both white and black antislavery advocates but earned him many enemies among those only moderately opposed to slavery and slaveholders alike. Seeing the need for greater action and organization beyond the pages of the Liberator; Garrison joined with other abolitionists to form the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1831. Two years later he helped found the larger American Anti-Slavery Society. In 1833 he established ties with English abolitionists after a trip to Great Britain, and he later brought the noted and notorious speaker George Thompson to the United States for a tour. Garrison also dedicated himself to women's rights, encouraging women to enter the public sphere by inviting them, via the Liberator, to form female antislavery societies. In addition to the thirty-three women's antislavery societies that flourished by 1838, Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society welcomed women as well as blacks into its ranks. However, female delegates were excluded from the World's Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 in London. The issue of women's participation in the antislavery movement and Garrison's absolute refusal to turn to politics to end slavery caused a division in the American Anti-Slavery Society. Brothers Lewis and Arthur Tappan, who opposed women's acting as speakers and who hoped to use politics toward abolition, broke with Garrison's American Anti-Slavery Society, forming the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, or the "New Organization" in 1841. Garrison's ideas were so closely associated with the "Old Organization" that the American Anti-Slavery Society became known simply as the "Garrisonians." With the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment in 1865, Garrison believed that he had accomplished his life's work and that of the antislavery movement. He then resigned from the presidency of the American Anti-Slavery Society and closed the Liberator. Wendell Phillips Garrison and Francis Jackson Garrison, William Lloyd Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, 4 vols. (New York, 188589); Henry Mayer, All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery (New York, 1998); James Brewer Stewart, William Lloyd Garrison and the Challenge of Emancipation (Arlington Heights, Ill., 1992); John L. Thomas, The Liberator: William Lloyd Garrison (Boston, 1963); Dictionary of American Biography, 20 vols. (New York, 1928-36), 7:168-72. and his friends. Douglass was brought to this
great gathering by Mr. Coffin. and induced to speak in public for the first time.

He was nervous, but natural in the recital of the wrongs which he had himself
experienced, and the effect on the audience was strong and genuine. The principal
effect, however, was produced by Garrison, who, worked up to fever point by the
truthful narration of this living and experimental witness of the horrors of Slavery,
poured forth so grand an oration, that he appears to have transformed the thou
sand auditors of his voice into so many personifications of himself. "The orator
swaying a thousand heads and hearts at once, and by the simple majesty of his
all-controlling thought, converted his hearers into the express image of his own
soul."

DOUGLASS EXCHANGES THE SAW FOR THE PEN.

After the Convention of 1841, Douglass gave up manual labour, and took up the
pen. He joined the Anti-Slavery cause, and devoted himself with all the energy of
his strong nature to the task of setting free his fellow bondsmen. His power of speak
ing and writing was extraordinary, but this is now well known and admitted; though.
At first, men would not believe that a half-educated slave could write such stirring
leaders in the Abolitionist journals.

His life as a free-man, toiling for those he had lcft behind him in the house of
bondage, is comprised in the second part of the interesting volume now before us.
The history of his life after 1841, belongs to the history of the Anti-Slavery cause in
America, until the accursed tree of Slavery was felled -- and it has often been told in
our pages. We must pass over this portion of our hero's life in a very few lines.
Though we trust that enough has been said to show our readers that a treat is in store
for them in the perusal of this unpretending, but fascinating book. The life of an
earnest, strong, God-fearing Christian man is laid open bcfore us in his own simple
and touching words; and we venture to think that none can rise from the perusal of
this history of a brave and honest worker in the cause of freedom, without feeling
strengthened and encouraged in the great fight against evil, which all have to wage
in some way or other.

DOUGLASS MEETS CLARKSON.

In 1845, Douglass visited England, and was heartily welcomed by Abolitionists
there. He saw many great men of that day, but we can only record his meeting with
Thomas Clarkson.

"When we were presented to [ 188.18 - 28 J the edge of the grave."

DOUGLASS' VIEWS ON THE COLOURED VOTE AND TIIE FUTURE OF THE RACE.

"And now, while I am [298.26 -39] master-class to the new situation."
Space precludes our dwelling at length upon any of the great questions treated
of in Mr. Douglass' most instructive volume. We must refer our readers to the book
itself for a description of his editorial career, his visits to England, his connection
with the brave, but rash and unfortunate John Brown, which indeed, necessitated the
flight of Douglass, first to Canada and then to England.

The great secession war, and the ultimate freedom of the Slaves are well

described, and a high tribute is paid to the noble character of President Lincoln, who
fell a martyr to the cause of Abolition.

Then we have a picture of the author's subsequent political career, and of the
sad condition to which many of the coloured people were reduced by the tyranny of
their former masters, together with his efforts on their behalf. He tells us of his mis
sion to San Domingo; his election as elector for the State of New York—an office
unknown to us; his appointment by President Hayes to the office of Marshal of the
District of Columbia, together with a graphic description of a visit paid to his old
master and owner. Thomas Auld, from whom he had been legally purchased years
before by English friends, and who naively told him, that if he had been in his place,
he would have run away as he did!

He tells us why he opposed the Exodus of coloured men, from their homes in
the South to the Northern States; but we cannot now enter upon that vexed question,
and we are glad to note that whilst opposing their coming, he exerted himself to his
utmost to befriend those who came. He also speaks in warm terms of their great
friend, the noble-hearted, generous Quaker philanthropist, Elizabeth Comstock.

In the review of his long and active life, which contains eloquent eulogies on
many a friend and valiant fellow-soldier in the great battle for freedom, both male
and female. He says in conclusion:—

"It will be seen in [372.35-374.7] than it is to me."

We are all debtors to Frederick Douglass for this simple and manly history of
an earnest and good life, and we heartily wish him many years more of usefulness,
happiness, and prosperity, in that great country of which he is now a free and justly
honoured citizen.

PUBLICATIONS. [Anon.]. (Paramus. N.J.?) , vol. 35, May 1882.

In the first part of this very interesting volume incidents are narrated which
read like those of a past age. One can hardly believe that there could be a living
witness to the deeds recorded against individual slaveholders. Yet not only is there
undeniable testimony of the utter baseness to which were reduced many examples
of master and slave in the olden time. But the witness himself actually passed
through the terrible ordeal. He knows from personal experience how sharp and cruel
was the master's lash; and the recital of his youthful adventures as a slave-boy in
Talbot County, Maryland, is both interesting and instructive. The daily life and
condition of the slave cannot but give interest to a story told by the actor in the
scenes which he describes; and the historical facts stated cannot but prove of high
value in the formation of a just opinion of the real status of the actual system of
slavery as it existed in the South.

In the amiable character of Mrs. Auld, who first taught the child-slave his alpha
bet, we are presented with a picture said to have been by no means uncommon in
those days. On the other hand, the brutality to which man, claiming to be civilized,

may be reduced by a system is strongly portrayed in the cases of Gore and Covey.
The incidents attending the escape of Douglass are fully narrated, with names of
persons and places given, so as to make a very complete account of an event of much
consequence both to himself and his race.

Not without importance is the second part of the volume, containing a record of
the anti-slavery agitation, the men who led therein, the author's visits to England,
his meeting with O'Connell, and the expression of his great admiration for that preeminent man.

His estimate of the great Emancipator we give in his own words :
"Until I heard this man [184.35-185.28] spirit to succor and relieve" (p. 242).
It is much to the credit of Mr. Douglass that he gratefully appreciates the vast influence exercised by the Liberator against slavery.

The style of the book is creditable, but not such as to warrant the statement
made in the introduction: "He has surmounted the disadvantage of not having an
university education" (p. viii.) This disadvantage can be surmounted, if at all. Only
by men of genius belonging to an order far higher than that to which Mr. Douglass
will aspire.

As to the future of his race, the author makes it appear that there are very good
grounds to look for their rapid advancement. And one of his grounds for this hope
is worthy of consideration: "My hope for the future of my race is further supported
by the rapid decline of an emotional, shouting, and thoughtless religion. Scarcely in
any direction can there be found a less favorable field for mind or morals than where
such a religion prevails .... Instead of adding to faith virtue, its tendency is to substitute faith for virtue, and is a deadly enemy to our progress. "These words necessarily
refer to that form of Protestantism ( known as Methodism) most prevalent amongst
the colored population.

On the whole, the book is not only worthy of perusal but of much value for its
contents, relating as they do to a most important period in the history of the
Republic, and revealing in a peculiarly clear light some of those deeply-hidden
causes from which has sprung the present transition-state of the nation.

[Untitled]. [Anon.]. (Philadelphia) , 11 May 1882 .

THE RECENTLY published life of Frederick Douglass is being read with avidity by the English public. The March Anti-Slavery Reporter, devotes one-third of its
pages to a review of it. The result cannot be other than most salutary in deciding the
fate of caste.

[Untitled] . [Anon.]. ( Philadelphia) , 1 June 1882.

WE WERE on the eve of saying Frederick Douglass ought to feel proud of the
notice taken of his last autobiography by such a man as R. Lant Carpenter of
Bridport, England. But we refrained, remembering that no Scotch Douglass had
haughtier steel in him than this Douglass of America.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS. ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE OF ALL LIVING MEN. ~ A NICE TRIBUTE. [Anon.). Detroit Plaindealer, 10 February 1893. Also reprinted in idem., 17 February 1893.

The Autobiography of the Honorable Frederick Douglass should be in the home of every Afro-American in this country. The Plaindealer is enabled to offer this great work in connection with the paper for the price of the book alone.

To any one sending us $2.50 cash, we will forward them The Plaindealer one year and a copy of this excellent race book.

The book alone sells for $2.50 and this special offer is only good until March
15.

If you have already paid your subscription your paper will be extended another
year.

Take advantage of this. Good only until March 15.

[Untitled]. [Anon.]. Chicago Inter Ocean. [n.d.). Reprinted in Detroit Plaindealer,
10. 17 February 1893.

To say that Frederick Douglass is one of the most remarkable living men is to
state the truth mildly. For forty-five years, he has been before the American people,
and to-day an old, gray-headed man, full of honor, sums up the events of his life in
a volume or 752 pages and every chapter more profoundly interesting than the best
romance. For twenty-three years a slave; then a fugitive, protected by no law, and a
member of a hated and despised race, shut out by public opinion from every personal right. Life indeed seems hopeless to such a wanderer, yet Fred Douglass was
a man, and he overcame all his besetments, and year by year arose, until to-day he
stands as the peer of the best among the Nation's grand men. By nature, and not by
the refinements or education did Douglass reach out for honors. The writer of this
knew him more than forty years ago and listened to his impassioned appeals for his
down-trodden race; upon one occasion in 1852, at a meeting in one of the great halls
in Philadelphia. Douglass spoke for two hours to an audience which filled every seat
and packed the aisles. Ten o'clock came and he stopped amid the cries "Go on! go
on!" He stopped and said: "I don't often have a chance to talk to such an audience
of friends. You who arc standing are certainly wearied. We will take a five-minute
recess and allow any to retire." The time was up and he spoke for another hour and
a quarter, and not a man or woman left the audience. We mentioned the incident as
illustrating the power of the man who then had but recently purchased his own free
dom and had comparatively begun the education which has fitted him for the high
posts of honor to which he has since been called. and to be the counselor and adviser
or the wisest statesmen of this time. As a biography none ever before written has in
it more of inspiration for every young man, whether his skin be white or black. Last
week we noticed Dr. Venable's book, "First Be a Man." and it was just that maxim
that made Frederick Douglass. That motherless boy (slave children were often not
honored with a father), driven to the fields of Tuckahoe and worked from daylight

to dark, does not give out any large hope of manhood. But nevertheless the manhood
was there, and brutality and persecution and starvation could not obliterate it. The
story of slavery he recites to a multitude of younger readers will be a revelation, and
will serve to awaken a new interest in this poor, despised race, which for generations
has been the unpaid chattels of the white man. That the pictures of slavery are as true
as if drawn by a camera none can doubt and in keeping with the forgiving spirit of
the black man- no spirit of revenge crops out in any line. No race so long misused
and abused ever so fully demonstrated in their acts the prayer of Christ—"Forgive
them, they know not what they do"—as the black race during the late war. Had their
places been filled by Italians or Chinese or Frenchmen or Englishmen or even
Americans, hundreds of plantations and villages of the South would have witnessed
horrible scenes of disorder and bloodshed. It was not because the black man did not
understand fully the situation. He did. We note this same spirit of forgiveness in the
story of Mr. Douglass. But no brief notice in the space allowed can do justice to the
book. Its illustrations are pointed. It is written, as we have observed, in the best
spirit, and its elegant literary style is well nigh faultless. The volume, truthful in its
history, and covering one of the most eventful periods of history, enriches the best
biographical literature. and deserves, as it will doubtless receive a wide reading.

LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS [Heman Lincoln Wayland ].
[Philadelphia ], [n.d.]. Subject File. reel 10. frame 421. FD Papers.
DLC.

The life which this book presents is a stronger argument for the manhood and
the capacity of the colored man than any ethnological or humanitarian process of
reasoning. Mr. Douglass, beginning a slave in Tuckahoe, Talbot Co. on the eastern
shore of Maryland, at a time when it was a penitentiary crime to teach a negro his
letters. Bought and sold and flogged, running away a little past the age of twenty
with a price set on his head, finds himself to-day at the age of seventy-five, honored
having held the offices of United States Marshal, Register of Deeds, Commissioner
to San Domingo, Minister Resident and Consul General to Hayti, and Haytian com
missioner to the World's Columbian Exposition. Long ago, the Hon. John G. Palfrey,
member of Congress from the Middlesex District Mass., said of him, on the floor
of Congress. "He writes and speaks the English language in a manner of which any
member of this house might be proud."

While Mr. Douglass has himself passed thro this honorable experience, he has
the no less keen gratification of seeing the members of a once enslaved race now
emancipated and enfranchised. It is true they have not yet reached the enjoyment of
all the rights guaranteed them by the Constitution; but this will come.

The editor of this paper gratefully acknowledges the personal reference made
by Mr. Douglass to the slight aid which it was the privilege of the editor. then a tutor
in the University of Rochester, to give to Mr. Douglass forty years ago. And the edi
tor remembers with sincere gratification that when he called upon Mr. Douglass at

the office of the United States Marshal in Washington, Mr. Douglass said to his son,
"My son, this is Mr. W., who was a friend to your father at a time when he greatly
needed friends."

The entire book will be read with the deepest interest both on account of the
personal clement and also on account of the relation of the author to great public
questions and events.