**Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History**
“Extraordinary…a great American biography” (The
New Yorker) of the most important African-American of the
nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became
the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists
and writers of the era.
As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) escaped from slavery
in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read
by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the
major literary figures of his time. His very existence gave the lie
to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness
to the brutality of slavery.
Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely,
using his own story to condemn slavery. By the Civil War, Douglass
had become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation.
In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a
fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot.
After the war he sometimes argued politically with younger African
Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the
cause of black civil and political rights.
In this “cinematic and deeply engaging” (The New York Times
Book Review) biography, David Blight has drawn on new information
held in a private collection that few other historian have consulted,
as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass’s newspapers.
“Absorbing and even moving…a brilliant book that speaks to our
own time as well as Douglass’s” (The Wall Street Journal),
Blight’s biography tells the fascinating story of Douglass’s two
marriages and his complex extended family. “David Blight has
written the definitive biography of Frederick Douglass…a powerful
portrait of one of the most important American voices of the
nineteenth century” (The Boston Globe).
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Frederick Douglass won the
Bancroft, Parkman, Los Angeles Times (biography), Lincoln, Plutarch,
and Christopher awards and was named one of the Best Books of 2018 by
The New York Times Book Review, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston
Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The San Francisco Chronicle, and Time.