A review by jasonfurman
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight

5.0

Reading this book is like making an amazing journey together with Frederick Douglass, traversing an epic life that began in slavery, continued through his abolitionist career, and then came closer and closer to the center of power and the inevitable compromises that entailed. David Blight is a sympathetic biographer who leaves no aspect of the life uncovered and also does a decent job on the times. He provides a detailed literary reading of some of Douglass' major speeches and writings, situating him in the prophetic tradition as one who had the burden of savings others thrust on him and spoke in "jeremiads" about the fallen state of America and its possibility of renewal. Blight is willing to criticize Douglass, especially some of his patronage jobs and naïveté in Haiti in the later stages of his career, but does no sympathetically and in a way the brings Douglass back to the status of human, making his contributions that much more impressive.