Customer Reviews

Frederick Douglass: Abolitionist and Reformer

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This is a well written and passionate biography of a man born into slavery who came to God. The story was taken from Douglass's autobiography and other biographies.

He was raised on the Bible as a child but turned away from God's teachings. As a slave he was beaten regularly and denied reading and writing. But he wasn't going to be deprived of knowledge just because the white man had forbid it; by sneaking around he got bits and pieces. His heart grew in God and because of that, he found it difficult to make his escape from Maryland.

He found his freedom farther north and over time he began a movement to support the abolitionists. He eventually began to write papers and books, made speeches and was married; he even met the President. Later in his life he returned to his old master. It was heart warming: his master apologized and he too seems to have turned to God.

God was the foundation for Frederick Douglass; he lived his life that way. He became one of the great, intellectual, black American achievers. He was an amazing man. The story will impassion us.


Wish you well
Scott

The first half of this biography is an outstanding biography of Frederick Douglass's childhood, youth, and young adulthood. I felt great compassion for him during his years of slavery. I felt like I really knew him. This was helped immensely by the fact that most chapters had several direct quotes from his writings (all nicely cited).; I came to understand how his Christian faith impacted his life. Unfortunately, once the story got to his adulthood as a free man, the narrative often made significant jumps forward in time. These years of activism felt very sketchy and somewhat shallow.

I came into this biography knowing next to nothing about Frederick Douglass, and though I didn't necessarily agree with all of his opinions or actinos, I came away intrigued by him and looking forward to worshipping our mutual Lord and Savior together in heaven. I wish this book had gone into more details of his post-slavery years, and of his softened heart toward slaveowners in the latter years of his life. I will definitely be getting another book about him in the future, quite likely one of his autobiographies.