Frederick Douglass

January 1, 2018

Dilbeck's (A More Civil War) compelling religious biography maintains that the work of Frederick Douglass (1818-95) was the perfect example of the evangelical drive to bring to bear the Christian gospel on a society and thereby transform it. Still, he demonstrates that his subject's relationship to organized Christianity was sometimes strained. For Douglass, far too many American Christians appealed to the Bible to justify slavery and bigotry. This situation alienated him from white Christian congregations in both North and South. This biography touches on Douglass's harsh childhood as a slave, conversion to Methodism, brief employment at a Baltimore shipyard, 1838 escape to New Bedford, MA, and the onset of his career as an antislavery orator. Also explored is Douglass's antislavery tour of Ireland, Scotland, and England; his praise of John Brown's ill-fated attack on the U.S. arsenal at Harper's Ferry, VA; his support of black regiments in the Union Army; his campaigns for Chinese immigrant and women's rights; and his early celebration of Lincoln's September 1862 preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. VERDICT A superb account of one man's 50-year fight for human rights and freedom in America. Recommended for those interested in the U.S. Middle Period, Civil War, African American history, and all readers.--John Carver Edwards, formerly with Univ. of Georgia Libs.

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