Blight, David W.

OUR SYNOPSIS: David W. Blight chronicles the nineteenth-century United States through the life of Frederick Douglass. Blight foregrounds Douglass’s evolving ideas to piece together how he thought about and understood slavery, freedom, and the United States. His activism was inextricably intertwined with his life experiences, which he turned into fuel for change. He defined himself in relation to his opposition, to the people and forces that sought to oppress him. As he built up knowledge, “he garnered and cherished a vocabulary of liberation.” (44) He also developed a religious faith that influenced how he saw the world. Blight emphasizes that when he escaped slavery and chose the name Douglass to build a new life with his wife Anna, “Thus began the long process of the most famous self-creation of an African American identity in American history.” (88) A key part of this identity was his incredible abilities as an orator as he rose to the forefront of the abolitionist movement. By 1844, he was also an emergent writer crafting his first autobiographical book, which in 1845 became an international hit that he promoted abroad. When he returned to the U.S. in 1847, the purchase of his freedom made him officially free and he was ready for further battle against American slavery. He established his own newspaper to share his vision. In the 1850s, he broke with prior ally William Lloyd Garrison and embraced political abolitionism, increasingly understanding himself to be in the role of a prophet. He welcomed and framed the Civil War as a holy war against slavery. During Reconstruction, he advocated heavy federal power to force the remaking of the South, which he believed still clung to slavery. The realities of the white supremacist counterrevolution against Reconstruction troubled him deeply.