Frederick Douglass in Britain and Ireland, 1845-1895
Edited by Hannah-Rose Murray, John R. McKivigan
- The only monograph and anthology to focus on Frederick Douglass’s relationship with Britain through unexplored oratory and print culture
- Provides a monograph-length introduction focusing on Douglass’ experiences in the British Isles, from his first visit in 1845, to 1859 and 1886 (the latter two visits have received scant attention from scholars in comparison to his first visit in 1845)
- Provides specialist and general audiences with political and cultural insights into Frederick Douglass’ transatlantic visits
- Presents speeches, letters and poetry in relation to Douglass’ visit (including his own testimony) that have never been published before
- Examines Douglass’ impact on British culture with a section on songs, images and poetry written in response to his lectures
- Radically updates Douglass’ speaking locations in Britain, which is printed alongside a visual map of these locations
- Provides several images new to scholarship (for instance, the ticket to one of Douglass’ lectures in Cambridgeshire)
This critical edition documents Frederick Douglass’s relationship with Britain through unexplored oratory and print culture. With an unprecedented and comprehensive 60,000-word introduction that places the speeches, letters, poetry and images printed here into context, the sources provide extraordinary insight into the myriad performative techniques Douglass used to win support for the causes of emancipation and human rights.
Editors examine how Douglass employed various media – letters, speeches, interviews and his autobiographies – to convince the transatlantic public not only that his works were worth reading and his voice worth hearing, but also that the fight against racism would continue after his death.
Note on the TextAcknowledgementsTimelineMap of Frederick Douglass’s Speaking LocationsList of Frederick Douglass’s Speaking Locations
Part I: "To Tell His Own Story": Frederick Douglass and the British IslesPart II: "Men Naturally Love Liberty"Part III: "A Sunbeam into the Darknesses of the Hour": The Responses to Great BritainPart IV: "A Comrade in the Fight:" British Responses to Frederick Douglass
Bibliography Index
The historical span of Frederick Douglass in Britain and Ireland draws attention to material emerging from Douglass’s middle and late as well as his early career, offering the opportunity to engage with British and Irish material generated at his most radical moment—the relationship with John Brown that prompted Douglass’s flight to the UK following Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry—and during his most established period as a statesman and federal official. The geographical rationale of the book, its layout, and the extensive contextualization of the material to follow provided in Part 1, make this book particularly useful for undergraduate students of transatlantic history and culture, and for the general reader, while the primary sources will provide a lasting resource for future scholarship in the area.
In this comprehensive volume, Murray and Kaufman-McKivigan provide key documents and brilliant contextual framing that help us to recover the excitement and urgency of Frederick Douglass’s visits to Britain and Ireland over a nearly fifty-year period. This is a major contribution to our understanding of the trans-Atlantic Douglass.
