The First Douglass Biography by an African American Writer
Frederick Douglass the Orator. Containing an Account of His Life; His Eminent Public Services; His Brilliant Career as Orator; Selections from His Speeches and Writings
Notes: The first biography of Frederick Douglass written by an African American author. Gregory was a friend and supporter of Douglass and a professor of Latin at Howard University. In this biography, emphasizing on Douglass's public persona, Gregory simultaneously places Douglass in the mainstream of American history and in the African American revolutionary movements.
Gregory's "engaging and instructive study of Douglass" offers "a thoughtful assessment of Douglass as an orator and pioneering public intellectual. Gregory places Douglass within a gallery of great American and British orators (including William Johnson Fox of England and Patrick Henry, Henry Clay, and Daniel Webster of the United States), public figures..., and iconic statesmen, including Benjamin Franklin and Presidents James A. Garfield and Ulysses S. Grant. When Gregory takes the reader to Douglass's house, we encounter a similar but different gallery of great men: Toussaint L'Ouverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution; Joseph Cinqué, leader of the revolt on board the Amistad in 1839; John Brown, the white abolitionist who led a raid at Harper's Ferry in 1859 in hopes of initiating a large-scale slave revolt; President Abraham Lincoln; and Florvil Hyppolite," the then-president of Haiti.—quoted in Douglass in His Own Time by John Ernest (University of Iowa, 2014).
With an introduction by W. S. Scarborough, a professor of classics who had been born into slavery. 309 pages. With 30 black-and-white plates, some of which are printed on both sides of the sheet. Images include Douglass, Gregory, Scarborough, and individual portraits of Douglass's children.
Edition + Condition: First edition (1893 date on copyright page). An attractive copy, with bright gilt and lightly worn publisher's blue green cloth. Hinges cracked.
Publication: Springfield, MA: Willey Company, 1893.
Item No: #362563
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