Frederick Douglass: The Legacy of a Legend
Release Day: June 18th, 2024, Hawthorne Books and Literary Arts
Sidney Morrison’s "Douglass: A Novel" is a mesmerizing historical novel that vividly chronicles the life of Frederick Douglass, the most prominent Black American of the 19th century.
What sets this narrative apart in my view is its intimate exploration of Douglass’s personal relationships, shedding light on the little known lived experiences of this iconic historical figure.
While Douglass’s public life as a fierce abolitionist and advocate for racial equality is well-documented, Morrison does an exquisite job of delving into the complexities of his private life, presenting a nuanced and multifaceted portrait.
Morrison’s narrative brings to life Douglass’s tumultuous relationships with the women who shaped his journey. His wife Anna Murray Douglass, instrumental in his escape from slavery, emerges as a steadfast yet often overlooked figure in his life.
Julia Griffith, the English abolitionist, whose close association with Douglass sparked scandalous whispers, and Ottilie Assing, the German journalist who devoted years to translating Douglass’s work, add layers of intrigue and human drama.
The tragic end of Assing’s life, juxtaposed with Douglass’s subsequent second marriage to Helen Pitts, a white suffragist and abolitionist, highlights the intricate interplay of personal and societal tensions.
This exploration of Douglass’s deeper life underscores his humanity, revealing the emotional and relational struggles behind his public achievements. Morrison’s portrayal of Douglass not only celebrates his role as a radical abolitionist and orator but also as a flawed, passionate, and deeply human figure.
The richness of this historical novel lies in its ability to intertwine Douglass’s monumental contributions to American democracy with the personal sacrifices and conflicts that defined his life.
In an era where systemic racism persists, "Douglass: " resonates powerfully. It reminds us that the fight for racial equality is deeply rooted in personal struggles and triumphs. Morrison’s work serves as a poignant tribute to Douglass’s enduring legacy, offering a compelling narrative that is both historically significant and profoundly human.
It’s a novel that’s essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the complexities of a man who dedicated his life to making America a truer democracy.
Feature Interview With Author Sidney Morrison
✋🏿Why did you select this particular subject, and why did you choose the novel form rather than a biography?
SM: As a child of the sixties and a young history teacher, I was attracted to Douglass’ passion for freedom and justice, and to his determination to define his own character and place in the world. His story is a story of self-actualization against incredible odds. He became the man he wanted to be. That is what I wanted; that is what we all want, to become our true selves.
I chose the novel because of the freedom it allowed. Biography must be based on documentation; and when there are gaps in the story, the biographer can only speculate. Douglass wanted to control the public narrative about his life and wrote three auto- biographies to influence public perception.
But he omitted from them what he did not want to reveal. A novelist can imagine what Douglass refused to reveal and explore thoughts and dramatize conversations unavailable to historians. Fiction is an act of liberation.
✋🏿What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing about a person who left so much material, and how did you decide what to include and what to leave out?
SM: Douglass lived a long and well-documented public life, and he wrote millions of words and gave thousands of speeches. And although he was formally uneducated, he was a literary genius who produced speeches, letters, essays, and editorials that justi- fied celebration and inclusion.
But no work, biography, or historical fiction, can include so much. Selection is essential; there were many lines I wanted to quote, but I had to exclude them. His words had to serve the drama. If those words dramatized or revealed key events in the story, they were included.
If they were insightful, powerful, and moving but did not support the drama and the life of the main characters in the narrative flow, then they were excluded.
Douglass was witty, provocative, passionate, and eloquent, and my list of quotations filled pages. In the end, I selected what resonated personally with me. All authors do the same. Many lines from speeches and letters were included in imagined dialogue.
✋🏿Why did it take forty years to write this book?
SM: I wrote three versions, finishing the first version in 1978 when I was a history teacher, writing in long hand and then paying someone to type it as a manuscript for submission. That version attracted the attention of an agent who chose to represent me and submitted the book to publishers, all 1300 pages!
After numerous rejections, I wrote another shorter version in the early 90s. More rejections. Almost all praised my writing and research, but many did not see the relevance of Frederick Douglass or the commercial viability of a novel about slavery and the abolitionist movement. I wrote another historical novel set in 1830s New York City, which was published. I returned to Frederick Douglass and rewrote it for a third time.
Although I was disappointed with the early rejections, I can now say that the early versions were inadequate. After forty years of reflection and research, I now understand Frederick Douglass more deeply, and more importantly, I found a better way to tell his story.
Earlier versions were derivative, more like another autobiography written by Douglass. I shifted from first person to third person and focused on giving voice to other characters in the story, his enslavers, his wives, his children, his friends, and his colleagues. A more expansive, more inclusive narrative resulted. This is the best version.
✋🏿After spending so much time with Douglass, how do you place him in American history, and what would you hope readers understand about him after reading this book?
SM: Several historians have noted Douglass was a great American, and some have said that he and Abraham Lincoln are the two greatest Americans of the nineteenth century. I agree. He was a genius born at a time and in a society that insisted that he was mere property, and he refused to accept that message. That refusal over a lifetime, that insistence that he was worthy of re- spect and dignity, freedom, respectability, even wealth and influence, inspired me, and should be an inspiration to anyone who aspires, hopes, and dreams.
Most importantly, I want readers to see how much he believed in America, the promise of America. He was a passionate idealist, and never gave up on America, despite everything America did to him, and others like him. He was a harsh critic, but he was so harsh because he believed in the American dream so much. He has his place in American history as one of the most eloquent defenders of the American experiment. He showed how words can change a nation. He proved that an American hero can be right, courageous, and deeply flawed.
✋🏿Since this novel is based on fact, what is imagined in the book, and what is factual?
SM: All the public events, save one—the opening scene—are factual; all the speeches he gave, all the meetings he attended, are in the historical record. Even the opening scene is based on several facts: he attended meetings in the northeast where his authen- ticity was challenged. The speech he gave in the Prologue is a composite of speeches attacking Southern churches for defending slavery.
He once wondered about removing his jacket to reveal his scars, but there is no documented account of him having done so. However, novelists always ask, what if? I then imagined the act and the reaction, and the result was a dramatic, believ- able, and compelling opening for my novel.
I depended on Douglass and his contemporaries to determine the plot and dramatize scenes. Reporters quoted his speeches or transcribed them fully. Douglass documented his movement in books, speeches, and letters. I did not alter that public record. However, what he said at meetings and conferences had to be modified to serve the drama. Many of his speeches lasted for more than two hours, and in print, some of them are twenty pages or more!
The conversations in the novel are imagined or closely based on accounts left by Douglass and his contemporaries. Most people, including Douglass, summarized conversations. I rewrote them as dialogue. His meetings with Harriet Beecher Stowe, John Brown, and Abraham Lincoln happened, and Douglass left accounts about them, but he rarely quoted the words said. I imagined these encounters as actual conversations.
People spoke more formally then, and I tried to reproduce that formality while making words and phrases more accessible to modern readers. Douglass’ books are didactic and polemical, all written to justify missions and causes. He told and commented about the character and beliefs of people. Instead, I dramatized and did not editorialize. The old adage, “Show, don’t tell,” was a primary directive.
✋🏿Why do you believe that Douglass’ story is still relevant today?
SM: The issues of freedom, justice, equality, and justice that were central to his story are still relevant today. Sadly, many of his hopes have remained unfulfilled. But because they are unfulfilled, we can turn to Douglass for inspiration and guidance. He was a passionate and thoughtful agitator, and we can use his words to articulate our own current aspirations for justice and equality. Slavery is gone, but its ramifications in contemporary America are still very much alive.
Another point of relevance: America loves success stories, and his story is one of America’s most amazing. A former slave became an advisor to presidents, lived a life of wealth and privilege most Americans never attained, and returned, as a federal official, to the land where he was once enslaved. Amazing, indeed!
✋🏿Can you describe the writing process you employed to write this book?
SM: I am a dramatic writer, imagining what characters say when they encounter each other. I let the dialogues flow, hoping that the characters reveal their stories, feelings, and thoughts in the process. At heart, I am a frustrated playwright.
I enjoy writing dialogue most of all. The plot serves as a list of events making dialogue interactions possible. I use narrative and description to serve the dialogue, preparing for it, reacting to it in summaries, or using it as the lead to the next plot event. When I read novels, my favorite sections are always the conversations and confrontations.
✋🏿If you had a chance to meet and interview Douglass, what would you ask him? And if you could invite a few others to a dinner party with him, who would you invite?
SM: Quite frankly, the prospect of an interview with Douglass is daunting. Like many gifted people, he was a narcissist, and I would not approach an interview as an equal.
Brilliant, arrogant, highly sensitive, always ready to be slighted at any moment, he was always prepared for intellectual battle, but I would not ask questions to challenge his ideas and opinions. I would seek clarification and encourage him to give more details of stories already told.
He was a superb story-teller.
About the dinner party: the invited guests would be James Baldwin, Maya Angelou and Toni Morrison, Jon Meacham, Henry Louis Gates, Rachel Maddow, and Joy Reid—all documented admirers of Douglass, all Americans devoted to the American dream and trenchant observers and critics of killers of that dream: slavery, racism, political injustice, discrimination, inequality, racial violence.
There would be a sobering and yet lively conversation about America’s history and its possible future. All idealists, they would inspire hope. I need hope now more than ever.
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I’ve wanted to learn more about Douglas. Perhaps this is how I’ll do so!