The remarkable journey of Frederick Douglass from fugitive slave to famed orator and author is well recorded. Yet little has been written about Douglass’s final years in Washington, D.C. With his curiosity piqued, journalist John Muller began to research the last eighteen years of Douglass’s personal and professional life in Anacostia, finding enough extraordinary history to inspire his new book.
“While biographers and scholars have produced thousands of pages on Frederick Douglass the abolitionist, social reformer, statesman and public intellectual, much has gone unexplored about his daily life in Washington. He was a local political figure, newspaper editor, U.S. marshal, trustee of Howard University, amateur thespian of the Uniontown Shakespeare Club, real estate investor and philanthropist. He was a man of the city, closely linked to the daily rhythms of the evolving nation’s capital,” said Muller in a recent Washington Post article.
Critics are praising Muller’s meticulous research, as well as his fresh and intimate portrait of Frederick Douglass of Anacostia.
Click on the image below to read Muller’s full article in the Washington Post.
More about the book:
Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C.: The Lion of Anacostia chronicles how the ever-active Douglass was involved in local politics, from aiding in the early formation of Howard University to editing a groundbreaking newspaper to serving as marshal of the District.
During this time, his wife of forty-four years, Anna Murray, passed away, and eighteen months later, he married Helen Pitts, a white woman. Unapologetic for his controversial marriage, Douglass continued his unabashed advocacy for the rights of African Americans and women and his belief in American exceptionalism.
You may also like:
Frederick Douglass’ home museum is definitely worth a visit. Extraordinary! An amazing man.
Thanks for your comment, Ned! Douglass truly was.