BookLovers: “Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches” now on HBO Max

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You might remember a few years back when I wrote about David Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom.”

David Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom."
David Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom."

It’s brilliant, by the way. The definitive biography of the escaped slave who became one of the most influential orators and figures of his generation.

A bit after that, Blight, the 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner, visited New Bedford — Douglass’s former residence — to discuss that book.

This week, HBO premiered a documentary inspired by Blight’s book, and executive produced by scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. If you haven’t seen it, you can stream it now.

“Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches” brings to life the words of the activist. Actors Nicole Beharie, Colman Domingo, Jonathan Majors, Denzel Whitaker, and Jeffrey Wright draw from five of Douglass’ legendary speeches, according to HBO. Blight, Gates, Sarah Lewis and Keidrick Roy, artist Bisa Butler, poet Nzadi Keita, and Douglass descendant Ken Morris provide context, while André Holland reads from Douglass’ autobiographies. According to HBO, speeches in the documentary include:

“I Have Come To Tell You Something About Slavery” (1841.). At an anti-slavery convention, Douglass recounts his story of being raised as a slave publicly for the first time.

“Country, Conscience, And The Anti-Slavery Cause” (1847) Douglass addresses the American Anti-Slavery Society on his return from the British Isles.

“What, To The Slave, Is The Fourth Of July?” (1852). Douglass reminds his audience of the continuing enslavement of his people, 76 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

“The Proclamation And A Negro Army” (1863). Douglass responds to the Emancipation Proclamation and calls for Black men to be allowed to fight in the war.

“Lessons Of The Hour” (1894). Douglass urges America to eliminate prejudice and look to its founding principles.

If you’re raring to learn more about Douglass after watching, I’d urge you to read his works — especially his 1845 “Narrative Of The Life Of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave” — and Blight’s biography.

As I’ve said before in this column, Douglass was the conscience of our nation during our most unconscionable time. He stood for truth and equality during a time of disgusting inequality, during the most repugnant and shameful behavior in American history: Slavery.

Born a slave circa 1818 on a large plantation in Maryland, Frederick Bailey barely knew his own mom and inferred from plantation talk that his dad was his white owner.

As a little kid, a slave on a plantation, he saw the horrors of slavery first-hand. He writes in the first chapter of his first book about watching his aunt beaten bloody:

His master whipped her "till she was literally covered with blood. No words, no tears, no prayers, from his bloody victim, seemed to move his iron heart from its bloody purpose. The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest.”

He, largely, taught himself to read and write, and education made him realize he wanted more from life. He considered suicide. Then some 20 years before the Civil War, he escaped slavery and fled to New York. He met his wife Anna Murray, a free African-American woman, and the couple moved to New Bedford in 1838.

He adapted the last name “Doulgass” and the couple lived together as free people for the first time on Seventh Street at Nathan and Polly Johnson’s house. The Johnsons were part of the Underground Railroad.

Douglass and his wife only stayed in New Bedford a few years; they moved to Lynn in 1841. He soon wrote his first book.

Had he not arrived in New Bedford and met Johnson, he may never have become Frederick “Douglass” at all. Blight writes in his biography:

“In New Bedford, [Frederick and Anna] were directed immediately to the home of the free blacks Nathan and Mary Johnson… At breakfast on the morning after Frederick and Anna’s arrival, Johnson urged the Marylanders to choose a new name.”

Frederick let Johnson choose a new surname for him, Blight writes:

“Johnson had just been reading Sir Walter Scott’s ‘Lady of the Lake’… From the Highlander clan named Douglas, Johnson suggested a new name. Frederick liked the name’s sound and strength… adding an ’s’ for distinction. Thus began the long process of the most famous self-creation of an African American identity in American history.”

Lauren Daley is a freelance writer. She tweets @laurendaley1. Read more at https://www.facebook.com/daley.writer.

This article originally appeared on Standard-Times: BookLovers: “Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches” now on HBO Max