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Book Discussion

 

Prophet of Freedom Book Discussion

November 7, 2019

Join us for a lively discussion of David Blight’s latest book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. This conversation is for those who have read the book, as well as for those who have not. Bring your own copy or purchase one at our museum store.

 

From the author:
As a young man Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery in Baltimore, Maryland. He was fortunate to have been taught to read by his slave owner mistress, and he would go on to become one of the major literary figures of his time. He wrote three versions of his autobiography over the course of his lifetime and published his own newspaper.

 

In this remarkable biography, David Blight has drawn on new information held in a private collection that few other historians have consulted, as well as recently discovered issues of Douglass’s newspapers. Blight tells the fascinating story of Douglass’s two marriages and his complex extended family. Douglass was not only an astonishing man of words, but a thinker steeped in Biblical story and theology. There has not been a major biography of Douglass in a quarter century. David Blight’s Frederick Douglass affords this important American the distinguished biography he deserves.

 


 

David W. Blight  is a teacher, scholar and public historian. At Yale University he is Sterling Professor of History, joining that faculty in January, 2003. As of June, 2004, he is Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. In his capacity as director of the Gilder Lehrman Center at Yale, Blight organizes conferences, working groups, lectures, the administering of the annual Frederick Douglass Book Prize, and many public outreach programs regarding the history of slavery and its abolition. His latest book is a new full biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom, published in October, 2018 by Simon and Schuster. Blight works in many capacities in the world of public history, including on boards of museums and historical societies, and as a member of a small team of advisors to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum team of curators.

Location Harriet Beecher Stowe Center / Visitor Center / 77 Forest Street, Hartford
Doors Open
Program 5:30 - 6:30 pm