Historian Connects Frederick Douglass to Presidential Election

David Blight, professor of American History at Yale University, connected Frederick Douglass’s life and work to the 2016 presidential election at Harvard Law School Wednesday.

Blight is working on a book about Douglass, a black writer and prominent abolitionist in the 19th century. Blight said he decided to write the book after encountering new materials, including 10 family scrapbooks, thousands of newspaper clippings, letters, and memoirs, about six years ago in Savannah, GA.

“It opens the last third of Douglass’s life as never before,” he said.

Blight analyzed Douglass’s extended families, two marriages, and his relationships with two European women for his book. He said this focus on Douglass’s personal life differs from previous scholarship on the author.

“[Past scholarship] presented him as out-of-touch, getting old and always in rivalries and fights with other black leaders,” Blight said.

Blight also discussed Douglass in the context of the 2016 presidential election. He said the election of 1864 was one of “the most racist, white supremacist elections in American history.”

“We think we were tense,” he said, referring to the recent election. “[In 1864], everything was on the line for black Americans, for white union troops, for the North, the entire meaning and purpose of all that bloodshed.”

Blight said Douglass turned to writing during this period of political turmoil.

“Douglass is all about words, he’s all about language,” he said. “Words were essentially the only power he ever had, the only weapons he ever had.”

History professor James T. Kloppenberg called Blight’s lecture “riveting.”

“Filling out the rest of his life, especially the last part of his life, will give us insights into Douglass that we’ve never had before,” he said.

Audience member Diane Williams said she appreciated how Blight “humanizes” Douglass and connected his life to the election.