Includes bibliographical references (pages 771-858) and index.

First things -- A childhood of extremes -- The silver trump of knowledge -- Baltimore dreams -- Now for mischief! -- Living a new life -- This Douglass! -- Garrisonian in mind and body -- The thought of writing for a book! -- Send back the money! -- Demagogue in black -- My faithful friend Julia -- By the rivers of Babylon -- My voice, my pen, or my vote -- John Brown could die for the slave -- Secession : taught by events -- The kindling spirit of his battle cry -- The anthem of the redeemed -- Men of color to arms! -- Abolition war, abolition peace -- Sacred efforts -- Othello's occupation was gone -- All the leeches that feed on you -- Ventures -- What will peace among the whites bring? -- An important and lucrative office -- Joys and sorrows at Cedar Hill -- Watchman, what of the night? -- Born traveler -- Haiti : servant between two masters -- If American conscience were only half-alive -- Epilogue: Then Douglass passed.

"The definitive, dramatic biography of the most important African-American of the nineteenth century: Frederick Douglass, the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day and one of the leading abolitionists and writers of the era. 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. His very existence gave the lie to slave owners: with dignity and great intelligence he bore witness to the brutality of slavery. Initially mentored by William Lloyd Garrison, Douglass spoke widely, often to large crowds, using his own story to condemn slavery. He broke with Garrison to become a political abolitionist, a Republican, and eventually a Lincoln supporter. By the Civil War and during Reconstruction, Douglass became the most famed and widely traveled orator in the nation. He denounced the premature end of Reconstruction and the emerging Jim Crow era. In his unique and eloquent voice, written and spoken, Douglass was a fierce critic of the United States as well as a radical patriot. He sometimes argued politically with younger African-Americans, but he never forsook either the Republican party or the cause of black civil and political rights. 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Pulitzer Prize in History, 2019