Douglass and Lincoln
How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union
Kendrick, Paul
Kendrick, Stephen
Hardcover
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BOOK SYNOPSIS
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln had only three meetings, but their exchanges profoundly influenced the course of slavery and the outcome of the Civil War.
Although Abraham Lincoln deeply opposed the institution of slavery, he saw the Civil War at its onset as being primarily about preserving the Union. Frederick Douglass, himself a former slave, by contrast saw the Wars mission to be the total and permanent abolition of slavery. And yet, these giants of the nineteenth century, despite their different outlooks, found common ground, in large part through their three historic meetings.
Lincoln first invited Douglass to the White House in August 1862. Well-known for his speeches and his internationally read abolitionist newspaper, Douglass laid out for the president his concerns about how the Union army was discriminating against black soldiers. Douglass, often critical of the president in his speeches and articles, was impressed by Lincolns response. The following summer when the war was going poorly, the president summoned Douglass to the White House. Fearing that he might not be reelected, Lincoln showed Douglass a letter he had prepared stating his openness to negotiating a settlement to end the Civil Warand leave slavery intact in the South. Douglass strongly advised Lincoln against making the letter public. Lincoln never did; Atlanta fell and he was reelected. Their final meeting was at the White House reception following Lincolns second inaugural address, where Lincoln told Douglass there was no man in the country whose opinion he valued more and Douglass called the presidents inaugural address sacred.
In elegant prose and with unusual insights, Paul and Stephen Kendrick chronicle the parallel lives of Douglass and Lincoln as a means of presenting a fresh, unique picture of two men who, in their differences, eventually challenged each other to greatness and altered the course of the nation.
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MORE BOOK INFO
ISBN: 0802715230
ISBN(13-digit): 9780802715234
Dewey Decimal: 973.7/1140922
Library of Congress: bl2007020226
Book Publisher: St Martins Pr
Language: ENG
No. of Pages: 306
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