Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches

It is hard for me to believe that a man this powerful and significant to American history is not a household name. He led the abolitionist movement, much like Harriet Tubman led the underground railroad, and Martin Luther King led the civil rights movement. Born a slave in 1818, there was no template for a Black man in America being treated as a human being. He created it! He not only insisted upon his humanity as a slave who could be killed for looking a white person in the face, but he basically became a king gracing the cover of our equivalent to Time magazine while most Black people were still slaves! The man was a monument of accomplishment and pride. Omg please watch this documentary and give it 10 stars. The bizarrely low rating is clearly a result of the racism and anger towards Black excellence and the telling of stories of our greatness.

As someone who has read the book this documentary is based on, it leaves out a great deal of information. For starters, he chose his name as Frederick Douglass when he was coming into his own. He struggled greatly with who his family, and specifically who his father was. Ultimately moving on from this unknown. The most amazing aspect was his forgiveness. He started his career with full of passion and fight in him to change America to the point of him stating this wasn't his country. He changed this thought as stating "This is our country" and to go even further to forgive his slave master.

As for his political association, he didn't believe in any of them before Lincoln. He needed to see proof the Republican Party could measure up to their promises made. He wholly despised the Democratic Party due to their stance on slavery. And after the war was ended, he was against reparations to previous slaves as he wanted them to find their own confidence that he himself found as a free, thinking man.

In the book it also states the relation to Andrew Johnson and how AJ gave way to the rise of the KKK thus beginning the unravel of all the work that was accomplished during Lincoln's presidency.

A much needed work but poorly produced. The documentary would have been better served if the entirety of the speeches were read and then commentary given. To interrupt this great man's speeches does him and the viewer a great disservice. The title of the documentary gives the impression of being about Frederick Douglass so a better production would have left the political biases and personal opinions of the speakers and producer on the cutting room floor.

This is five excerpts from Douglass speeches from different perods of his life, interspersed with short biographical info from the different periods. Although brief, it does altogether give a sense of portrait of the man's life.

The speeches are theatrically read aloud for us, straight to camera; the participants all know and channel contemporary rage, using them to address now. We're meant to see that the same inequities persist in disguise. The timelessness of Douglass.

What really captivated this viewer, however, was seeing how Douglass emerges into the world. How does a narrator like him, uniquely bold, outside the norm, come into being? What set of circumstances?

One can point to the rarity of an early written education, or scraps of it as he got. Being picked up by the Garrisonians at Massachussetts, the novelty of an articulate former slave who could give fiery voice to the experience. Indeed the fact that there was an abolitionist structure ready to receive him, a stage for it.

Ironically, seeing him speak as a white man, Garrison prods him to dial it back and give more of a down-home vibe, speak more like a black slave for the audience.

But there's a quasi-magical journey here too. What does it take for a narrator like that to emerge? He's plucked from the life of slave childhood and suddenly finds himself in Baltimore, port to a wider world. The world of language and the written word does indeed open itself up to him there, and can you imagine the thrill of realizing these arcane scribblings paint ferocious images in the mind, can transport and open vistas? Because, unlike for white kids (or you and me) who take that as given, as part of the expected course, in Douglass case that's tied to being opened up to an unforeseen world.

And then, disguised as sailor, he makes the daring dash north to New York and freedom, and that's another world that opens up, even bigger. And from there it's on to Massachussetts, and now being up on stage. On to England, and slowly somewhat the life of an electrifying rock star.

I wish for everyone to be so lucky as, at crucial junctures, to leave the known world behind, be ready to wonder at a bigger world. Lucky to stumble upon the transformative power of language, visual or otherwise. I can only image how liberating to experience all these thrills of liberty, and on top of that be able to give voice to where you came from.

There's an archetypal journey, maybe worthy of Shakespeare, or one of the masters of film.

Several actors do an excellent reading of five of Douglass' speeches, with biographical perspectives interwoven into a story. Henry Louis Gates did a good job as one of the producers and narrators. Definitely worth the hour to watch.