About the Book
Previously unseen speeches, letters, autobiographies, and photographs of Frederick Douglass and his sons, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr. and Charles Remond Douglass, from the Walter O. Evans collection
While the many public lives of Frederick Douglass – as the representative ‘fugitive slave’, autobiographer, orator, abolitionist, reformer, philosopher and statesman – are lionised worldwide, If I Survive sheds light on the private life of Douglass the family man. For the first time, this book provides readers with a collective biography mapping the activism, authorship and artistry of Douglass and his sons, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr. and Charles Remond Douglass. In one volume, the history of the Douglass family appears alongside full colour facsimile reproductions of their over 80 previously unpublished speeches, letters, autobiographies and photographs held in the Walter O. Evans Collection. All of life can be found within these pages: romance, hope, despair, love, life, death, war, protest, politics, art, and friendship. Working together and against a changing backdrop of US slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, the Douglass family fought for a new ‘dawn of freedom’.
Marking the 200th anniversary of Frederick Douglass’ birth, this first collective history and comprehensive collection of the Douglass family writings and portraits sheds new light not only on Douglass as a freedom-fighter and family man but on the lives and works of Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., and Charles Remond. As civil rights protesters, essayists, autobiographers, and orators in their own right, they each played a vital role in the ‘struggles for the cause of liberty’ of their father. As published here, each of their original writings and portraits is accompanied by an explanatory essay and in-depth scholarly annotatations as well as a detailed bibliography.
Recognising that the Frederick Douglass that is needed in a twenty-first century Black Lives Matter era is no infallible icon but a mortal individual, If I Survive situates the lives and works of Douglass and his family within the social, political, historical and cultural contexts in which they lived and worked. Each unafraid to die for the cause, they dedicated their lives to the "emancipation of the slave" and to social justice by every means necessary.
The Foreword is written by Robert S. Levine and the Afterword is authored by Kim F. Hall.
Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Foreword - Robert S. LevinePreface: ‘My Only Way of Fighting’ - Walter O. Evans and Collecting ‘400 years of Black History’Frederick Douglass Family TreeAcknowledgements A Note on Texts and Editorial Practice
Introduction ‘We Labored with our Father’ - The Told Story of Frederick Douglass is the Untold Story of His Family
Part I: Our Bondage and Our Freedom
Frederick Douglass and Family ChronologiesFrederick Douglass (1818-1895)Lewis Henry Douglass (1841-1908)Frederick Douglass Jr. (1842-1892)Charles Remond Douglass (1844-1920)
Part II: An ‘Undying’ Love Story
‘A Heart of Love:’ The Courtship of Helen Amelia Loguen and Lewis Henry Douglass1. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, December 22, 1860. 2. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, June 1, 1861.3. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, September 24, 1861. 4. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, September 29, 1861. 5. Helen Amelia Loguen to Lewis Henry Douglass, Syracuse, October 3, 1861.6. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, December 8, 1861.7. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, July 11, 1862. 8. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Salem New Jersey, November 20, 1862.9. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Salem, December 29, 1862.
Part III: ‘Men of Color, To Arms!’
Fighting ‘Freedom’s Battle:’ Frederick, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., and Charles Remond Douglass’s Civil War‘Do Not Think of Me in Pain:’ Lewis Henry Douglass’s Civil War Letters to Helen Amelia Loguen, Anna Murray Douglass, and Frederick Douglass10. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, March 31, 1863. 11. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, April 8, 1863. [Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress] 12. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, April 15, 1863.13. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, May 9, 1863.14. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, May 20, 1863.15. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, Massachusetts, May 27 [1863].16. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, St. Simons Island, Georgia, June 18, 1863.17. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Morris Island, August 15, [1863].18. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Morris Island, August 27, 1863.19. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, January 31, 1864.‘I take a bullet first:’ Charles Remond Douglass’s Civil War Letters to Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass20. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Camp Meigs, Readville, July 6th 1863. [Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress]21. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Boston, September 8, 1863. [Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress]22. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Boston, September 18, 1863. [Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress]23. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Boston, December 20, 1863. [Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress]24. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Camp Hamilton, City Point Virginia, near Bermuda Hundred, May 31 1864. 25. Charles Remond Douglass to Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass, Point Lookout, Md., September 15, 1864. [Frederick Douglass Papers, Library of Congress]
Part IV: The ‘Incontestable Voice of History’ in Frederick Douglass’s Manuscripts26. ‘The energy that slumbers in the black man’s arm:’ Lecture on Santo Domingo, c. 1873.27. ‘It is hard for a white man to do justice to a black man:’ The Louisiana Senator [P.B.S. Pinchback], c. 1876.28. ‘My own murdered people:’ William the Silent, 1876.29. ‘The Welfare of the Colored People:’ The Exodus from the South, c. 1879.30. ‘A great example of heroic endeavor:’ Eulogy for William Lloyd Garrison, 1879.
Part V: ‘I Glory in your Spirit’"Pluck, Pluck My Boy is the Thing that Wins": Frederick Douglass and Family’s Fight for the Cause of Liberty in a Post-Emancipation Era31. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, May 20, 1864. 32. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Mitchellville, MD, September 28, 1864.33. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, March 26, 1865. 34. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Ferry Neck, MD, January 7, 1866. 35. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Denver, CO, September 30, 1866. 36. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Philadelphia, PA, February 10, 1868. 37. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Washington D.C., July 5, 1869. 38. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Washington D.C., July 17, 1869. 39. Frederick Douglass to Lewis Henry Douglass, Rochester, NY, July 21 1869. 40. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Washington D.C., September 15, 1869.41. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass, [Washington D.C.], December 5, 1870. 42. Lewis Henry Douglass, ‘To Columbian Typographical Union No. 101,’ [Washington D.C., January 1871.43. Frederick Douglass to Judge Edmunds, Washington D.C., August 29, 1876. 44. Frederick Douglass to Mrs. Marks, Washington D.C., February 13, 1884.45. Frederick Douglass to Charles Remond Douglass, Port Au Prince [Haiti], February 25, 1891.46. Frederick Douglass to Lewis Henry Douglass, March 7 [Port-au-Prince, Haiti], 1891.47. Frederick Douglass to Charles Remond Douglass, c. April 1891.48. Frederick Douglass to Catherine Swan Brown Spear, Cedar Hill, Washington D.C., March 7, 1892.49. Frederick Douglass to Charles Remond Douglass, Haitian Pavilion, Chicago, October 7, 1893. 50. Haley George Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Washington D.C, March 3, 1893. 51. Frederick Douglass to Haley Douglass, Cedar Hill, [Washington D.C.], March 7, 189352. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass, [Washington D.C.] December 19, 1894 .53. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass, [Washington D.C.] January 20, 1895. 54. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass, [Washington D.C.] January 30, 1895. 55. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass, Washington D.C., February 18, 1895. 56. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass, Washington D.C., October 9, 1900. 57. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen Douglass, Washington D.C., July 5, 1905.58. Lewis Henry Douglass, ‘Scrapbook,’ Washington D.C., August 2, 1907. 59. Lewis Henry Douglass to W. J. Vernon Esq., Washington D.C., December 3, 1907.
Part VI: ‘I was Born’ Suffering and Sacrifice: Frederick Douglass Jr. and Virginia L. M. Douglass’s Unpublished Works 60. Frederick Douglass Jr., Frederick Douglass Jr. in brief from 1842-1890 [c.1890].61. Frederick Douglass Jr., Untitled Autobiography of Virginia L. M. Hewlett [c.1890]. 62. Virginia L. M. Hewlett, To the Fifty Mass. Cavalry, 1864.
Part VII: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave and Freeman, as told by Charles Remond Douglass
The ‘Sacrifices of my Father[’]s Family:’ Charles Remond Douglass as Family Historian63. Charles Remond Douglass, ‘Some Incidents of the Home Life of Frederick Douglass,’ [c. February 1917].
Part VIII: Frederick Douglass and Family in Photographs and Prints
Walter O. Evans’s Frederick Douglass and Family Album64. John Chester Buttre, Frederick Douglass [c.1853].65. Anon., Charles Remond Douglass, [c. 1863].66. Anon., Lewis Henry Douglass, [c. 1863].67. Anon. Lewis Henry Douglass, [c, 1870].68. [Anon.], Mathew Brady, Frederick Douglass, [c. 1877].69. Anon. Frederick Douglass and Unidentified Family Members, Cedar Hill, [c. 1891].70. Anon. [Dennis (or Denys) Bourdon], Joseph Henry Douglass and Frederick Douglass, May 10, 1894.71. Anon., Charles Remond, Joseph Henry, and Lewis Henry Douglass, February 1895.72. Anon., Charles Remond, Joseph Henry, and Lewis Henry Douglass, February 1895. [Second copy in the collection]. 73. J. H. Kent, Charles Remond Douglass, Rochester NY, n.d. 74. Anon., Charles Remond Douglass, ‘Commander Frederick Douglass Post No. 21’, n.d.75. Anon., Charles Remond Douglass, n.d.76. Anon, Charles Remond Douglass, n.d.77. E. Paul Tilghman, Lewis Henry Douglass, n.d., New Bedford, Mass.78. Anon., Lewis Henry Douglass and unidentified children, n.d.79. Anon., Unveiling of Frederick Douglass Monument, n.d., [June 9 1899].80. J. H. Kent, Frederick Douglass Monument, Rochester NY, [c. 1899].81. Anon, Haley G. Douglass, Highland Beach, 1895.82. Anon., [Unidentified] Charles A. Fraser, c. 1882.83. Anon., [Unidentified Woman], n.d.. 84. Anon., [Unidentified Woman in a Rural Landscape], n.d.85. Anon., Haley George Douglass and Evelyn Virginia Dulaney Douglass, n.d. 86. Anon., [Exterior Landscape, Three Male Children], n.d.
Part IX: Frederick Douglass and Family Resources
Walter O. Evans Frederick Douglass and Family Collection InventoryPublic and Private Archives and RepositoriesFurther Reading
Part X: Helen Amelia Loguen Correspondence
Helen Amelia Loguen Correspondence in the Walter O. Evans Collection Inventory
Afterword - Kim F. HallIndex
About the Author :
Celeste-Marie Bernier is Professor of Black Studies and Personal Chair in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. She is the author of African American Visual Arts; Characters of Blood: Black Heroism in the Transatlantic Imagination; Suffering and Sunset; World War I in the Art and Life of Horace Pippin; Stick to the Skin: African American and Black British Art (1965-2015). Andrew Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh.
Review :
If I Survive brings to Frederick Douglass scholarship an exploration of his intimate relationship with his family and its commitment to social justice. This book will challenge and expand Douglass Scholarship.
Public and university libraries will want this book for their African American and history collections.
This a remarkable breakthrough book on collecting. This unique and well-researched book transforms the family and public archive of Frederick Douglass into a living monument that breathes new life into the idea of public memory.
This treasure trove of primary source documents reveals how the frequently told history of Frederick Douglass as an individual needs to be revised to account for the largely untold story of the work performed by his daughters and sons. It shows how the freedom forged by Douglass rested in no small measure on the collaborative work of his entire family, work that is now fully documented in print for the first time.
If I Survive is a treasure for scholars of the nineteenth century, of Frederick Douglass, of the world of Black life in the Reconstruction era and the reversals that followed. Collecting little-seen family photos, beautiful love letters, the sole manuscript copy of Douglass’s eulogy for William Lloyd Garrison, and hitherto inaccessible documents from the Walter O. Evans collection, Professors Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor offer their readers an unexpected gift, contextualizing and revealing the profound texture of America’s most unsung First Family. A must for libraries, a find for academics, a trove for lovers of U.S. history and Black studies.
In history, the study of slavery and the pre-Civil War era is a well trodden path. But this book will help break new ground with the amount of primary sources we get, all in one volume. This book alone should occupy scholars for decades.
