The Powers of Dignity: The Black Political Philosophy of Frederick Douglass

About the Book

In The Powers of Dignity Nick Bromell unpacks Frederick Douglass's 1867 claim that he had "elaborated a political philosophy" from his own "slave experience." Bromell shows that Douglass devised his philosophy because he found that antebellum Americans' liberal-republican understanding of democracy did not provide a sufficient principled basis on which to fight anti-Black racism. To remedy this deficiency, Douglass deployed insights from his distinctively Black experience and developed a Black philosophy of democracy. He began by contesting the founders' racist assumptions about humanity and advancing instead a more robust theory of "the human" as a collection of human "powers." He asserted further that the conscious exercise of those powers is what confirms human dignity and that human rights and democracy come into being as ways to affirm and protect that dignity. Thus, by emphasizing the powers and the dignity of all citizens, deriving democratic rights from these, and promoting a remarkably activist, power-oriented model of citizenship, Douglass's Black political philosophy aimed to rectify two major failings of US democracy in his time and ours: its complacence and its racism.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments  vii
Introduction. "The Thing Looked Absurd": The Black in Douglass's Political Philosophy  1
1. "To Become a Colored Man": Proposing Black Powers to the Black Public Sphere  17
2. "A Chapter of Political Philosophy Applicable to the American People": Human Nature, Human Dignity, Human Rights  38
3. "One Method for Expressing Opposite Emotions": Douglass's Fugitive Rhetoric  55
4. "Assault Compels Defense": Douglass on Black Emigration and Violence  82
5. "A Living Root, Not a Twig Broken Off": Douglass's Constitutionalism and the Paradox of Democracy's Foundations  101
6. "Somebody's Child": Awakening, Resistance, and Vulnerability in My Bondage and My Freedom  124
7. "Nothing Less Than a Radical Revolution": Douglass's Struggle for a Democracy without Race  159
8. "That Strange, Mysterious, and Indescribable": The Fugitive Legacy of Douglass's Political Thought  188
Notes  207
Bibliography  243
Index  263

About the Author :
Nick Bromell is Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and editor of A Political Companion to W. E. B. Du Bois and The Time Is Always Now: Black Thought and the Transformation of US Democracy.

Review :
“The Powers of Dignity is an impressive, thorough, and detailed reconstruction of Frederick Douglass as political philosopher, and should immediately become a major reference text not just for Douglass scholarship but also for the broader project of retrieving and theorizing a distinct African American political tradition. Nick Bromell's book distinguishes itself by his impressive interdisciplinary ambition to bring together philosophy, literary studies, political theory, cognitive science, and new materialism. This is an exciting reconceptualization of the political cartography.” - Charles W. Mills, author of (Black Rights/White Wrongs: The Critique of Racial Liberalism) “Nick Bromell writes beautifully, and he has an illuminating story to tell about Frederick Douglass's political imagination from the 1840s to the 1890s. As Bromell shows, Douglass's political thinking about race and democracy was constantly in flux, mediated by his experience in slavery and his commitment to the Black freedom struggle. This is an exemplary contribution to our understanding of one of the most important figures in American history.” - Robert S. Levine, author of (The Lives of Frederick Douglass) "This is an important study at a time when critical race theory is being banned in states like Oklahoma and Texas. Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty."
  - R. T. Prus (Choice) “The Powers of Dignity is exactly the kind of book our nation and era needs.... [It] is both an exciting contribution to the literature on Frederick Douglass and a sobering reminder that the roots of our democracy and the theorizing that accompanies it are ‘a site of endless struggle.’” - Ange-Marie Hancock (Perspectives on Politics) “[The Powers of Dignity]-gracefully written, wide-ranging, and compelling-makes a laudable contribution to Douglass scholarship. Scholars in political theory, literature, African American studies, and related fields will benefit from Nick Bromell’s excellent monograph.” - Nathan Pippenger (Review of Politics) “The Powers of Dignity is an ingenious, determined, and stimulating interpretation of a part of Frederick Douglass’s political philosophy. . . . I greatly admire Bromell’s book, particularly for its subtlety and originality.” - Bernard R. Boxill (American Political Thought)

“At once dialectical and venturesome, it reimagines the mind of Frederick Douglass on Douglass’s own exceptional terms. One hopes academic philosophy and US political thought take notice.”

- Maurice Wallace (American Literary History)