Liberating Sojourn

Still in his twenties but already famous for his fiery orations and controversial autobiography, black abolitionist Frederick Douglass traveled to Great Britain in 1845 on an eighteen-month lecture and fund-raising tour. This book examines how that visit affected transatlantic reform movements and Douglass s own thinking. The first book dedicated specifically to the trip, it features the work of scholars from both sides of the Atlantic--including Douglass biographer William McFeely and abolitionist scholar R. J. M. Blackett--who use Douglass s visit to reexamine aspects of his life and times. The contributors reveal the visit s significance to an understanding of transatlantic gender relations, religion, radicalism, and popular views of African Americans in Britain and also examine such topics as Douglass s attitudes toward the Irish and his campaign against the Free Church of Scotland for accepting southern money. Together, these essays show that Douglass s journey was a personal and political triumph and a key event in his development, leaving him better prepared to set the strategies and ideologies of the abolitionist movement."