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Reviews
| Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July, by James A, Colaiaco. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007. 256 pages. $16.95, paper.
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| The thought of Frederick Douglass is vividly brought to life by James A. Colaiaco in his new work, Frederick Douglass and the Fourth of July. Beginning with Douglass' famous Fourth of July Oration on July 5, 1852, Colaiaco combines Douglass' life and ideas with a narrative of the turbulent debates leading up to the Civil War. Colaiaco uses the themes of this speech as a springboard for further analysis in the first four chapters. He weaves the story of Douglass' life, moving from slavery to freedom, into a discussion of the fierce debates the country endured over the slavery issue. One question that recurs throughout the book is Douglass' perspective on the Constitution. Many abolitionists, such as William Lloyd Garrison, were violently opposed to the Constitution because of its compromises with slavery, and had little patience with the political process. Douglass, however, began his career as a Garrisonian, but by the early 1850s, his thinking had changed, a shift that Colaiaco attributes in part to an ongoing correspondence with his friend Gerrit Smith. From the middle of chapter four through the end of the book, Colaiaco depicts the new Douglass, who had come to believe the Constitution was anti-slavery and began to use constitutional mechanisms to undermine slavery's power. |
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In chapter five, there is a brief discussion of the events that led up to the Dred Scott decision, including the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act, for the purpose of showing how Douglass reflected on those events in the context of his new views. Dred Scott and its aftermath are the center of chapter six, including Douglass' refutation of Chief Justice Taney's arguments in that infamous case. Chapter seven focuses on Douglass' speech in Glasgow, Scotland on March 26, 1860, in which he laid out his new arguments as to why the Constitution should properly be viewed as an anti-slavery document. The book concludes with an epilogue that discusses Douglass, his relationship with Abraham Lincoln, and the Civil War years. |
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Colaiaco has done a superb job of laying out Douglass' views, and convincingly demonstrates how those views evolved over time, though little of the material presented is new. He has also provided an extremely useful book for teaching about Douglass or the antebellum period more generally. Undergraduate courses on intellectual history or political thought that cover Douglass would be well-served by including this book in their syllabi. Introductory level courses on American history could use chapters five and six to set the stage for class discussions about slavery, Dred Scott, and the intellectual climate within the abolitionist movement. Even graduate courses might find the book helpful as a supplement to other works on Douglass or the antebellum era. Students (and their teachers) will enjoy Colaiaco's crisp, clear writing style and his ability to stir the reader's heart with his sympathetic portrayal of Douglass and his times. This book is especially well-suited for undergraduate courses that cover the antebellum period and debates over slavery. |
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| City University of New York Graduate Center |
William D. Adler |
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