Frederick Douglass Family Story Foreword by Robert S
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The Frederick Douglass Family Story Foreword by Robert S. Levine and Afterword by Kim F. Hall “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 challenges and expands Douglass scholarship.” Bill E. Lawson, Emeritus Professor, University of Memphis “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.” George Lipsitz, author of How Racism Takes Place Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor “This is a remarkable breakthrough book on collecting. It is both intimate and public as it encompasses letters, personal papers, artifacts, documents and photographs. 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.” Deborah Willis, University Professor, New York University “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.” Rafia Zafar, author of We Wear the Mask: African Americans Write American Literature, 1770−1870 and University Professor, Washington University in St. Louis All elements 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 U.S. slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, the Douglass family fought for a new “dawn of freedom”. Their history is told in If I Survive alongside full colour facsimile reproductions of over 80 unpublished manuscripts and artifacts held in the Walter O. Evans Collection, including previously unseen speeches, letters, autobiographies, essays, and photographs of Frederick Douglass and his sons Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., and Charles Remond. The Douglass family have much to teach us today as they lived with the scars of slavery and the wounds of war in their shared fight for all freedoms. Celeste-Marie Bernier is Professor of Black Studies and Personal Chair in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Andrew Taylor is Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Cover image: Frederick Douglass, unidentified artist, c. 1850 after c. 1847 original, sixth-plate daguerreotype © National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Spine images: Anon., Charles Remond, Joseph Henry, and Lewis Henry Douglass, February 1895, courtesy of the Walter O. Evans Collection. Frederick Douglass from Julia Griffiths, ed., Autographs for Freedom, 1853 © Special Collections, University of Edinburgh. Back cover images courtesy of the Walter O. Evans Collection. Frederick Douglass Cover design: Biblichor Ltd, Edinburgh ISBN 978-1-4744-2928-3 and Family in the Walter O. Evans Collection edinburghuniversitypress.com Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor 9781474429283 If I Survive (006B) PB cover final pass.indd 1 01/06/2018 16:26 If I Survive Figure 1: John White Hurn, Frederick Douglass, 1862. (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.) If I Survive Frederick Douglass and Family in the Walter O. Evans Collection A 200 YEAR ANNIVERSARY Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor Figure 2: Anon., Frederick Douglass, n.d. Reproduced John W. Thompson, Authentic History of the Douglass Monument. (Rochester: Rochester Herald Press, 1903, 16. Collection of the Rochester Public Library Local History Division, Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County, Rochester, NY.) A slaveholder never appears to me so completely an agent of hell, as when I think of and look upon my dear children. —Frederick Douglass, 1848 My poor mother, like many other slave-women, had many children, but no family! —Frederick Douglass, 1855 I feel that we children have shared in a measure, your sacrifices for the good of the Cause. —Frederick Douglass Jr., 1883 The family worked on and only encouraged by the thought that they were working for the cause in which their father and mother were interested— namely the emancipation of the slave. —Lewis Henry Douglass, 1905 We were a happy family in this work for the enslaved of our race. —Charles Remond Douglass, 1920 Figure 3: Anon., Lewis Henry Douglass, n.d. (Prints and Photographs Division, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University, Washington, DC.) Dedicated to the ‘struggle for the cause of liberty’ by Frederick Douglass’s daughters and sons Rosetta Douglass Sprague (1839–1907) Lewis Henry Douglass (1841–1908) Frederick Douglass Jr. (1842–1892) Charles Remond Douglass (1844–1920) Annie Douglass (1849–1860) Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting-edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor, 2018 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun—Holyrood Road, 12(2f) Jackson’s Entry, Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in Goudy Old Style and New Caledonia by Biblichor Ltd, Edinburgh, and printed and bound in Italy by Rotolito S.p.A. A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 3972 5 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 3973 2 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2928 3 (paperback) ISBN 978 1 4744 3974 9 (epub) The right of Celeste-Marie Bernier and Andrew Taylor to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). Contents List of Illustrations xvii Foreword xxi Robert S. Levine Preface: “My Only Way of Fighting”—Walter O. Evans and Collecting “400 years of Black History” xxxi Frederick Douglass Family Tree xlix Acknowledgments li A Note on Texts and Editorial Practice lv Introduction: “We Labored with Our Father”—The Told Story of Frederick Douglass is the Untold Story of His Family lvii PART I: Our Bondage and Our Freedom Frederick Douglass and Family Chronologies 3 Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) 3 Lewis Henry Douglass (1841–1908) 11 Frederick Douglass Jr. (1842–1892) 25 Charles Remond Douglass (1844–1920) 31 PART II: An “Undying” Love Story “A Heart of Love”: The Courtship of Helen Amelia Loguen and Lewis Henry Douglass 43 1. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, December 22, 1860 63 if i survive 2. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, June 1, 1861 65 3. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, September 24, 1861 69 4. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, September 29, 1861 73 5. Helen Amelia Loguen to Lewis Henry Douglass, Syracuse, NY, October 3, 1861 77 6. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, December 8, 1861 85 7. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, July 11, 1862 95 8. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Salem, NJ, November 20, 1862 101 9. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Salem, NJ, December 29, 1862 105 PART III: “Men of Color, To Arms!” Fighting “Freedom’s Battle”: Frederick, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., and Charles Remond Douglass’s Civil War 113 “Do Not Think of Me in Pain”: Lewis Henry Douglass’s Civil War Letters to Helen Amelia Loguen, Anna Murray Douglass, and Frederick Douglass 121 “I Take a Bullet First”: Charles Remond Douglass’s Civil War Letters to Anna Murray Douglass and Frederick Douglass 139 10. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, MA, March 31, 1863 153 11. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, MA, April 8, 1863 158 12. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, MA, April 15, 1863 164 13. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, MA, May 9, 1863 169 14. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, MA, May 20, 1863 174 15. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Camp Meigs, Readville, MA, May 27 [1863] 179 16. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, St. Simons Island, GA, June 18, 1863 183 x if i survive 17. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Morris Island, SC, August 15 [1863] 189 18. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Morris Island, SC, August 27, 1863 194 19. Lewis Henry Douglass to Helen Amelia Loguen, Rochester, NY, January 31, 1864 199 20. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Camp Meigs, Readville, MA, July 6, 1863 203 21. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Boston, MA, September 8, 1863 209 22. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Boston, MA, September 18, 1863 215 23. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Boston, MA, December 20, 1863 218 24. Charles Remond Douglass to Frederick Douglass, Camp Hamilton, City Point, VA, near Bermuda Hundred, May 31, 1864 221 25. Charles Remond Douglass to Anna Murray and Frederick Douglass, Point Lookout, MD, September 15, 1864 227 PART IV: The “Incontestable Voice of History” in Frederick Douglass’s Manuscripts 26.