Frederick Douglass in Brooklyn edited by Theodore Hamm

New York City mayor Eric Adams wrote a note prefacing this account of the towering 19th century figure Frederick Douglass making the book especially relevant and timely to us New Yorkers today.

In his intro the book’s editor provides the reader with context for meeting Douglass through the eyes of the poet Walt Whitman and the “varied reactions to his positions on abolition and black equality thus illustrate the ways in which those issues shaped the city in its formative decades.”  

Each of the book’s chapters highlights a speech Douglass made in Brooklyn between 1859 and 1893 and are fascinating primary sources including contemporary public responses to his ideas.  Thus the reader is given crucial, often painful insight into how Brooklynites viewed issues of equality 160 years ago.  

Footnotes add important context.  Recommended for educators.--Jessica Fenster-Sparber