C URRENT LITERATURE.
FREDERICK DOUGLASS.
Frederick Douglass. By Booker T. Washington. (Hodder and Stoughton. 7s. 6d.)—Frederick Bailey—the name of Douglass was assumed after his escape from slavery—was born at Tuckahoe, in Maryland. He was a mulatto, and doubtless owed much to the mixture of race, for though his mother was a woman of uncommon ability, his half-brother and his half-sisters, who were pure negroes, showed no kind of superiority. From very early years there was something noteworthy about him ; and his lot as a slave was not the easier for it. He was even sent for a year to a man of the Legree type, who had a reputation as a breaker of too independent tempers. In his twenty-second year he made his escape from Baltimore, where he was at work as a ship-caulker. The enterprise was managed with extraordinary skill and courage. He settled at New Bedford, Mass., but found life anything but easy—he was now married—for no skilled labour was open to him. In 1841 came the opportunity of his life. He was put up to speak at an Abolitionist meeting, and after stammering through a sentence found himself. He told the story of his slave life, and in the words of an eyewitness, "when he closed late in the evening, none seemed to know or care for the lateness of the hour." Indeed, he was too eloquent; when he became, as he soon did, a regular lecturer for the cause, his white associates were always begging him to confine himself to simple facts. His oratory was so fine that it seemed to make the whole situation impossible. Of course, the reception that he met with varied greatly. At Richmond, Indiana, he was nearly killed by an anti-Abolitionist mob. The "John Brown" affair was an occasion of much peril to him. He did all he could to dissuade Brown from his enter- prise ; he was far too clear-sighted to have any hopes of its success. Still, he was an accomplice. His friends hurried him to Canada; and, as he was not safe even there, sent him to England. When the Civil War began he showed the sagacious statesman- like temper which distinguished him by standing steadily by Lincoln. Nothing could have been less satisfactory to an Abolitionist than Lincoln's attitude during the first period of the war. He proclaimed again and again that he was struggling for the Union, and the Union only, Slavery was not to be affected by it. Douglass had the sagacity to see further. He knew what was bound to happen, and was content to wait. Meanwhile he did what he could for the cause. In the matter of recruiting among the negroes he made himself especially useful. In the early days they were shut out; then they were admitted under humiliating restrictions ; before the end came nearly a hundred thousand were under arms. The time after the war brought many disappointments, but also great honours. Frederick Douglass was emphatically a pioneer for his race. He has found an eminently worthy biographer. To Mr. Washington has fallen the opportunity of carrying out a work of which Frederick Douglass long ago saw the necessity,—the education of the negro.
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