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A review by mrsjhasbooks
Facing Frederick: The Life of Frederick Douglass, a Monumental American Man by Tonya Bolden
5.0
I am SO GLAD I randomly grabbed this book off my shelves before leaving for the summer (Although how many of us SPS staff have been in our schools since June 4? AmIRight?)
I purchased this book after my great nonfiction purge last year, but it hadn't been checked out yet. The cover is meh, but after reading it, the contents are anything but. The summer of 2017, my family took an epic road trip and visited Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York, where Frederick Douglass is buried. I knew very little about him, having only taught excerpts from his "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," and other than the fact that he was a suffragist and a freed slave, I hadn't spent much time learning about his incredible life.
Tonya Bolden's beautiful book paid homage to the unbelievable work that Douglass did to advance the rights of black men and women in this country. To simply call his legacy as that of a "freed slave" does not do justice to the lifetime he spent cultivating friendships and alliances that would aid him in having the plight of the black man heard by people in power. His ability to gain the ear of powerful men helped him work toward both the abolishment of slavery and their eventual right to vote.
His life's work is captured in this beautiful book, complete with incredible photographs and artwork that reveal the life of a man who many of us have heard about but know only a fraction of his accomplishments. Our visit to his gravesite was humbling, but after reading this book, I feel even more compelled to share with others what an incredible man Frederick Douglass truly was. Pick this book up, and you will not be disappointed. It is a speedy read, and the gorgeous pages will have you oohing and aahing over the book's structure as well. A must read for history lovers, civil rights lovers, and those who yearn to know more about distinguished Americans.
I purchased this book after my great nonfiction purge last year, but it hadn't been checked out yet. The cover is meh, but after reading it, the contents are anything but. The summer of 2017, my family took an epic road trip and visited Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York, where Frederick Douglass is buried. I knew very little about him, having only taught excerpts from his "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass," and other than the fact that he was a suffragist and a freed slave, I hadn't spent much time learning about his incredible life.
Tonya Bolden's beautiful book paid homage to the unbelievable work that Douglass did to advance the rights of black men and women in this country. To simply call his legacy as that of a "freed slave" does not do justice to the lifetime he spent cultivating friendships and alliances that would aid him in having the plight of the black man heard by people in power. His ability to gain the ear of powerful men helped him work toward both the abolishment of slavery and their eventual right to vote.
His life's work is captured in this beautiful book, complete with incredible photographs and artwork that reveal the life of a man who many of us have heard about but know only a fraction of his accomplishments. Our visit to his gravesite was humbling, but after reading this book, I feel even more compelled to share with others what an incredible man Frederick Douglass truly was. Pick this book up, and you will not be disappointed. It is a speedy read, and the gorgeous pages will have you oohing and aahing over the book's structure as well. A must read for history lovers, civil rights lovers, and those who yearn to know more about distinguished Americans.