Daily Davenport gazette. [volume] (Davenport, Iowa) 1854-1855, 1855-11-09
rREpE1rcx DOUGLASS.


The November number Of Putnam con-
tains the following brief article in relation
to the recently published "Life and Bon
dage of Frederick Douglass" Many who
would not give moments consideration
to any thing that might be said on the sub
ject by other journals, will be disposed to
listen with more complacency to the re-
marks of Putnam Like some fashionable
people who are constrained to pay attention
to person whom they may consider OF an
inferior caste, bat who happens to be patron
lied or befrienled BY individuals of indispu-
table haut ton and of even higher soc, al
grade than themselves, Frederick will de-
rive benefit from the company into which
he has been admitted, and many eyes will
peruse in the fashionable pages OF pntnam'
the following illusions to his HE and char
,acter, which would have turned scornlully
from the same facts, il they had been en-
;oanteredn magazine or paper ola differ
ent character.
"a third biography before us furnishes
a still further con,rast-the Lite and Bond
age OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, the well known
fugitive slave, who has come TO occupy 50
conspicuous position, both as writer and
speaker. 1t details the incidents OF his ex-
perence on the slave plantation of Mary
land, where he was born, OF his subsequent
escape, and Of his public career in England
and the Northern States. We need hardly
say that it abounds in interest. The mere
fact that the member Of an outeast and en-
shaved race should accomplish his freedom,
and educate himself up to an equality OF in
telectual and moral vigor with The leaders
Of the race by which he was held in bond
age, is, in itself, 50 remarkablc, that the
story OF the change cannot be otherwise
than exciting. For ourselves, we confess to
have read it with the unbroken attention
with which we absorbed Uncle Toms Cab
in. II has the advantage of the latter book
in that it is ne fiction. OF course, il is i'm
possible to say how far the authors pre-
lud;ces, and remembi of wrong,
my have deepenel the color of his pictures,
but the % neral tone of them is truthful
He writes bitterly, as we might expect Of
one who writes under a personal provoca-
lion, taking incidents of individual expert
ence for essential chara cteristies, but not
more bitterly than the circumstances seem
to justify. His denunciatons OF slavery
aud shareholders are not indiscrimnate,
while he wars upon the system rather than
upon the persons whom that system has
made. In the details OF his early life upon
the plantation, Of his youthful thoughts Oh
life and destiny, and of the means by which
he gradually worked his way to freedom,
there is much that is profoundly touching.
Our Eng ISL literature has recorded many
anexlmplc Of genius struggling against ad-
versity,-ofthe poor Ferguson, for instance,
making himself an astronomer, of Burns
becoming poet, Of Hugh Miller finding
his geology in u stone quarry, and thoes-
and similar cases-yet noac Of these are So
impressive as the case Of the solitary slave,
in remote district, surrounded by none
but enemies, conceiying the project Of his
escape, teaching himself to read and write
to facilitate it, accomplishing il at last, and
subsequently raising himself to leadership
in great movemen ut in behalf OF his breth-
rem. Whatever may be our opinion. OF
slavery, or of the best means of acting up
on it, we cannot but admire the force and
integrity of character which HIS enabled
Frederick Douglass to attain his present
unique position