It would be misleading in the extreme to claim that the second part of Frederick Douglass's Life and Times is a gripping or compelling read. Little of interest happens to Douglass other than his achieving a fruitful life in terms of supporting his chosen causes, unless you happen to find the finely wrought rhetoric of his many speeches something that demands attention. This wasn't true for me, though I suspect that hearing the speeches delivered live by the great man might have done the trick. But I've found it very easy indeed to break off from reading this part of the autobiography.
On the other hand, I've also found it very easy to pick up the tome and start reading again. There's always much to admire in terms of Douglass's supreme command of his rhetoric, such that just following the flow of his thoughts is pleasurable. And I find it striking just how often I've found myself recognising that this isn't empty rhetoric. The style is allied to substance. The thinking is clear but can be complex, as in his speech on the unveiling of the Freemen's monument to Lincoln, in which the dead president comes in for some pretty trenchant criticism in places, making the praise for his achievements all the more convincing.
Douglass spares nobody, not even himself. But his readiness to praise the good he sees in others, and himself, is deeply refreshing.
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