Book Reviewed: The Color Of Abolition: How a Printer, a Prophet, and a Contessa Moved a Nation by Linda Hirshman

Unholy partnership of Frederick Douglass with white abolitionists Much is known about the white abolitionists who engaged in the anti-slavery movement in 18th and 19th century America. There were also many African-American pioneer abolitionists who were active in their own abolition activities that included call for complete social and political equality for all people. But historically their efforts were ignored or downplayed. This book by Linda Hirshman, a former Professor of Law and Women’s studies program at the Brandies University in Massachusetts narrate the story about the uneasy alliance of pioneer abolitionist Frederick Douglass with white abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Maria Weston Chapman. Maria Weston Chapman was an executive committee member of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1839 and she also served as editor of the anti-slavery journal “The Non-Resistant.” Maria was a "Garrisonian" abolitionist who believed in an uncompromising end to slavery by "moral suasion" or non-resistance. They rejected political and institutional coercion by churches, politicians, and the federal government for ending slavery. Maria Chapman became central figure among wealthy and socially prominent supporters of William Lloyd Garrison in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1835, Chapman assumed the leadership of the Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar as a major fundraising event. Many abolitionists then discovered modern methods of solicitation for funds for abolition movement. Frederick Douglass went on a speech tour to England and Ireland, as many former slaves had previously done. He traveled in Ireland as the Great Famine was beginning, despite that the feeling of freedom from American racial discrimination amazed Douglass. He spent two years there lecturing in churches and chapels. His draw was such that some facilities were "crowded to suffocation". One example was his hugely popular London Reception Speech, which Douglass delivered in May 1846. Douglass observed that in England and Ireland he was treated with respect without any racial bias. During this trip Douglass became legally free, as English supporters led by Anna Richardson, an English abolitionist raised funds to buy his freedom from his American owner Thomas Auld. Douglass began to realize that white abolitionists in Boston had been working to undermine his European trip. Before he’d even left American shores, they had privately written his British hosts and impugned his motives and character. Author Hirshman initially considered Maria Chapman as a feminist, but after examining Chapman’s voluminous correspondence, she discovered the ugly personal rivalries and private politics at the center of a shaky alliance between the uncompromising Garrison and Chapman on one side, and the ambitious and self-possessed Douglass on other side. Douglass ultimately deserted the Garrisonians, and joined the Gerrit Smith faction of abolitionism, and adopt its antislavery reading of the Constitution. The author concludes that Garrisonians did not accept the full humanity of Frederick Douglass. In addition to abolition, Douglass became an outspoken supporter of women’s rights. In 1848 at the Seneca Falls convention on women's rights. Douglass stood and spoke eloquently in favor of women’s suffrage. Later, Victoria Woodhull of Equal Rights Party, who ran for president against Ulysses S. Grant, chose Frederick Douglass as her running mate in the 1872 election. Douglass also caused considerable controversy for marrying Helen Pitts, a white feminist from Honeoye, New York. She was a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and worked on radical feminist publications and shared many of Douglass’ moral and political principles. They were married until Douglass’s death. This book reads flawlessly, and it sheds new light on personal and political prejudices in the workings of white abolitionists like Garrisonians.