Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom

When James Garfield is elected president in 1880, Douglass hopes to obtain a cabinet post but is instead appointed Recorder of Deeds for the District of Columbia. Even though Republicans still hold the White House, Douglass is concerned by the inroads Democrats are making in Congress. According to Blight,

The Democrats controlled a relatively solid South and staked their future nationally on white supremacy. Republicans were divided into two broad ideological camps, both of which devoted decreasing attention to black rights (613).

After Garfield’s assassination in 1881, Douglass continues to perform his duties as Recorder but takes up his pen once again to write his own life story. Blight writes, “For Douglass, the return to telling his narrative a third time was as renewing as it was risky and difficult. Life and Times would be an aging man’s summing up of his tale, a journey into and out of his memory” (619-20).

At this stage of his life, Douglass settles into his role as a Washington insider and makes the most of the financial opportunities it offers him. He also hires many of his impoverished family members as staff at the Recorder’s Office. As Blight argues, “This kind of Gilded Age corruption was apparently standard operating procedure, although it tarnished the reputation of the black first family.