20

xxxii INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME THREE

reviews of the fullest and most mature statement of his life. Some reviewers
who introduced the book to the public may have believed a thorough reading
of its content unnecessary; in the public imagination, Douglass had long
occupied a solid position. Several reviews praised points that appeared in
Douglass's antebellum narratives or repeated what most Americans already
knew about his singular life. Few reviews indicated more than minimal
familiarity with material added after the publication of My Bondage and My
Freedom in 1855—material that reflected more than half of Douglass's pub-
lic activity. Two reviews compared Life and Times to Harriet Beecher
Stowe's sentimental novel Uncle Tom's Cabin: one deemed Douglass's liter-
ary efforts equivalent to Stowe's as a weapon against slavery,³⁹ while another
complimented the third autobiography as "hardly less interesting" than
Stowe's sentimental portrayal of slavery.⁴⁰ Some reviews and announce-
ments simply pronounced the autobiography "excellent" and correctly
assumed readers' widespread familiarity with Douglass's illustrious career.⁴¹

Far fewer reviews indicated a more thorough reading of Life and Times.
Heman Lincoln Wayland's positive account, though short, mentioned each
of Douglass's political appointments and related a personal anecdote about
the author.⁴² Another mostly positive review refuted the statement, made by
George Ruffin in the introduction to the book, that Douglass had "sur-
mounted the disadvantage of not having an university education" (7). The
unidentified reviewer opined, "This disadvantage can be surmounted, if at
all, only by men of genius belonging to an order far higher than that to which
Mr. Douglass will aspire." This point notwithstanding, the review praised the
content of the book for addressing "a most important period in the history of
the Republic, and revealing in a peculiarly clear light some or those deeply
hidden causes from which has sprung the present transition state or the
nation."⁴³ Other reviews lauded the simplicity of Life and Times's style,
although this tome, of all his autobiographical writings, is in form the most
overwrought, replete with temporal digressions, frequent lengthy lists of
persons and objects, and extracts from speeches and correspondence.

Two reviews in London publications offered more comprehensive read-

^{3939. Philadelphia Press, 26 December 1881, reprinted in Washington (D.C.) National Republican,
31 December 1881.}

^{4040. Cleveland Leader, [n.d.], reprinted in Trenton Sentinel, 21 January 1882, Washington (D.C.)
People's Advocate, 25 February 1882.}

^{4141. Trenton Sentinel, 29 October 1881, 21 January 1882; Washington (D.C.) People's Advocate, 25
February 1882.}

^{4242. Philadelphia National Baptist, [n.d.]. Subject File, reel 10, 421, FD Papers, DLC.}

^{4343. Catholic World 35:285–87 (May 1882).}