Q. He received his Master of Arts degree in American history from Michigan State in 1976 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in the discipline from the University of WisconsinMadison in 1985 with a dissertation titled Keeping Faith in Jubilee: Frederick Douglass and the Meaning of the Civil War.[1]. David W. Blight is a teacher, scholar and public historian. A Conversation with David Blight, lecture tours in the deep South about which we knew almost nothing before, his hugely controversial marriage to second wife, Helen Pitts. Living in Washington, his family emerged as a kind of black first family in the District of Columbia press. From his humble beginnings as a slave in the south, he ultimately escaped slavery as a young man in Baltimore, Maryland. But if I only get one it would be something like: How, sir, would you characterize the meaning and lasting significance of the Civil War in your life and that of your entire family? Third, Douglasss writings, especially in the autobiographies, constitute the most compelling descriptions and analysis of the nature and meaning of American slavery crafted by any American. Q. The historian David Blight, who was recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his outstanding biography of Frederick Douglass, sums up the legacy of The Columbian Orator as more than a collection of stiff Christian moralisms for Americas youth. [5], Contributing to the anthology Our American Story (2019), Blight addressed the possibility of a shared American narrative. He has won several awards, including the Bancroft Prize and Frederick Douglass Prize for Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, and the Pulitzer Prize and Lincoln Prize for Frede I especially wanted to probe the stories of black abolitionists. The King of the Negroes, as Brown calls Douglass, naysays the Old Mans ideas for armed rebellion even as he writes glorious speeches in his Douglass was the greatest perhaps of all abolitionists, and I was especially drawn to the famous orator and writers masterful use of words. The collection consists of ten or so Douglass family scrapbooks assembled largely by Douglasss sons, Lewis, Frederick Jr., and Charles; many family letters and other documents; photographs; as well as handwritten and typescript versions of many speeches. The estimated speaking fee range to book David Blight for your event is available upon request. In his case this meant becoming a loyal advocate of the Republican Party for thirty years as it decisively changed from the party of emancipation and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the party of big business and the retreat from the egalitarian transformations of Reconstruction. It is with great sadness that we announce our beloved husband, father, and friend, David John Blight, passed away April 5, 2005 at Riverside Health Care in Rainy River, Ont. He could be an enormously compassionate man toward all people undergoing oppression and indignity, but he also during the war practiced a vicious brand of war propaganda aimed at the destruction not only of the Confederacy but of white Southerners themselves. David W. Blight is Sterling Professor of American History at Yale University, joining that faculty in January, 2003. He has won several awards, including the Bancroft Prize and Frederick Douglass Prize for Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory, and the Pulitzer Prize and Lincoln Prize for Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Nelson Mandela comes to mind. John Brown, who would eventually stand over 6 feet tall and sport a long beard, heard a messianic calling. From the author: As a young man Frederick The material was less discovered than it was purchased over time from other collectors. David Blight is a professor of history at Yale and the author or editor of a dozen books, including annotated editions of Douglass's first two autobiographies. The American revolution still raged, many of his own slaves had escaped, his beloved Virginia teetered on social and political chaos. The Trump Administration Just Made the Citizenship Test Harder. Q. Douglass was a man of contradictions, and in the book you address how Douglass has become a figure adopted by all elements of the political spectrumeven current Republicans, who have claimed Douglass as one of their own. In this question I would hope to keep him talking about the many possible meanings he might raise. Did you always plan to write a biography of Douglass? It "presented a new way of understanding the nation's collective response to the war, arguing that, in the interest of reunification, the country ignored the racist underpinnings of the war, leaving a legacy of racial conflict. Blight is chiefly concerned with studying the ways American society grappled with the war in its aftermath. A true reformer has to keep a long view of history, and try to fashion the most effective and not always the most radical method of change. He previously taught at Amherst College for thirteen years. Born March 21, 1949, Blight was born and raised in Flint, Michigan. The Evans collection allowed me unprecedented access to the Douglass of the last thirty years of his life, the 1860s to 1890s. David A. Blight, 48, of Luzerne passed away Thursday night in Hospice Community Care, Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre. That alone gives his life and thought lasting use and significance. Douglass was a vehement advocate of the natural rights tradition, of human equality, and of aggressive use of interventionist, activist government. In Spring 2008, Blight recorded a 27-lecture course, The Civil War and Reconstruction Era, 18451877 for Open Yale Courses, which is available online. If you had the chance to sit down with Douglass, what is the one thing you would want to know? David lives in Holbrook with his wife, Elizabeth, a stay-at-home Mom, and their three young children. New Senator Tuberville Seems to Lack Basic Knowledge of World War II. Previously, Blight was a professor of History at Amherst College, where he taught for 13 years. David Blights brother, James Blight, is a professor of international relations at Brown Universitys Watson Institute for International Studies, an author and a film producer. He appears in public and media to discuss slavery and emancipation in US history. "[2] The book earned Blight both the Bancroft Prize and Frederick Douglass Prize. Reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, many noting Blights attention to Douglasss development as a writer and speaker, his biblical language, his place as an American prophet. Author of "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom," which won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in History. What insights did you glean from your research using the Evans collection that you had not previously known about Douglass? He became a radical patriot who also levied some of the most withering attacks on American racism, hypocrisy, and craven defense of slavery and states rights. Theplacesin Douglasss life are very important to his biography. I was initially inspired to study Douglass in graduate school in the early 1980s because I wanted to research and write about abolitionists and the coming of the Civil War. How did you come upon this collection? You worked on this book for ten years, but first began researching Douglass as a PhD student. 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