Dickens, who we know admired Douglass’ writing and was able to empathize with the sufferings he had endured as a slave, still felt compelled to remove his portrait from a copy of his biography he was sending to a friend. No matter how difficult it is for us to understand, the fact remains that many millions of Victorians who, like their most famous author, passionately opposed slavery saw no contradiction between that opposition and an unshakable belief in black inferiority.
