But this almost ostentatious fair-mindedness was integral to Douglass’s massive success as an orator, as a persuader of the half-convinced and the faint of heart. It is a model of reckoning with the past, to sift, to assess, to return and reflect again. The idealization and demonization of the past are equally easy, and immensely tempting in an age of social acceleration. What Douglass offers instead is a model of negotiating with the past in a way that gives charity and honesty equal weight.
