7 Comments

Your discussion of the enslaved people’s singing reminded me of a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar:

https://open.substack.com/pub/mindinclined/p/paul-laurence-dunbar-on-sympathy?r=44ohic&utm_medium=ios

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That's beautiful.

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As it so happens, I recently wrote about Douglass, too. Talk about an inspiration! I’m sorry I missed the book club you led, but I look forward to listening to your podcast on Douglass.

https://open.substack.com/pub/mindinclined/p/a-lesson-from-frederick-douglass?r=44ohic&utm_medium=ios

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His near fight to the death with the slave breaker Covey is particularly gripping and harrowing.

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Hey Erik. A truly great book that seems very much undersung. I recently posted about a certain passage from it that I used for the course I developed on the core skills of a diplomat at the Foreign Service Institute. It may be of interest to you so I’ll try and forward it to you.

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Very cool - I'll check it out.

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Douglass is a top 5 Americans in history and one of our greatest writers. Of course he was known as the orator of his time and filled stadiums the way rock groups do now (even if on a preindustrial scale). Enjoy.

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