Voice of Freedom: A story about Frederick Douglass

This biography of African American freedom fighter Frederick Douglass, is one of the 'Creative Minds Biographies' which also features books on other personalities as diverse as Beatrix Potter and Levi Strauss. It traces Douglass' life from early childhood in the slave-owning south, through years of hunger, backbreaking work and beatings to his eventual escape to the north, and subsequent years as an active anti-slavery campaigner and promoter of equal rights for black people and women. He travelled widely on speaking tours across America and to England, published his auto-biography, founded his own newspaper and in time became a national figure credited with influencing the eventual abolition of slavery and later voting rights for black people. Weidt's narrative is a model of its sort, written simply and with admirable restraint yet without the suppression of unpleasant truths and with a keen eye for those dramatic highlights which sustains the reader's interest. Reeves' excellent line drawings are featured about every other page.