The year 1845 was momentous for Ireland: a blight appeared on the potato crop and a fugitive slave, Frederick Douglass, visited. Douglass intended to stay in Ireland for four days to oversee the reprinting of his best-selling book, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. He stayed for four months—a time he described as “transformative.” For the first time in his life, he said, he felt like a man and not a chattel.
Christine Kinealy, Professor of History and Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute, will provide insights into the four months Douglass spent in Ireland, with attention to his belief that the cause of the slave was the cause of the oppressed everywhere.
Read more about The Great Hunger Institute’s Frederick Douglass exhibit
Read more about Professor Christine Kinealy and the Great Hunger Institute
Originally published at irishstudies.nd.edu.