The Bolt Lecture: Suffering, Struggle, Survival
The Activism, Artistry, and Authorship of Frederick Douglass and Family (1818-2018)
The Centre for American Studies is delighted to announce that Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier (Professor of Black Studies at the University of Edinburgh) will be giving this year’s Bolt Lecture on Thursday 30th November, at 6pm in Grimond Building, Lecture Theatre 1, The University of Kent, Canterbury Campus. All are welcome at the lecture and a reception to follow.
Abstract of the Lecture
While there have been many Frederick Douglasses – Douglass the abolitionist, Douglass the statesman, Douglass the auto-biographer, Douglass the orator, Douglass the reformer, Douglass the essayist, and Douglass the politician – as we commemorate his two-hundred anniversary, it is now time begin to trace the many lives of Douglass as a family man. In this talk I will trace the activism, artistry and authorship of Frederick Douglass not in isolation but alongside the sufferings and struggles for survival of his daughters and sons: Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., Charles Remond and Annie Douglass. As activists, educators, campaigners, civil rights protesters, newspaper editors, orators, essayists, and historians in their own right, Rosetta, Lewis Henry, Frederick Jr., Charles Remond and Annie Douglass each played a vital role in the freedom struggles of their father. They were no less afraid to sacrifice everything they had as they each fought for Black civic, cultural, political, and social liberties by every means necessary. No isolated endeavour undertaken by an exemplary icon, the fight for freedom was a family business to which all the Douglasses dedicated their lives as their rallying cry lives on to inspire today’s activism: “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!”
About the Speaker
Professor of Black Studies at the University of Edinburgh, Professor Celeste-Marie Bernier specialises in the literatures, histories, politics, visual cultures, and philosophies of women, men, and children living in the African Diaspora over the centuries.
For the bicentenary of Frederick Douglass’s birth in 2018, she is preparing a new scholarly edition of The Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave in addition to numerous other activities that will include an exhibition as well as international symposia and public workshops.