Frederick Douglass and Scotland is an ambitious and highly original work that is an exciting new addition to the historiography. It addresses both the need for more recognition of Douglass in Scottish historiography, and also of Scotland in studies of Douglass in the United States. It is thoroughly researched, and the author does an impressive of using source material to reveal Douglass's visit to Scotland as a truly transformative episode in the abolitionist's life.
- Shaun Wallace, University of Bristol, History Scotland
The seminal nature of the transatlantic sojourn of Frederick Douglass is now acknowledged by all but the most one-eyed of African American studies scholars and Alasdair Pettinger’s groundbreaking work on Douglass in Scotland from the late 1990s has been pivotal to that movement...Pettinger’s masterly study of his epochal visit to Scotland fills in some of those gaps with a comprehensively researched treatment of topics such as phrenology, his interest in photography, blackface minstrelsy and centrally the Free Church of Scotland and Douglass’s “Send Back the Money” campaign that was so important to his maturation as an independent political figure.
- Alan Rice, University of Central Lancashire, Journal of American Studies
We have long known about the significance of Frederick Douglass's visit to Britain and his activities in Scotland in 1846, but Pettinger calls on us to look beyond what we know, and in doing so takes us on an exciting intellectual excursion at the end of which we are left with a much deeper understanding of the ways those months spent in Scotland helped to sculpt the man who is now recognized as one of the great figures of 19th century history.
Richard Blackett, Vanderbilt University
This book is an indispensable companion to studies in Scottish abolitionism and a welcome addition to anyone’s library with interests in Scottish church history and transatlantic networks.
- Andrew M. Jones, Kennesaw State University, Scottish Church History
