The first full-length study of Frederick Douglass' visit to Scotland in 1846
Frederick Douglass (1818-95) was not the only fugitive from American slavery to visit Scotland before the Civil War, but he was the best known and his impact was far-reaching. This book shows that addressing crowded halls from Ayr to Aberdeen, he gained the confidence, mastered the skills and fashioned the distinctive voice that transformed him as a campaigner. It tells how Douglass challenged the Free Church over its ties with the Southern plantocracy; how he exploited his knowledge of Walter Scott and Robert Burns to brilliant effect; and how he asserted control over his own image at a time when racial science and blackface minstrel shows were beginning to shape his audiences' perceptions. He arrived as a subordinate envoy of white abolitionists, legally still enslaved. He returned home as a free man ready to embark on a new stage of his career, as editor and proprietor of his own newspaper and a leader in his own right.
Alasdair Pettinger is an independent scholar based in Glasgow. He is the editor of Always Elsewhere: Travels of the Black Atlantic (1998) and has published numerous essays reflecting his overlapping interests in travel literature, the cultures of slavery and abolitionism, and representations of Haiti.

Alasdair Pettinger studied at the Universities of Birmingham and Essex, completing his PhD in Literature in 1988 while working as a civil servant in London. Since 1992, he has been based in Glasgow, working at the Scottish Music Centre and pursuing his academic interests as an independent scholar. He has held visiting research fellowships at the University of Central Lancashire (2000), Nottingham Trent University (2004-2007) and the University of Liverpool (2010-2013). He is the editor of Always Elsewhere: Travels of the Black Atlantic (1998), and has published a number of essays reflecting his (overlapping) interests in travel literature, the cultures of slavery and abolitionism, and representations of Haiti.

List of Figures; Part I: The Voyage; 1. 'Throw Him Overboard'; 2. The Making of a Fugitive; 3. 'Put Them in Irons'; Part II: Dark, Polluted Gold; 4. Electric Speed; 5. That Ticklish Possession; 6. The Free Church Responds; 7. The Price of Freedom; 8. The Genealogy of Money; 9. Gilded Cages; Part III: Douglass, Scott and Burns; 10. 'One of Scotland's Many Famous Names'; 11. A Wild Proposition; 12. New Relations and Duties; 13. A Visit to Ayr; 14. The Coward Slave and the Poor Negro Driver; 15. Crooked Paths; 16.The Sons and Daughters of Old Scotia; Part IV: Measuring Heads, Reading Faces; 17. Breakfast with Combe; 18. The Physiological Century; 19. Travelling Phrenologically; 20. A Glut of Ethiopians; 21. Douglass on Stage; 22. The Suit and the Engraving; Part V: The Voyage Home; 23. A Disconnected Farewell; 24. Cabin 72; 25. Never Again; Part VI: The Affinity Scot; 26. Recitals of Blood; 27. Choosing Ancestors; 28. Remembering Douglass; 29. Out of My Place; Acknowledgements; Index.