"The Friends of the Slave": Daniel O'Connell and Frederick Douglass"

In May 2011, President Obama visited the Republic of Ireland, home to his own Irish ancestors. During his keynote speech in Dublin, he referred to the long-established relationship between the United States and Ireland, acknowledging America’s debt to Irish immigrants. However, he paid particular tribute to one Irishman who had never set foot on American soil, Daniel O’Connell:

When we strove to blot out the stain of slavery and advance the rights of man, we found common cause with your struggles against oppression. Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave and our great abolitionist, forged an unlikely friendship right here in Dublin with your great liberator, Daniel O’Connell. His time here, Frederick Douglass said, defined him not as a color but as a man. And it strengthened the non-violent campaign he would return home to wage.

The President’s comments were an intriguing reminder of a largely forgotten aspect of abolition: Ireland’s involvement in the campaign and the significance of O’Connell in shaping the subsequent activities of Douglass.

This lecture will explore the relationship between Daniel O’Connell and Frederick Douglass and examine their important contributions to ending slavery.

About the Speaker

Professor Christine Kinealy is Director of Ireland’s Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University. She is author of a number of books on nineteenth-century Irish history including, Daniel O’Connell and Anti-Slavery. The Saddest People the Sun Sees (London: Pickering and Chatto, 2011).

Professor Kinealy's lecture will be followed by a presentation by Don Mullan and Kristin Leary, co-founders of the Frederick Douglass Ireland Project.

For More Information:
Elise Carbonaro
301 405 6501
ecarbo@umd.edu

Register: http://go.umd.edu/3ey