Samuel Ringgold Ward: A Life of Struggle

An interesting and nuanced account of the life of a little-known figure of the anti-slavery movement.

I particularly enjoyed that Blackett avoided going into conjectures to fill the blanks as there were lengths of Ward's life that were lost to history. The tone is a little dry at times but overall it's an easy to read account of a complex life.

Ward was seemingly a strong believer in what we would today call respectability politics, I can't help but wonder if he truly believed or if that was just the palatable and somewhat safer facade he could present, especially towards the end when for all his efforts he led a life of struggle. This biography goes to show that no movement is perfectly united in methods and ideas and that intestine squabbles are always going to be part of any social movements no matter how just and important they are. This book also reminds us, possibly entirely unintentionally, through its attention to depicting Ward in as realistic and unidealized way as possible that one does not have to be perfect to contribute to the advancement of a social movement, something I found quite refreshing.

4.5 rounded up.

I received an eARC of this book from Yale University Press through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.