A runaway slave becomes an Irish celebrity? History's most unexpected glow-up.
Frederick Douglass and the White Negro is a documentary telling the story of ex-slave, abolitionist, writer and politician Frederick Douglass and his escape to Ireland from America in the 1840s. After his escape from slavery and writing his autobiography which included all the actual names of his 'owners' to prove he was telling the truth, his only option was to leave his family behind and flee the United States of America since now his life was in danger.
Acting
Marcus Valentine channels Douglass's fire without melodrama.
Production
Reenactments feel intimate, not cheesy — rare for indie docs.
Director
John J. Doherty
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Douglass's 1845 Irish tour coincided with the Great Famine's beginning — two oppressed peoples finding unexpected kinship.
Director John J. Doherty cast his own kids — JohnLuka as the street urchin is his son.
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