From teaching himself how to read to enacting what scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. described as "one of the most unusual escape stories in all of the literature about slavery," Frederick Douglass' life is worthy of its own feature. He designed it to be seen as such, molding his celebrity in part by becoming the most photographed Black man of his time.
Nevertheless, he usually shows up a co-star in documentaries about other 19th century leaders, as is the case in two recent Lincoln documentary series or the fictional series "The Good Lord Bird."
