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  • The President and the Freedom Fighter

  • Abraham Lincoln, Frederick Douglass, and Their Battle to Save America's Soul
  • By: Brian Kilmeade
  • Narrated by: Brian Kilmeade
  • Length: 6 hrs and 42 mins

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The President and the Freedom Fighter

By: Brian Kilmeade
Narrated by: Brian Kilmeade
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Publisher's Summary

New York Times best seller

The New York Times best-selling author of George Washington's Secret Six and Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates turns to two other heroes of the nation: Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.

In The President and the Freedom Fighter, Brian Kilmeade tells the little-known story of how two American heroes moved from strong disagreement to friendship, and in the process changed the entire course of history.

Abraham Lincoln was White, born impoverished on a frontier farm. Frederick Douglass was Black, a child of slavery who had risked his life escaping to freedom in the North. Neither man had a formal education, and neither had had an easy path to influence. No one would have expected them to become friends - or to transform the country. But Lincoln and Douglass believed in their nation’s greatness. They were determined to make the grand democratic experiment live up to its ideals.

Lincoln’s problem: He knew it was time for slavery to go, but how fast could the country change without being torn apart? And would it be possible to get rid of slavery while keeping America’s Constitution intact? Douglass said no, that the Constitution was irredeemably corrupted by slavery - and he wanted Lincoln to move quickly. Sharing little more than the conviction that slavery was wrong, the two men’s paths eventually converged. Over the course of the Civil War, they’d endure bloodthirsty mobs, feverish conspiracies, devastating losses on the battlefield, and a growing firestorm of unrest that would culminate on the fields of Gettysburg.

As he did in George Washington's Secret Six, Kilmeade has transformed this nearly forgotten slice of history into a dramatic story that will keep you on the edge of your seat to find out how these two heroes, through their principles and patience, not only changed each other, but made America truly free for all.

©2021 Brian Kilmeade (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Critic Reviews

“What makes The President and the Freedom Fighter so compelling is that Kilmeade lets the actual history speak for itself.” (Shelby Steele, senior fellow at the Hoover Institution; author of Shame and White Guilt)

“A riveting page-turner that illuminates the fascinating and history-altering relationship between President Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass.” (Ben Carson, MD)

“This compelling account of Lincoln and Douglass’s friendship is the story of America itself and shows how intertwined race is with our history. Kilmeade understands that if we don’t acknowledge our complex past, we’ll never be the country we dream to be.” (Brad Meltzer, coauthor of The Lincoln Conspiracy)

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