Abstract
Abstract: The contemporary proliferation of public memorials to Frederick Douglass in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland signals Douglass's centrality to the global, humanitarian aspirations of these regions. Colm McCann's novel TransAtlantic builds on this public, historic memory, making Douglass a model for transcending binary definitions of colonized and colonizer. McCann's Douglass navigates sympathy with Irish Catholics at the start of the Great Famine alongside his need to court English landowners willing to support the antislavery cause he had come to Ireland to promote. The article considers how Douglass's choices at this time speak to contemporary anticolonial movements and readers.