Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass received many positive reviews, but some people opposed it. One of its biggest critics, A. C. C. Thompson, was a neighbor of Thomas Auld, who was Douglass's master for some time. In Thompson's "Letter from a Slave Holder", he claimed that the slave he knew was "an unlearned, and rather an ordinary negro". Thompson was confident that Douglass "was not capable of writing the Narrative". He also disputed Douglass's description in the Narrative of various cruel white slave holders that he either knew or knew of.[6] Prior to the publication of the Narrative, the public could not fathom how a former slave could appear to be so educated. Upon listening to his oratory, many were skeptical of the stories he told. After publication of the Narrative, however, the public was swayed.[7] Margaret Fuller, a prominent Transcendentalist, author, and editor, admired Douglass's book: "we have never read [a narrative] more simple, true, coherent, and warm with genuine feeling".[8] She also suggested that "every one may read his book and see what a mind might have been stifled in bondage, — what a man may be subjected to the insults of spendthrift dandies, or the blows of mercenary brutes, in whom there is no whiteness except of the skin, no humanity in the outward form".... Douglass's Narrative was influential in the anti-slavery movement.[9]
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