All 3 Uses

desolate
in
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
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The singing of a man cast away upon a desolate island might be as appropriately considered as evidence of contentment and happiness, as the singing of a slave; the songs of the one and of the other are prompted by the same emotion.†
Chpt 2
The hearth is desolate.†
Chpt 8
The warm defender of the sacredness of the family relation is the same that scatters whole families,—sundering husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers,—leaving the hut vacant, and the hearth desolate.†
Chpt Appe *

Definitions:

(1) (desolate as in: felt desolate)
sad or miserable--and often lonely
(2) (desolate as in: a desolate place)
empty, providing no shelter or sustenance
(3) (desolate as in: desolated the region)
destroyed; or emptied of people; or emptied of most plants and animals
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)