Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition written by the famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass. It is generally held to be the most famous of a number of narratives written by former slaves during the same period. In factual detail, the text describes the events of his life and is considered to be one of the most influential pieces of literature to fuel the abolitionist movement of the early 19th century in the United States. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass recounts Douglass' life as a slave and his ambition to become a free man.

A new edition of the classic African American autobiography, now with with the inclusion of Douglass's other works. The pre-eminent American slave narrative published in 1845, the Narrative powerfully details the life of the abolitionist Frederick Douglass from his birth into slavery in 1818 to his escape to the North in 1838: how he endured the daily physical and spiritual brutalities of his owners and drivers, how he learned to read and write, and how he grew into a man who could only live free or die. Also included in this edition are Douglass's famous oration The Meaning of the Fourth of July to the Negro and his only known work of fiction, the novella The Heroic Slave. Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in 1818 in Tuckahoe, Maryland. He changed his surname to Douglass to conceal his identity after escaping slavery in 1838 and making his way to Philadelphia and New York. Having been taught to read by the wife of one of his former owners, Douglass wrote later that literacy was his 'pathway from slavery to freedom', and in 1845 he published his instantly bestselling Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Renowned as the foremost African American advocate against slavery and segregation of his time, he repeatedly risked his own freedom as an antislavery lecturer, writer and publisher. He died in Washington, D. C., in 1895, and after lying in state in the nation's capital, was buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery in Rochester, New York. Ira Dworkin is Associate Director of the Prince Alwaleed Center for American Studies and Research and Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at The American University in Cairo.

“David Blight has produced a fine edition of Douglass’ second autobiography. This is an essential work in African-American and American history, and displays Douglass’ developing strength as a writer and political leader.”—Richard Slotkin, Wesleyan University Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass escaped to freedom and became a passionate advocate for abolition and social change and the foremost spokesperson for the nation’s enslaved African American population in the years preceding the Civil War. My Bondage and My Freedom is Douglass’s masterful recounting of his remarkable life and a fiery condemnation of a political and social system that would reduce people to property and keep an entire race in chains. This classic is revisited with a new introduction and annotations by celebrated Douglass scholar David W. Blight. Blight situates the book within the politics of the 1850s and illuminates how My Bondage represents Douglass as a mature, confident, powerful writer who crafted some of the most unforgettable metaphors of slavery and freedom—indeed of basic human universal aspirations for freedom—anywhere in the English language.

Its publication now in pamphlet form is due toits delivery at Harper's Ferry, W. Va., on Decoration day, 1881, and to the fact that the proceeds from the sale of it are to be usedtoward the endowment of a John Brown Professorship in Storer College, Harper's Ferry-an institution mainly devoted to theeducation of colored youth. That such an address could be delivered at such a place, atsuch a time, is strikingly significant, and illustrates the rapid, vastand wonderful changes through which the American peoplehave been passing since 1859. Twenty years ago FrederickDouglass and others were mobbed in the city of Boston, and.driven from Tremont Temple for uttering sentiments concerning. John Brown similar to those contained in this address. Yet nowhe goes freely to the very spot where John Brown committed theoffense which caused all Virginia to clamor for his life, and withoutreserve or qualification, commends him as a hero and martyrin the cause of liberty