Frederick Douglass

Born a slave in 1818 on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape. An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.

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Born a slave, Frederick Douglas educated himself, escaped, and became one of the greatest social leaders in American history. Although usually identified with the monumental Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Douglass produced two additional autobiographies, the second of which he called My Bondage and My Freedom. A richer, deeper, and far more ambiguous work than the earlier Narrative, My Bondage and My Freedom reveals Douglass’s increased intellectual sophistication and maturity. In the decade that had elapsed since Douglass wrote Narrative, he had broken away from his antislavery mentors, successfully toured England, and established himself as an inspired speaker and writer. With the publication of My Bondage and My Freedom in 1855, Douglass became the country’s foremost spokesman for American blacks—free and enslaved—during the tense and politically charged years preceding the Civil War. One of the highlights of My Bondage and My Freedom is the appendix, which contains excerpts from several of Douglass’s speeches, including perhaps his most famous, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Born a slave circa 1818 (slaves weren't told when they were born) on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape. An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.

Frederick Douglass's dramatic autobiographical account of his early life as a slave in America. Born into a life of bondage, Frederick Douglass secretly taught himself to read and write. It was a crime punishable by death, but it resulted in one of the most eloquent indictments of slavery ever recorded. His gripping narrative takes us into the fields, cabins, and manors of pre-Civil War plantations in the South and reveals the daily terrors he suffered as a slave. Written more than a century and a half ago by an African-American who went on to become a famous orator, U.S. minister to Haiti, and leader of his people, this timeless classic still speaks directly to our age. It is a record of savagery and inhumanity that goes far to explain why America still suffers from the great injustices of the past. With an Introduction by Peter J. Gomes and an Afterword by Gregory Stephens

Recounting his life in and his escape out of slavery, the autobiography of the inspirational abolitionist Frederick Douglass is a powerful and insightful narration that has made a significant impact in America's history.

This Modern Library Paperback Classics edition combines the two most important African American slave narratives into one volume. Frederick Douglass's Narrative, first published in 1845, is an enlightening and incendiary text. Born into slavery, Douglass became the preeminent spokesman for his people during his life; his narrative is an unparalleled account of the dehumanizing effects of slavery and Douglass's own triumph over it. Like Douglass, Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, and in 1861 she published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, now recognized as the most comprehensive antebellum slave narrative written by a woman. Jacobs's account broke the silence on the exploitation of African American female slaves, and it remains crucial reading. These narratives illuminate and inform each other. This edition includes an incisive Introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah and extensive annotations.

This new edition of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the first prepared especially for American history courses. David W. Blight's extensive introduction and the related materials he provides place the Narrative in both its historical and literary contexts. The book also includes a chronology of Douglass's life, a bibliography, questions for consideration, illustrations and an index..

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an 1845 memoir and treatise on abolition written by a 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.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.

Scritta in una prosa di affascinante chiarezza, alla sua prima pubblicazione nel 1845 la "Narrazione della vita di Frederick Douglass, uno schiavo americano, scritta da lui stesso" divenne un best seller internazionale e continua a essere letta oggi quale capolavoro della letteratura americana. Douglass, che era nato schiavo nel sud degli Stati Uniti, racconta la storia di come dopo anni di tentativi riuscì a fuggire e a conquistare la libertà. Acuto interprete della propria esperienza e portavoce autorevole della comunità degli oppressi, l'autore riordina il ricordo della propria vita rivelando e analizzando le strategie individuali e collettive di resistenza fisica e psichica agli orrori dello schiavismo. Alla violenza della schiavitù e all'immoralità della nazione che la legittima, Douglass oppone la scrittura come strumento di ribellione e come vera e propria dichiarazione di indipendenza. La coinvolgente descrizione degli stratagemmi che adottò per imparare a leggere e a scrivere, un sapere per legge proibito agli schiavi, diventa momento centrale del processo di liberazione. La potente denuncia che emerge dalla "Narrazione" deriva tanto dal valore storico della sua testimonianza, quanto dalla grandezza di Douglass come narratore, che dà forma letteraria alla propria volontà di giustizia e al desiderio di libertà.

The Heroic Slave was Frederick Douglass' only piece of fiction. He wrote it in response to the Rochester Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society's request for a submission to be included in their anthology Autographs for Freedom. The Heroic Slave is a retelling of an actual rebellion led by Madison Washington on the slave ship Creole. Douglass shows how the rebellion is part of a revolution and therefore fundamentally American.

What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852) is a speech by Frederick Douglass. Having escaped from slavery in the South at a young age, Frederick Douglass became a prominent orator and autobiographer who spearheaded the American abolitionist movement in the mid-nineteenth century. In this famous speech, published widely in pamphlet form after it was given to a meeting of the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society on July 5th, 1852, Douglass exposes the hypocrisy of America’s claim to Christian and democratic ideals in spite of its legacy of enslavement. Personal and political, Douglass’ speech helped inspire the burgeoning abolitionist movement, which fought tirelessly for emancipation in the decades leading up to the American Civil War. “What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?...What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim.”  Drawing upon his own experiences as an escaped slave, Douglass offers a critique of American independence from the perspective of those who had never been free within its borders. Hopeful and courageous, Douglass’ voice remains an essential part of our history, reminding us time and again who we are, who we have been, and what we can be as a nation. While much of his radical message has been smoothed over through the passage of time, its revolutionary truth continues to resonate today.  With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Frederick Douglass’ What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.