Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)

By Frederick Douglass and Ulrich Baer

Frederick Douglass, the renowned nineteenth-century orator, editor, publisher, and statesman, was born into slavery in Maryland and escaped in 1838. He quickly became a national leader of the abolitionist movement to which he contributed an unrivaled body of speeches and writings that challenged America to live up to its

• Language: English
• Publisher: Warbler Classics
• Release date: Sep 10, 2022
• ISBN: 9781957240923

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an African American abolitionist, writer, statesman, and social reformer. Born in Maryland, he escaped slavery at the age of twenty with the help of his future wife Anna Murray Douglass, a free Black woman from Baltimore. He made his way through Delaware, Philadelphia, and New York City—where he married Murray—before settling in New Bedford, Massachusetts. In New England, he connected with the influential abolitionist community and joined the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, a historically black denomination which counted Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman among its members. In 1839, Douglass became a preacher and began his career as a captivating orator on religious, social, and political matters. He met William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of anti-slavery newspaper The Liberator, in 1841, and was deeply moved by his passionate abolitionism. As Douglass’ reputation and influence grew, he traveled across the country and eventually to Ireland and Great Britain to advocate on behalf of the American abolitionist movement, winning countless people over to the leading moral cause of the nineteenth century. He was often accosted during his speeches and was badly beaten at least once by a violent mob. His autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) was an immediate bestseller that detailed Douglass’ life in and escape from slavery, providing readers a firsthand description of the cruelties of the southern plantation system. Towards the end of his life, he became a fierce advocate for women’s rights and was the first Black man to be nominated for Vice President on the Equal Rights Party ticket, alongside Presidential candidate Victoria Woodhull. Arguably one of the most influential Americans of all time, Douglass led a life dedicated to democracy and racial equality.

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NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE

OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS

First Warbler Press Edition 2022

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Written by Himself.

first published in 1845 by The Anti-Slavery Office, No. 25, Cornhill, Boston

Introduction © 2022 Ulrich Baer

Biographical Timeline © 2022 Warbler Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the publisher, which may be requested at [e-mail].

isbn

978-1-957240-91-6 (paperback)

isbn

978-1-957240-92-3 (e-book)

warblerpress.com

NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE

OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS,

AN AMERICAN SLAVE.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS

INTRODUCTION by Ulrich baer

warbler classics

Contents

Introduction by Ulrich Baer

Preface by Lloyd Garrison

Letter from Wendell Phillips, Esq.

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Appendix

Biwwographical Timeline

Introduction

by Ulrich Baer

F

rederick Douglass’s

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, was published in 1845 with the explicit intention of aiding in efforts to abolish the institution of slavery in the United States. Douglass believed that a truthful and compelling account of his life as an enslaved African American, written and published when he was still legally the property of another, would convince readers that slavery was inherently wrong, un-Christian, and un-American. The book also established Douglass as an author and ultimately a celebrated speaker, activist, editor, writer, politician, and one of the greatest and best-known spokesmen for the abolitionist cause, for the African American community, and for the ideals of America at large. But the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, is more than a historical text about the inherent injustice, inhumanity, and repugnance of the institution of treating people not as humans but as property. The memoir tells us something general about the status of personal experience in the formation of personal and political identity. The Narrative moves beyond its express purpose of abolition by making the reflection on his experiences, rather than the experience itself, the basis of his identity. At the time when the Narrative is published, the identity as a free, self-determined, and politically expressive Black American is a nearly unprecedented, novel category. In the Narrative, Douglass shows how to create a social identity that transcends but does not repress his circumstances, and remains sufficiently open-ended to accommodate new experiences as well. The book remains enormously relevant beyond its status as a historical document with real-world consequences by showing how experience can be transformed to produce a dynamic, open-ended, and thus perpetually relevant sense of self.

The power of the Narrative, in addition to its historical, political, and sociological significance, results from Douglass’s success in actively transforming everything that happens in his life through the force of his intellect and imagination. Douglass achieves freedom not only in the vitally important arenas of politics and law when his enslavement ends, but also socially and psychologically by grounding his identity in the reflection and expression of experience. Acutely aware of the limited definitions available to him as an enslaved African American man, Douglass reflects upon, gives voice to, and thereby transforms his experience rather than accepting his situation as brute fact. This transformation of the facts of his life into personal expression, which goes beyond a simplistic definition of literacy, becomes for Douglass the pathway from slavery to freedom. By giving expression to his thoughts and feelings about his experiences, rather than presenting them as the raw facts of his enslavement and liberation, he frees himself from the definitions imposed on him even before his freedom becomes a legal and political fact.

Frederick Douglass transforms the raw material of his experiences into the starting point for his ongoing journey of self-creation. He continually subjects his experiences to reflection and reinterpretation, and these acts of revision become the foundation of his sense of self. The end point of slavery, in Douglass’s narrative, is not an abstract notion of freedom produced by the proclamation of legal emancipation, but the continual enactment and expression of one’s free will in public, where the self is created anew again and again. The resulting identity of Douglass is not simply that of a free Black American, but of a man engaged in the ongoing process of realizing and articulating his social consciousness in order to forge a new identity that crucially, becomes an agent of change for others. It is this ongoing act of transformation as the source of political and social identity, beyond the inspiring story of Douglass’s path from enslaved boy to respected statesman, that keeps the text relevant for our time.

Douglass’s unwavering belief that identity is rooted in self-awareness and the precise expression of his experiences—as well as the attitudes and behavior of others—rather than in race, class, gender, or other socially defined category, is one of several conceptions of political identity. For Douglass, thinking about himself, or intentional self-reflection, is not a matter of egotism or heedless inventiveness, but a means of lifting the self out of the world that remains governed by past practices and prejudices. Once the self becomes the subject of intense scrutiny, even concrete memories (with notable exceptions, we will see) are seen firstly in light of the sentiments they produced for the self, which now appears not as a product of history buffered by events but as a perpetually present interiority into which all experiences are plunged to be transformed.

Since reality must be confirmed by others in order to be recognized, the individual’s refusal to accept some of his experiences in the terms dictated by others, in this case white society, brings Douglass close to turning his life into a fiction, rather than providing a factual account. If his life rests not on facts confirmed by others, but only on his own way of making sense of events, the Narrative could possibly be dismissed as a tall tale, an exaggeration, as fabulation. The way out of this dilemma of rejecting the prevailing definitions of slavery, which condemn Douglass to the status of an inferior person incapable of defining his own lifeworld, without lapsing into fiction, is twofold. First, random, contingent, and chance events, which cannot be explained by a greater logic but simply happen without any person willing them to occur, anchor the Narrative in reality without succumbing to the world-view of white culture. Several momentous events in Douglass’s life happen for no explicable reason and simply by chance, which means beyond the reach of white ways of explaining the world. In addition, Douglass explicitly identifies several inassimilable dimensions of slavery which cannot be properly mourned, described, or sublimated, and which keep the Narrative from perpetuating the myth that the properly educated, literate self can overcome all obstacles. Douglass mentions some things that greatly affected him but must remain unexplained, because they cannot be expressed from the available perspectives of his time, including the viewpoints of the enslaved, the enslavers, and the liberated slave whose social freedom has yet to be won. These things constitute something vitally important and yet beyond the reach of direct expression. It is not clear that even today these things can be properly expressed. Rather than shackling him to a haunting past, the inassimilable nature of these events, which he references but does not explain, propel Douglass into a future self whose triumph over suffering will not mean denying these events. Formal freedom must be achieved via legal and political action in the world. But for freedom to be substantive, the mind must continually revise its positions and register those dimensions of experience that cannot be fully overcome.

Douglass’s reliance on the power of reason to ground his self, which turns literacy, already forbidden for most enslaved people, into a politically radical and not only illegal practice, competes with other models, including several developed during Douglass’s lifetime, that anchor the individual in experiences shared by a collective. In such models for political identity, a person’s identity is powerfully rooted in a shared story rather than the individual’s reflection on and expression of their particular experiences, which are related to but not subsumed in a collective past. The enduring strength of Douglass’s model, which is a map rather than the complete authority, results from the force of Douglass’s rhetoric, his towering status as America’s quintessential representative man, and from the open-endedness which does not presume that everything that has been lost will be restored and amalgamated into a common identity. Because it so effectively activates the capacity of words to convey several and even incompatible meanings, Douglass’s autobiography is very close to a work of literature. This literary dimension is also why the Narrative has been claimed as a foundational text by such a wide spectrum of readers, some of whom hold quite incompatible political views. Douglass’s creative genius allows individuals to identify with his words, sometimes to affirm and at other times to defy group restrictions.

There is no guarantee that Douglass’s faith in the power of reason, in self-expression, and in politically radical self-reliance will trump other blueprints of political and social identity. Alternate models for identity grounded in shared experiences or in the abstract categories of race, class, gender, faith, or nationality, rather than the processes of introspection, reflection, and deliberate expression, continue to compete for the dominant definition of what it means to be American. The relevance of Douglass’s position, that social and political identity derives not from birth, education, or circumstance but from an act of self-reflection, must be established for each successive generation through critical interpretation and committed action.

Many people today face severe restrictions to their flourishing, even if their conditions differ incomparably from the horrors recounted by Douglass. Douglass’s book, even at its historical remove, provides a blueprint for finding the basis and legitimation for political action and for a source of healthy self-regard, to use a formulation later employed by Toni Morrison, not in external institutions nor in shared experiences, but in the act of transforming one’s experience via reflection and imagination.¹ When Douglass discovers the wellspring of liberation in himself, this insight is neither egotistical not identitarian. The source of his self-regard is the dynamic power of his imagination.²

It would be a grievous underestimation of Douglass’s achievement to simply assert that the boy born to an unidentified white father and an enslaved Black mother as Frederick Bailey accessed an innate sense of freedom and that his book’s authority and legitimacy rests with his undeniable humanity. Freedom and humanity, Douglass’s book teaches us, are not innate, self-evident, and incontestable but categories that can be variously defined and even weaponized by any given group to structure the social world. Douglass claims his freedom not as a self-evident truth but as a potential to be activated. His enduring authority as a spokesman for the African American community and for the project of America at large rests on this dynamic transformation of lived experience and not on an unquestioned faith in freedom and humanity as incontestable truths.³ In the American canon of transformative literature, Douglass’s book is sometimes considered to define the paradigm of African American autobiography long past the existence of slavery. For the project of forging a workable, shared American identity, the Narrative surpasses even this paradigmatic status by recounting how difference, rather than inborn identity, is the wellspring of the American self.

At the moment when Douglass wrote this first version of his autobiography, the United States of the 1840s, he did not assume his experience to be neither incontestable nor self-explanatory. He needed to explain the things he experienced by invoking the devious laws, social and political practices, and common assumptions of his time, both among the enslavers and among the enslaved. His book, and anything he said, was often met with suspicion. Literacy and the worlds of politics, law, journalism, and public debate were mainly defined by white American men as a status rather than a dynamic practice, in ways that excluded the active revision of settled assumptions performed by Douglass and other nonwhite and women writers of his time. For his voice to register in a world designed to diminish and exclude him, Douglass adapted narrative structures found in various genres popular in his day, including adventure tales, stories of captivity and liberation, religious accounts of conversion, and others. But in addition to relying on existing modes of expression and to contextualizing his descriptions, Douglass invested his account with indisputable authority.

The most direct way to do this was to rely on outsiders to vouch for the truthfulness of his account and the fact that he himself had written it. We know that the two introductions to the book’s first edition, by white abolitionists William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, were included to certify the veracity of the account and for Douglass’s literacy, during a time when many readers routinely discounted anything of note that claimed to have been said or written by African Americans. Ultimately, while understanding the value of these endorsements, Douglass did not believe he depended on others’ opinions and testimonials—in this case two white men representing the establishment—to endow his text with significance. He anchored the truth of his story within himself, by subverting and reimagining what he had been taught to think of himself and of the value and significance of his experiences, as an enslaved Black man in America.

One way to do that was to present his own experiences with as much rhetorical force and persuasiveness as possible. Telling a convincing and internally coherent story, according to the storytelling conventions of his time, might win his readers’ hearts and minds. Not formally educated, and therefore also not partial to some of the indoctrination that passed for education at the time, Douglass had a remarkable capacity to create striking formulations, invent and deploy effective metaphors, and use to great effect verbal echoes, repetitions, and other rhetorical strategies. Many of the episodes in his book, even for readers familiar with the vast historical literature on slavery, remain shocking. They were clearly meant to unsettle. Often they are followed by quite lyrical passages that hint of hope wrested from dire circumstances by dint of Douglass’s talents as storyteller and wordsmith. This pattern of alternating realism and lyricism, where accounts of repugnant sadism are followed by affirmations of hope and enduring love, especially among the enslaved, is among the reasons the Narrative became an urtext for the

Reviews for Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (Warbler Classics Annotated Edition)

[podocyte_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Compelling

[m.belljackson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Born a slave, Frederick Douglas devoted his life to the Freeing of Slavesfrom the endless horrors of whippings, tortures, hatred, rapes, massacres,and barbaric cruelty.He fought for the right of Black men to fight in the Union Army, then for equal pay.He stood up for Women's Rights and the Right for All to vote.With help from Abolitionist friends, he was able to fully escape slavery and to buy his freedom.

[mrdickie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Frederick Douglass was a slave in Talbot county, Maryland living in the area of St. Michael's and Baltimore. While living in Baltimore his masters wife taught him the alphabet and started to teach him how to read. When her husband found out he put a stop to it. It was too late Frederick had acquired a love of reading and a lifelong quest for knowledge. Eventually he ran away to the north where he was able to begin a life as a free man.

[sarahlh-41506 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Utterly essential reading for Americans who soon forget that not long ago, men and women like Douglass were kept in human bondage and seen as mere property, with no rights to speak of, left at the mercy of their masters, and all because of the color of their skin. Douglass' account is a haunting detailed personal account of one of - if not the - darkest era in United States history.

[mike_b-645943 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Why was this not required reading in any of my schooling?!

[bobbybslax · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was surprised how evenhanded his account was, when it had every right to be much more emotionally charged. I was also surprised that the dry, straightforward manner in which Douglass writes did not result in a boring book. On the contrary, it was quite engaging the whole way through.

[erwinkennythomas · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass is a book filled with many stories about the evils of slavery. Douglass was a slave for the time he was born who knew his mother, but suspected his master to be his father. The account tells about the mistreatment, abuses, and experiences the slaves encountered in slavery in the South. The slaves’ living conditions were deplorable. There wasn’t enough to eat, and they worked under terrible conditions from morning to sunset throughout the seasons of the year. Their only break came during the Christmas season when the slave masters would permit them to drink liquor, get drunk, and participate in humiliating sports.Fortunately while in Baltimore Douglass was assigned to a family whose wife that had a compassionate heart. And it was through his master’s mistress he was initially treated like an adopted son, and was taught to read. Douglass realized that this knowledge was liberating, and even when his master told the mistress to stop teaching him, he devised other ways of learning from the young white kids he met.As Douglass became older he began to dream about being free. He was instrumental in trying to teach other slaves on the Lloyd Plantation to read in such a way that his master didn’t know. With learning and agitation he was central as they planned their first attempt to escape. But this plan failed and they were sent to prison. After his release and having moved from estate to estate he back again to Baltimore and hired out as a slave. During this apprenticeship he got into fights with whites, but in spite of these difficulties he was able to learn the trade of caulking ships. His pay however went to one of his masters, who would give him a small allowance.Eventually Douglass was becoming more independent in mind and spirit. The book didn’t give details about his eventual success in escaping from slavery, for he didn’t wish the slaveholders to know about these plans. This was because he had no desire of jeopardizing other slaves who would also be planning their escape. But once free he was able to make it to New York. Douglass married another slave Anna, who was free, got in contact with an anti-slavery group, and he and his wife were eventually able to move to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they put down roots. In New Bedford Douglass found work as a laborer and subscribed to the anti-slavery newspaper the Liberator. He met with abolitionists and eventually became an anti-slavery speaker on the lecture circuit.

[lydia1879 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

“You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man.”

This is the incredible story of Frederick Douglass' education and subsequent escape from slavery. This is very easily read, considering how antiquated it is, and I fully believe that is due to Douglass' writing.

He is honest, humble, vulnerable and desperate to live a life he feels he deserves. When he wrote of his isolation, of his loss, of his hunger for freedom, for respect, I felt every moment.

Interesting that there were times in the text that I felt had certainly been touched by white editors. A mention of so-and-so's house (the finest house in Baltimore) and his masters number of horses, the condition of the stables and I knew.

I didn't care about horses or houses. I wanted Douglass' life, but instead I'm having to read about what white editors in 1845 considered important. I admire editors a lot and think they do a very necessary and unnoticed job, but I felt like these editors tampered with his work.

Of course, Douglass' words still often came through, ringing out like a bell in the darkness. But every once and a while I would pause and ask myself what a different this book would be if white people had left it well alone.

We're so lucky Douglass survived and even luckier this book also survived.

[scottjpearson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Obviously, this work belongs to history rather than to a shelf of recent releases. Nonetheless, it is clearly written, interesting, and provides much insight into the mind of nineteenth-century Americans in the North, in the South, and in slavery. I found Douglass's writing abundantly lucid and to the point.

It's interesting how American in many ways represented two societies at the time - one free, the other deeply tainted by slavery. The claim Douglass makes in this account 15 years before the Civil War is that slavery does not make humanity moral. It cheapens everything.

In the closing chapters, Douglass describes what freedom in the North was like. He suspected that there would be no rich people in the North because there was no slavery. The only rich people in the South were those with slaves; those without slaves in the South struggled to make ends meet. However, he found that the freedom of the North allowed human freedom to extend into more noble virtues. Life was simply better there.

One wonders if there are parallels to our much-divided politics today. But that would turn this book review into a political tome. So instead, I will merely say that freedom begets freedom, whether in antebellum America or in a globalized village. I think Douglass's account can take us thus far.

[jeeps-4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What really struck me was how the introductory texts in the preface (written by Douglass's contemporaries and included in the original publication, so I believe they will be in all editions), while sincere and correct, are still fairly inaccessible and overwrought as far as the language is concerned, which has the effect of highlighting the clear, concise wisdom of Frederick Douglass. If you've never read this before and worry it will be dense or inaccessible, don't let that be a stumbling block; the writing is powerful but uncomplicated. Personally, I've read sections of it before in school, but this was my first full read through (even then it's quite short, 122 pages on Kindle). I've always found the idea he presented of slavery itself as a corrupting influence on whites even if they start out with "good" intentions to be really intriguing, so I was hoping for a deeper exploration of that and didn't really find it in the full text. I also completely understand why he omitted the details of how he escaped slavery (the safety of other fleeing slaves who might take the same path), but given that the whole narrative was heading in that direction, it does create an unfortunate disconnect with his story as a narrative at that point. But otherwise the importance of this text is obvious and moving.

[breic-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Interesting story. I only wish there were more details, and that the story went on longer. I especially appreciated Douglass's thoughts on how he changed as a slave, and on how slavery changed individual slaveholders, their society and their religion.

[danielstj · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A fine book.

[mjspear_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

First-hand account of African American orator Frederick Douglass' early years as an enslaved person. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of slavery in America.

[calavari · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Today it seems like common sense that slavery was a horrible institution of which no good follower of Christ could possibly participate in but that was clearly not always the case.

Ok, well, I'd agree with Douglass that though there may have been plenty of slave owners who called themselves by that name, it's hard to believe someone could really understand what it means and participate in a system that routinely oppressed and abused the poor and the orphans and the widows. The idea that people will use any means to justify their horrible acts isn't limited to Christianity nor slavery, and unfortunately not even eras gone by.

I knew coming into the narrative that it would be terrible. Its a book reputed even now to have a played a major role in ending slavery, so there was no way that it was a book that would call entertaining. It doesn't entertain. It informs the reader of the harsh realities of being a slave without signs of embellishments. That said, there was a lot to truly appreciate about Douglass sharing his story and the way in which he did so. Douglass didn't simply share the events of his life but took time fully explaining the surrounding events that contributed to his thoughts and feelings about the situations that he was presented.

As an example of what I mean, he not only talks about each of the employers his owner sent him to work for as a slave, but also discussed at length the differences between them and the way these differences played out in the treatment of slaves as well as the general slave response to them. He also explains the treatments that he was given with both his assumptions about what his owner or employer was attempting to get from and what he actually got from the experience. This level of awareness seems rare these days.

[anisadara36 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my favorite historical figures! Loved learning about his life.

[ebt1002 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a must-read. Written shortly after Douglass escaped from slavery, it chronicles his experiences as a slave. Written from both the head and the heart, Douglass' narrative effectively communicates the despair and rage experienced by one whose life is not his own and the longing for simple self-determination. He also provides a deep insight into the dynamics of slavery as it played out in his various masters, the impact on their humanity, the deceit of self and others, and the deep hypocrisy necessitated by the institution of human bondage. Slavery was not an abstract institution. Conscious human beings were deprived of the most basic human needs, dignity, and ownership of their own selves. To read about the experience by one who grew up in its shackles far exceeds any and all intellectual or philosophical musings on its evil.

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As a white Canadian, I think I have a not very admirable tendency to abstract the hell out of American slavery--to make it about the revolting idea of people owning other people (which it is) and then somehow less about what that meant: the sheer incomprehensible mass of abuses, from the daily sneer to the atrocities of casual, consequenceless rape and murder. Frederick Douglass is the antidote to that, one of the great testifiers to slavery's evil, and a hell of a man. This one's good to read (as a white North American person) any time you start to get tired of bringing to your relations with race, and with race relations, and with your friends and neighbours of other races all your gathered sincerity and humility and care.

[darthdeverell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Frederick Douglass wrote this narrative shortly after his escape from bondage and, as such, it focuses primarily on his life as a slave without much detail on the means by which he effected his escape as such information could put those who helped him in danger. The volume includes a preface from William Lloyd Garrison that outlines the abolitionist goals of the narrative. Douglass' longest chapter details the brutality of slavery, from beatings and whippings to the manner in which slaveholders bred their slaves. Douglass' narrative was first and foremost an abolition narrative with a stated goal. He concludes that he wrote "sincerely and earnestly hoping that this little book may do something toward throwing light on the American slave system and hastening the glad day of deliverance to the millions of my brethren in bonds" (76). While that does not discount the accuracy of what he wrote, readers should read this volume in the context in which Douglass wrote in order to better appreciate the argument he was making for abolition.

[auntmarge64 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It's interesting how the story of one person can have a greater impact than the history of a people or event. In this extraordinary autobiography of abolitionist and escaped slave Frederick Douglass, we are given an intimate window into the everyday world of slavery, and it is ugly. I have read only one other book that made me feel so profoundly the lack of humanity and the evil of which humans are capable, and that was "People of the Lie" by M. Scott Peck, in which he describes parents who, for Christmas, gift their surviving son the rifle used by another son to kill himself. Reading Peck's description of a truly evil person, it seems he could have just read Douglass' book: (Adapted from Wikipedia):- Consistently self-deceiving, with the intent of avoiding guilt and maintaining a self-image of perfection- Projects his or her evils and sins onto very specific targets while being apparently normal with everyone else - Commonly hates with the pretense of love- Abuses political (emotional) power - Maintains a high level of respectability, and lies incessantly in order to do so- Is consistent in his or her sins. Evil persons are characterized not so much by the magnitude of their sins, but by their consistency of destructiveness. - Is unable to think from the viewpoint of his or her victim- Has a covert intolerance to criticismDouglass tells his story of being born and kept as a slave, and his escape to the North in his early twenties, in a style that highlights the evil he experienced and/or observed in Maryland:- being removed from his mother's care by the age of one, with almost no contact allowed with her for the rest of his life- being clothed as a child only in a knee-length shirt, summer or winter, and going naked if the shirt wore out before the annual clothing allotment - having no provision for beds or bedding except for a single blanket - routine rape of women to increase slaveholders' assets and wealth- deliberate near-starvation of slaves, with stock animals being well-cared for and slaves whipped for any perceived lack of attention to the animals' well-being- slaveholders' (both men and women) and overseers' enjoyment of frequent, repeated, and lengthy slave whippings, often for no reason than satisfaction- old slaves being put out into the forest to fend for themselves - the inevitable degeneration into depravity of whites who were new to slaveholding (thorough marriage, for instance) The book skips over the exact method Douglass used to escape, in order to protect others and not give slaveholders any tips, but in his final autobiography, after the Civil War, he did give a detailed account. The book ends with him in New Bedford, MA, with a new bride and making his way among the wonders of freedom, irrespective of the hostility shown blacks by northern whites afraid for their jobs. There's also an epilogue Douglass wrote to clarify his comments on the "Christianity" he observed in both the South and the North. It's not pretty. Ministers going home to rape, preachers spending the rest of the week whipping humans, respectable citizens spending their time finding new ways to force compliance, whether it be though intimidation, murder, or forcible separation of families. More than anywhere else, this is where Douglass expresses his anger.

[ted_newell-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

All racists and unwitting racists should read this book and be changed. I see why it made the huge difference it did when it was written before the U S Civil War. If absolutely everyone had read it maybe the war would nt have been fought. Naive maybe and I know there's a literature on the book and similar titles like Twelve Years a Slave. Still. Fifteen years later and I remember turning page after page agog.

[danlai-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book is not bad, but I've had to read it so many times for school, in so many different classes, that I don't want to see this book ever again.

[jimmaclachlan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very short & to the point, Douglass paints the picture of being a slave better than any other book I've read on the subject. His first hand account blows away 'Roots' or even the 'Confessions of Nat Turner' with its simple, understated prose. Huge thanks to Nancy, a friend here on GR, that recommended & gave me the book.

Why would a man remain in slavery when there was any chance of escape? This is a question I've always wondered about. He tells us. The courage & determination that it took him to make that leap was incredible. His simple account of what people can endure is heart wrenching.

The only reason this book didn't get 5 stars was the editor. I can't recall his name, but he is a professor at Columbia University & must think his audience is a bunch of idiots. His long winded introduction basically tells Douglass' entire story. It was a spoiler & redundant. The original publication had another introduction that is also included. This was doubly redundant due to the first, but would have been far better if just it was included.

The editor's constant footnotes, defining well known words that are well used in context, were distracting & occasionally incorrect. The end notes were better, but should have been footnotes instead. I was left with the impression that the editor was trying to impress me rather than help me understand Douglass' story. Blech!

Douglass has written his autobiography in several versions. This was his first. I'd be interested in finding a later one, especially with a different editor. In any case, for all the faults of the editor, the basic story is something that I recommend everyone read.

[csweder · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I purchased this book with the intent of using an excerpt of it in class to show students the importance of knowing how to read and write.

I waited too long over the summer, and didn't get around to reading it until a week before school started. It's a quick read, about 100 pages. I tried at first only to skim through it, looking only for something to use in class. But I got caught up. I had to stop skimming, go back to the beginning and read the entire thing. (Didn't take long, as it is short.)

Thinking about this book, and how Douglass overcame his obstacles...well, I've decided to not 'skim' it, but buy a copy for my students, and it will be the first book that we read.

[mgeorge2755 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A simple read for history buffs. This book offers a glimpse into the life of Fredrick Douglas, not a full biography, but an idea of where he came from and how he was prepared for the role he would play later in life. 

[jeffcarver · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Narrative of The Life of Frederick Douglass is a paradigm-shifting autobiography that delivers a firsthand account of the horrific injustices that Douglass experienced while enslaved in the American south. Upon first glance it is possible to miss the significance of the cover text, which states, “written by himself,” but within a few pages it becomes clear that knowledge was the spark that ignited Douglass’ quest for freedom. Douglass’ descriptions of the dehumanizing conditions through which he lived are difficult to read, and furthermore, the narrative poses larger questions about humanity that are impossible to untangle; yet, still there is hope in his story. Somehow, in the midst of the terrors that surrounded him, Douglass continued to find reasons to persevere toward freedom. The major turning point of the book occurs when Douglass refuses to be whipped. “You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall now see how a slave was made a man.” (52). From this moment on, his transformation and influence reaches awe-inspiring peaks. For reasons of safety, the details of his actual escape to freedom are left undocumented, but in many ways, his arrival in New York is just the beginning of his journey. I’m incredibly interested to dig further into his writings as a free abolitionist and would be honored to teach this book in my class someday. This is a critical piece of American literature, and I cannot believe it took me this long to read it.

[fristar7406 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

M. Douglass has been able to transport us to his time thru his narrative. The way this book is writing keeps you asking for more. The only negative is the absence of details on how he manage to get free, which is pretty understandable. As he put it himself he did not want to jeopardize any other slaves' tentative to free themselves. Presently I am reading a few 19th century books, unlike other travel or explorers narratives this is not a boring description of facts, landscape or political scenes but a vibrant personal experience...

[dtn620 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This summer while talking among friends I had the realization that I have read almost no african american literature. I knew I had deficiencies in female authors and have been trying to balance things out better this year. How is it that I can think of myself as well read with these two (and who knows how many more) weak spots?

So I decided to start near the beginning with Frederick Douglass and I am glad I did as it was a fairly eye opening look into the life of a slave. I think we all get the gist of what slavery is and how bad it can be but many of the details were entirely new to me (like getting a few days off at the end of the year, and at times being able to visit family members). I am thinking I will move on to Du Bois from here, then venture into Ellison. Who else would you recommend?

[ohernaes · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frederick Douglass' powerful account of the slave condition and freedom. Starts with the bloody details of slave holding, then the even sadder aspects of slave mentality - singing proudly about errands to "the great house farm" and quarreling over who's master is the richest or most powerful - before gradually the yearning for freedom and will to be free take over the story. Argues that slavery corrupts both the slave and the slave holder, that religion in the South is mostly shallow. Emphasizes the importance of literacy in making slaves rise.

[areamatha · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass, is a memoir of his life as a slave and his escape to freedom. Douglass talks about his experiences of being treated as property. Also, social pressures on slave holders to treat slaves a certain way. Additionally, his tells about his secretly educating himself. Finally, his tells of his flight for freedom. I would use excerpts of this book as an introduction on slavery.As this book is a memoir, the author was present for the events. I would say that he is qualified. There is some sensationalism, as Douglass was trying to inflame public sentiment against slavery. On the whole though I would say the book is accurate. I believe it is accurate because it’s a memoir and because there has been considerable historical research on this book verifying the content.

[brian3gunderson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a powerful autobiography of a man who would not be kept down. It is really powerful to hear him talk about the desire to learn to read and the power it unleashed for him. I also think the description of the change he felt when he decided he would never be whooped without striking back again is compelling. Civil rights struggles wrestle with the idea of violent or non-violent resistance and both have practical hang-ups. As an individual, Frederick Douglass decided that he would not be a passive sufferer of beatings any longer, and it seems to have also changed his demeanor and attitude before situations got to the point of him getting assaulted.