Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave (Civil War Classics)

By Frederick Douglass

To commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the end of the Civil War, Diversion Books is publishing seminal works of the era: stories told by the men and women who led, who fought, and who lived in an America that had come apart at the seams.

One of the most important figures of the Civil War, Frederick Douglass, was born into slavery but rose to become a tremendous orator, an impassioned abolitionist, and a representative of all who remained voiceless through slavery and oppression. His narrative resonates today with its eloquence, its incendiary history, and its profound and moving arguments for the humanity, and the equality, of Americans.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Diversion Books
• Release date: Jan 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781626816879

Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) was an American orator, author, and leader of the abolitionist movement. Born a slave in Maryland, Douglass successfully escaped in 1838 by boarding a train headed north. As a free man, he published several autobiographical works detailing his experiences in slavery. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is widely considered to be the finest example of a slave narrative. Douglass became the first African American to hold a high government rank, serving as minister-resident and consul general to the Republic of Haiti. 

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Preface

In the month of August, 1841, I attended an anti-slavery convention in Nantucket, at which it was my happiness to become acquainted with Frederick Douglass, the writer of the following Narrative. He was a stranger to nearly every member of that body; but, having recently made his escape from the southern prison-house of bondage, and feeling his curiosity excited to ascertain the principles and measures of the abolitionists,—of whom he had heard a somewhat vague description while he was a slave,—he was induced to give his attendance, on the occasion alluded to, though at that time a resident in New Bedford.

Fortunate, most fortunate occurrence!—fortunate for the millions of his manacled brethren, yet panting for deliverance from their awful thraldom!—fortunate for the cause of negro emancipation, and of universal liberty!—fortunate for the land of his birth, which he has already done so much to save and bless!—fortunate for a large circle of friends and acquaintances, whose sympathy and affection he has strongly secured by the many sufferings he has endured, by his virtuous traits of character, by his ever-abiding remembrance of those who are in bonds, as being bound with them!—fortunate for the multitudes, in various parts of our republic, whose minds he has enlightened on the subject of slavery, and who have been melted to tears by his pathos, or roused to virtuous indignation by his stirring eloquence against the enslavers of men!—fortunate for himself, as it at once brought him into the field of public usefulness, gave the world assurance of a MAN, quickened the slumbering energies of his soul, and consecrated him to the great work of breaking the rod of the oppressor, and letting the oppressed go free!

I shall never forget his first speech at the convention—the extraordinary emotion it excited in my own mind—the powerful impression it created upon a crowded auditory, completely taken by surprise—the applause which followed from the beginning to the end of his felicitous remarks. I think I never hated slavery so intensely as at that moment; certainly, my perception of the enormous outrage which is inflicted by it, on the godlike nature of its victims, was rendered far more clear than ever. There stood one, in physical proportion and stature commanding and exact—in intellect richly endowed—in natural eloquence a prodigy—in soul manifestly created but a little lower than the angels—yet a slave, ay, a fugitive slave,—trembling for his safety, hardly daring to believe that on the American soil, a single white person could be found who would befriend him at all hazards, for the love of God and humanity! Capable of high attainments as an intellectual and moral being—needing nothing but a comparatively small amount of cultivation to make him an ornament to society and a blessing to his race—by the law of the land, by the voice of the people, by the terms of the slave code, he was only a piece of property, a beast of burden, a chattel personal, nevertheless!

A beloved friend from New Bedford prevailed on Mr. Douglass to address the convention: He came forward to the platform with a hesitancy and embarrassment, necessarily the attendants of a sensitive mind in such a novel position. After apologizing for his ignorance, and reminding the audience that slavery was a poor school for the human intellect and heart, he proceeded to narrate some of the facts in his own history as a slave, and in the course of his speech gave utterance to many noble thoughts and thrilling reflections. As soon as he had taken his seat, filled with hope and admiration, I rose, and declared that Patrick Henry, of revolutionary fame, never made a speech more eloquent in the cause of liberty, than the one we had just listened to from the lips of that hunted fugitive. So I believed at that time—such is my belief now. I reminded the audience of the peril which surrounded this self-emancipated young man at the North,—even in Massachusetts, on the soil of the Pilgrim Fathers, among the descendants of revolutionary sires; and I appealed to them, whether they would ever allow him to be carried back into slavery,—law or no law, constitution or no constitution. The response was unanimous and in thunder-tones—NO! Will you succor and protect him as a brother-man—a resident of the old Bay State? YES! shouted the whole mass, with an energy so startling, that the ruthless tyrants south of Mason and Dixon's line might almost have heard the mighty burst of feeling, and recognized it as the pledge of an invincible determination, on the part of those who gave it, never to betray him that wanders, but to hide the outcast, and firmly to abide the consequences.

It was at once deeply impressed upon my mind, that, if Mr. Douglass could be persuaded to consecrate his time and talents to the promotion of the anti-slavery enterprise, a powerful impetus would be given to it, and a stunning blow at the same time inflicted on northern prejudice against a colored complexion. I therefore endeavored to instil hope and courage into his mind, in order that he might dare to engage in a vocation so anomalous and responsible for a person in his situation; and I was seconded in this effort by warm-hearted friends, especially by the late General Agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Mr. John A. Collins, whose judgment in this instance entirely coincided with my own. At first, he could give no encouragement; with unfeigned diffidence, he expressed his conviction that he was not adequate to the performance of so great a task; the path marked out was wholly an untrodden one; he was sincerely apprehensive that he should do more harm than good. After much deliberation, however, he consented to make a trial; and ever since that period, he has acted as a lecturing agent, under the auspices either of the American or the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In labors he has been most abundant; and his success in combating prejudice, in gaining proselytes, in agitating the public mind, has far surpassed the most sanguine expectations that were raised at the commencement of his brilliant career. He has borne himself with gentleness and meekness, yet with true manliness of character. As a public speaker, he excels in pathos, wit, comparison, imitation, strength of reasoning, and fluency of language. There is in him that union of head and heart, which is indispensable to an enlightenment of the heads and a winning of the hearts of others. May his strength continue to be equal to his day! May he continue to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of God, that he may be increasingly serviceable in the cause of bleeding humanity, whether at home or abroad!

It is certainly a very remarkable fact, that one of the most efficient advocates of the slave population, now before the public, is a fugitive slave, in the person of Frederick Douglass; and that the free colored population of the United States are as ably represented by one of their own number, in the person of Charles Lenox Remond, whose eloquent appeals have extorted the highest applause of multitudes on both sides of the Atlantic. Let the calumniators of the colored race despise themselves for their baseness and illiberality of spirit, and henceforth cease to talk of the natural inferiority of those who require nothing but time and opportunity to attain to the highest point of human excellence.

It may, perhaps, be fairly questioned, whether any other portion of the population of the earth could have endured the privations, sufferings and horrors of slavery, without having become more degraded in the scale of humanity than the slaves of African descent. Nothing has been left undone to cripple their intellects, darken their minds, debase their moral nature, obliterate all traces of their relationship to mankind; and yet how wonderfully they have sustained the mighty load of a most frightful bondage, under which they have been groaning for centuries! To illustrate the effect of slavery on the white man,—to show that he has no powers of endurance, in such a condition, superior to those of his black brother,—Daniel O'connell, the distinguished advocate of universal emancipation, and the mightiest champion of prostrate but not conquered Ireland, relates the following anecdote in a speech delivered by him in the Conciliation Hall, Dublin, before the Loyal National Repeal Association, March 31, 1845. No matter, said Mr. O'connell, "under what specious term it may disguise itself, slavery is still hideous. It has a natural, an inevitable tendency to brutalize every noble faculty of man. An American sailor, who was cast away on the shore of Africa, where he was kept in slavery for three years, was, at the expiration of that period, found to be imbruted and stultified—he had lost all reasoning power; and having forgotten his native language, could only utter some savage gibberish between Arabic and English, which nobody could understand, and which even he himself found difficulty in pronouncing. So much for the humanizing influence of The Domestic Institution!" Admitting this to have been an extraordinary case of mental deterioration, it proves at least that the white slave can sink as low in the scale of humanity as the black one.

Mr. Douglass has very properly chosen to write his own Narrative, in his own style, and according to the best of his ability, rather than to employ some one else. It is, therefore, entirely his own production; and, considering how long and dark was the career he had to run as a slave,—how few have been his opportunities to improve his mind since he broke his iron fetters,—it is, in my judgment, highly creditable to his head and heart. He who can peruse it without a tearful eye, a heaving breast, an afflicted spirit,—without being filled with an unutterable abhorrence of slavery and all its abettors, and animated with a determination to seek the immediate overthrow of that execrable system,—without trembling for the fate of this country in the hands of a righteous God, who is ever on the side of the oppressed, and whose arm is not shortened that it cannot save,—must have a flinty heart, and be qualified to act the part of a trafficker in slaves and the souls of men. I am confident that it is essentially true in all its statements; that nothing has been set down in malice, nothing exaggerated, nothing drawn from the imagination; that it comes short of the reality, rather than overstates a single fact in regard to slavery as it is. The experience of Frederick Douglass, as a slave, was not a peculiar one; his lot was not especially a hard one; his case may be regarded as a very fair specimen of the treatment of slaves in Maryland, in which State it is conceded that they are better fed and less cruelly treated than in Georgia, Alabama, or Louisiana. Many have suffered incomparably more, while very few on the plantations have suffered less, than himself. Yet how deplorable was his situation! what terrible chastisements were inflicted upon his person! what still more shocking outrages were perpetrated upon his mind! with all his noble powers and sublime aspirations, how like a brute was he treated, even by those professing to have the same mind in them that was in Christ Jesus! to what dreadful liabilities was he continually subjected! how destitute of friendly counsel and aid, even in his greatest extremities! how heavy was the midnight of woe which shrouded in blackness the last ray of hope, and filled the future with terror and gloom! what longings after freedom took possession of his breast, and how his misery augmented, in proportion as he grew reflective and intelligent,—thus demonstrating that a happy slave is an extinct man! how he thought, reasoned, felt, under the lash of the driver, with the chains upon his limbs! what perils he encountered in his endeavors to escape from his horrible doom! and how signal have been his deliverance and preservation in the midst of a nation of pitiless enemies!

This Narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power; but I think the most thrilling one of them all is the description Douglass gives of his feelings, as he stood soliloquizing respecting his fate, and the chances of his one day being a freeman, on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay—viewing the receding vessels as they flew with their white wings before the breeze, and apostrophizing them as animated by the living spirit of freedom. Who can read that passage,

Reviews for Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

[spoko_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't know that this book needs any praise from me to bolster its reputation or anything, but I'll just say that it's beautifully written and even more beautifully direct in its assessments and depictions of life under slavery--and of the hypocrisy which buttressed the institution. It should also go without saying that this is a timeless piece, as relevant today as it ever was, but I'll say it anyway.

[cecrow · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frederick Douglass rose to great heights as a renowned figure in Washington D.C., and represents the epitome of "a man of humble origins". He began life as a slave on a Maryland plantation. While he was still a child, through a stroke of good fortune he was delivered to Baltimore to serve his master's relation. His discovery of the path from slavery via literacy was equally fortuitous, but it took a great deal of ingenuity to become literate. After escaping slavery altogether, he came among abolitionists who encouraged him to share his story in this written form in 1845. From that point on he was famous, earning high regard in America and beyond.

Hollywood has many times depicted the life of the American slave, but they are all a step removed from reading of the actual experience in the words of an actual witness and victim of the crime. Douglass does not overly dwell on the horrors as much as he challenges the morality of such acts and counts his blessings for having escaped them. I find it remarkable that he clearly stated the identities of his former masters, when the law still allowed for escaped slaves to be reclaimed. His account accuses them of everything up to and including murder. Many memoirs written today feature altered names and anonymity for less reason than that (and he does extend this courtesy to those whom he needs to protect). Public opinion being the only thing he could turn to for justice, its achievement must have been his aim. I doubt whether he saw full justice done - he has written two more biographies and I look forward to the rest of his story - but in any case those recorded names are now justly maligned for as long as his memoir continues to be read.

It's a work that fully deserves five stars in light of what it records, when it was recorded, and what it represents.

[wvlibrarydude · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Frederick's autobiography gripped me with horror, disgust and hope for humanity. What a bleak picture of the depravity of slavery. It destroyed the lives of slaves and those who were their masters. Even in these horrible stories he presents, there were signs of kindness, strength and compassion. I am truly grateful for finally reading his story of being born, raised and escaping slavery.

[diylibrarian · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Should be required reading for every American.

[jonbrammer-788089 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the archetypal narrative of slavery, capturing both the physical and psychological damage of owning humans as property. Rivals Wiesel's Night as a document of human cruelty. Points with laser accuracy at the hypocrisies of Christianity and American democracy. Douglass has a greater stature than the founders in American history, as his life was dedicated to correcting our crimes against humanity.

[podocyte_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Compelling

[cbl_tn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Frederick Douglass’s memoir of his Maryland childhood and early adulthood spent in slavery is rightly a classic. Douglass describes in painful detail what he experienced and witnessed in the culture of slavery, observing the ways it dehumanized owners and overseers of slaves in addition to the ways in which they dehumanized the enslaved persons under their control. As good as this book is, there are gaps in the narrative that will frustrate readers. Douglass intentionally skips over his actual escape from slavery, for the very admirable reason that he did not want to close his path to freedom to others who might follow the same path. Modern readers will need to pick up Life and Times of Frederick Douglass to learn exactly how Douglass made his escape. The first readers of this memoir had to wait nearly 40 years for Douglass to reveal these details. Then there is Anna, his fiancée, whom Douglass first mentions after his arrival in New York, when he writes to ask her to join him. How did Douglass meet Anna, and how long had he known her? Since Douglass is able to write her, one assumes she was free and literate. It’s frustrating to have to make these assumptions, though.

[rlxdoc-271910 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Please read this book.

[nx74defiant · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Frederick Douglass tells of his time as a slave. Often a difficult book to read. It is a first hand account of the horrors of the treatment of the slaves. How the slave holders would justify their behavior. His one good mistress is corrupted by the institution of slavery.

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

Born a slave, Frederick Douglas devoted his life to the Freeing of Slaves
from 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.

[tuckerresearch · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An excellent work; a real classic. Douglass's first, classic printed account of his life under slavery is eye-opening, epic, and should be read by every school child in America. First, to get a real sense of the physical evils of slavery. Second, to understand the moral, mental, and philosophical evils of slavery. Third, to remember that individual effort, with the help of others, can better your condition. Excellent.

[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.

[slmr4242 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Brilliant. Glad I finally read this!

[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.

[juva_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A chilling account of one man's lived experience of slavery in Maryland. A heartbreaking tale, that sheds light on the dehumanizing institution that destroys both owner and property and how in the midst of privation young Frederick learned to read and came to live as a free man. A stirring and at times painful memoir.

[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 criticism

Douglass 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.