Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (LOA #68): Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times

Frederick Douglass

Library of America, Feb 1, 1994 - Biography & Autobiography - 1126 pages

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presents the only authoritative edition of all three autobiographies by the escaped slave who became a great American leader.

Here in this Library of America volume are collected Frederick Douglass's three autobiographical narratives, now recognized as classics of both American history and American literature. Writing with the eloquence and fierce intelligence that made him a brilliantly effective spokesman for the abolition of slavery and equal rights, Douglass shapes an inspiring vision of self-realization in the face of monumental odds.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845), published seven years after his escape, was written in part as a response to skeptics who refused to believe that so articulate an orator could ever have been a slave. A powerfully compressed account of the cruelty and oppression of the Maryland plantation culture into which Douglass was born, it brought him to the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and drew thousands, black and white, to the cause.

In My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), Douglass expands the account of his slave years. With astonishing psychological penetration, he probes the painful ambiguities and subtly corrosive effects of black-white relations under slavery, and recounts his determined resistance to segregation in the North. The book also incorporates extracts from Douglass’s speeches, including the searing “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”

Life and Times, first published in 1881, records Douglass’s efforts to keep alive the struggle for racial equality udirng Reconstruction. John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Beecher Stowe all feature prominently in this chronicle of a crucial epoch in American history. The revised edition of 1893, presented here, includes an account of his controversial diplomatic mission to Haiti.

This volume contains a detailed chronology of Douglass’s life, notes providing further background on the events and people mentioned, and an account of the textual history of each of the autobiographies.

LIBRARY OF AMERICA is an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation’s literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America’s best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

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User Review  - lanewillson - LibraryThing

I knew of Fredrick Douglass as a historical figure, which is to say, I really knew virtually nothing abut the man. Daughter Hannah gave me Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln for ...

Autobiographies

User Review  - Not Available - Book Verdict

Douglass (1818-95), a former slave, rose to become an abolitionist, writer, and orator. In this collection of his autobiographical writings, edited by Gates (humanities, Harvard Univ.), he gives an ...

Contents

• NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS: 1
• MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM: 103
• INTRODUCTION: 125
• CHAPTER I: 139
• CHAPTER II: 146
• GRADUAL INITIATION INTO THE MYSTERIES OF SLAVERY: 171
• CHAPTER VI: 178
• The Singing of the Slaves no Proof of Contentment: 184
• Beams of Sunlight: 206
• Kindness of my new MistressLittle Tommy: 212
• Increased Determination to Learn: 218
• pursued my EducationMy Tutors: 223
• CHAPTER XII: 229
• CHAPTER XIII: 236
• Return to BaltimoreDeath of Mistress Lucretia: 240
• Allowance of FoodSufferings from Hunger: 246
• No more Meal brought from the Mill Methodist: 252
• Escape to St Michaels Suffering in the Woods: 273
• An AlarmA Friend not an Enemy: 279
• Coveys Ineffectual Commands for Assistance: 285
• A Device of Slavery: 291
• Reasons for continued Discontent: 297
• CHAPTER XIX: 303
• Authors ConfederatesHis Influence over them: 309
• Conflict of Hopes and FearsIgnorance of Geography: 310
• The Betrayal Discovered: 316
• A New set of Tormentors: 322
• Return to BaltimoreChange in Little Tommy: 328
• Author a Wanderer in New York Feelings on Reaching: 349
• Contrast between the North and the South: 355
• First Acquaintance with the Liberator: 362
• Becomes a Public Lecturer: 365
• Letter to Mr Garrison: 372
• How the Authors Energies were Directed in Great: 378
• Dr Cunninghams SpeechA Striking Incident: 384
• Motives for going to Rochester: 391
• Elevation of the Free People of Color Pledge for: 398
• Letter to his Old Master: 412
• The Nature of Slavery: 419
• Inhumanity of Slavery: 425
• LIFE AND TIMES OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS: 453
• Character of its Editor 362: 475
• CHAPTER III: 482
• CHAPTER XXIII: 506
• INTRODUCED TO THE ABOLITIONISTS: 660
• Chronology: 1049
• Note on the Texts: 1078
• Index I109: 1109

About the author

Born a slave, Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895) educated himself, escaped, and made himself one of the greatest leaders in American history. 

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editor, is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy Award–winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-one books and created fifteen documentary films.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (LOA #68): Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times; Volume 68 of DE-601)374069697: Library of America series; Library of America, Library of America, ISSN 2832-4390
• Author: Frederick Douglass
• Editor: Henry Louis Gates
• Edition: annotated
• Publisher: Library of America, 1994
• ISBN: 0940450798, 9780940450790
• Length: 1126 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Social Activists; History / United States / 19th Century; Social Science / Ethnic Studies / American / African American & Black Studies