I have neither been miserable because of the ill-feeling of those about me, nor indifferent to popular approval, and I think, upon the whole, I have passed a tolerably cheerful and even joyful life. I have never felt myself isolated since I entered the field to plead the cause of the slave, and demand equal rights for all. In every town and city where it has been my lot to speak, there have been raised up for me friends of both colors to cheer and strengthen me in my work. I have always felt, too, that I had on my side all the invisible forces of the moral government of the universe. -from Chapter 17: "Incidents and Events" American icon FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1818-1895)-editor, orator, author, statesman, and reformer-told his life story three times. First, in 1845's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he felt it necessary to explain how a man born in chains could rise to national prominence and respect. In 1855, with My Bondage and My Freedom, he expanded upon his story with a more in-depth and even more thoughtful exploration of his life as a slave and his journey to escape it. (Both astonishing-and essential-books are also available from Cosimo.) His third autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass-first published in 1881 and presented here in the thoroughly revised 1892 edition-is his most reflective, offering the perspective of a man at the end of long life well lived. Douglass retells the story of his childhood and escape from slavery, offering details that he could not previously reveal, with friends, family, and other innocents still in the thrall of slavemasters. Now, though, with the Civil War and Emancipation well behind the nation, Douglass can also offer more provocative analyses of his own battle for personal freedom and his fight for the very soul of the nation. This classic of African-American literature and of 19th-century American history is a must-read for anyone wishing to consider himself well-read.
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. From the Paperback edition.
Published in the bicentenary year of Frederick Douglass’s birth and in a Black Lives Matter era, this edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass presents new research into his life as an activist and an author. A revolutionary reformer who traveled in Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales as well as the US, Douglass published many foreign-language editions of his Narrative. While there have been many Douglasses over the decades and even centuries, the Frederick Douglass we need now is no iconic, mythic, or legendary self-made man but a fallible, mortal, and human individual: a husband, father, brother, and son. His rallying cry inspires today’s activism: “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!” Recognizing that Douglass was bought and sold on the northern abolitionist podium no less than on the southern auction block, this edition introduces readers to Douglass’s multiple declarations of independence. The Narrative appears alongside his private correspondence as well as the early speeches and writings in which he did justice to the “grim horrors of slavery.” This volume also traces Douglass’s activism and authorship in the context of the reformist work of his wife, Anna Murray, and of his daughters and sons.
Frederick Douglass was born enslaved in February 1818, but from this most humble of beginnings, he rose to become a world-famous orator, newspaper editor, and champion of the rights of women and African Americans. He not only survived slavery to live in freedom but also became an outspoken critic of the institution and an active participant in the U.S. political system. Douglass advised presidents of the United States and formally represented his country in the diplomatic corps. He was the most prominent African American activist of the nineteenth century, and he left a treasure trove of documentary evidence detailing his life in slavery and achievements in freedom. This volume gathers and interprets valuable selections from a variety of Douglass’s writings, including speeches, editorials, correspondence, and autobiographies.
A new collection of the seminal writings and speeches of a legendary writer, orator, and civil rights leader This compact volume offers a full course on the remarkable, diverse career of Frederick Douglass, letting us hear once more a necessary historical figure whose guiding voice is needed now as urgently as ever. Edited by renowned scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Pulitzer Prize–nominated historian John Stauffer, The Portable Frederick Douglass includes the full range of Douglass’s works: the complete Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, as well as extracts from My Bondage and My Freedom and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass; The Heroic Slave, one of the first works of African American fiction; the brilliant speeches that launched his political career and that constitute the greatest oratory of the Civil War era; and his journalism, which ranges from cultural and political critique (including his early support for women’s equality) to law, history, philosophy, literature, art, and international affairs, including a never-before-published essay on Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L’Ouverture. The Portable Frederick Douglass is the latest addition in a series of African American classics curated by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. First published in 2008, the series reflects a selection of great works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry by African and African American authors introduced and annotated by leading scholars and acclaimed writers in new or updated editions for Penguin Classics. In his series essay, “What Is an African American Classic?” Gates provides a broader view of the canon of classics of African American literature available from Penguin Classics and beyond. Gates writes, “These texts reveal the human universal through the African American particular: all true art, all classics do this; this is what ‘art’ is, a revelation of that which makes each of us sublimely human, rendered in the minute details of the actions and thoughts and feelings of a compelling character embedded in a time and place.” For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
This revision of the acclaimed and widely assigned Norton Critical Edition of Frederick Douglass’s great autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself includes key examples of literary and cultural analyses that have engaged scholars over the last three decades. This Norton Critical Edition includes: - Frederick Douglass’s 1845 Narrative, the most influential autobiography of its kind. - A preface and explanatory footnotes by William L. Andrews and William S. McFeely. - Contemporary perspectives by Douglass, Margaret Fuller, James Monroe Gregory, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. - Essays by William L. Andrews, William S. McFeely, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah E. McDowell, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Jeannine Marie DeLombard, and Robert D. Richardson, Jr. - A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography.
No people are more talked about and no people seem more imperfectly understood. Those who see us every day seem not to know us."—Frederick Douglass on African Americans "There is no negro problem. The problem is whether the American people have loyalty enough, honor enough, patriotism enough, to live up to their own constitution."—on civil rights "Woman should have justice as well as praise, and if she is to dispense with either, she can better afford to part with the latter than the former."—on women "The thing worse than rebellion is the thing that causes rebellion."—on rebellion "A man is never lost while he still earnestly thinks himself worth saving; and as with a man, so with a nation."—on perseverance "I am ever pleased to see a man rise from among the people. Every such man is prophetic of the good time coming."—on Lincoln Frederick Douglass, a runaway Maryland slave, was witness to and participant in some of the most important events in the history of the American Republic between the years of 1818 and 1895. Beginning his long public career in 1841 as an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, Douglass subsequently edited four newspapers and championed many reform movements. An advocate of morality, economic accumulation, self-help, and equality, Douglass supported racial pride, constant agitation against racial discrimination, vocational education for blacks, and nonviolent passive resistance. He was the only man who played a prominent role at the 1848 meeting in Seneca Falls that formally launched the women's rights movement. He was a temperance advocate and opposed capital punishment, lynching, debt peonage, and the convict lease system. A staunch defender of the Liberty and Republican parties, Douglass held several political appointments, frequently corresponded with leading politicians, and advised Presidents Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Garfield, and Harrison. He met with John Brown before his abortive raid on Harpers Ferry, helped to recruit African American troops during the Civil War, attended most national black conventions held between 1840 and 1895, and served as U.S. ambassador to Haiti. Frederick Douglass has left one of the most extensive bodies of significant and quotable public statements of any figure in American history. In the Words of Frederick Douglass is a rich trove of quotations from Douglass. The editors have compiled nearly seven hundred quotations by Douglass that demonstrate the breadth and strength of his intellect as well as the eloquence with which he expressed his political and ethical principles.
A collection of twenty of Frederick Douglass’s most important orations This volume brings together twenty of Frederick Douglass’s most historically significant speeches on a range of issues, including slavery, abolitionism, civil rights, sectionalism, temperance, women’s rights, economic development, and immigration. Douglass’s oratory is accompanied by speeches that he considered influential, his thoughts on giving public lectures and the skills necessary to succeed in that endeavor, commentary by his contemporaries on his performances, and modern-day assessments of Douglass’s effectiveness as a public speaker and advocate.
Families trapped in poverty and systemic injustices. Children denied civil rights because of race. A nation with immense potential for freedom spiraling into prejudice, violence, and hate. The country Frederick Douglass knew over one-hundred years ago is strikingly similar to the one we live in today. The truth, lessons, and hope he offered during his remarkable lifetime not only helped shape Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and the American Civil Rights movement, they can guide and inspire us in our own cultural moment. Born into slavery in 1818, Douglass escaped to New York City at the age of twenty, determined to tell his story and fight for the rights of all men and women to be free. His first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, remains one of the most influential books of modern times, as captivating and stirring now as it was when it was first published in 1845. This new edition of Douglass’s world-changing work includes intimate reflections from modern-day leaders, a foreword and photograph section from Douglass’s direct descendants, and a timeline beginning in 1619 with an emphasis on Douglass’s life and family. Whether you are interested in the history of the abolitionist movement and the Civil War, committed to the cause of abolishing modern-day slavery, or need renewed vigor to fight for human rights today, this timeless book will equip and inspire you to follow your passions, knowing that even against all odds, one person can change the world.
This volume of The Frederick Douglass Papers represents the first of a four-volume series of the selected correspondence of the great American abolitionist and reformer. Douglass’s correspondence was richly varied, from relatively obscure slaveholders and fugitive slaves to poets and politicians, including Horace Greeley, William H. Seward, Susan B. Anthony, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The letters acquaint us with Douglass’s many roles—politician, abolitionist, diplomat, runaway slave, women’s rights advocate, and family man—and include many previously unpublished letters between Douglass and members of his family. Douglass stood at the epicenter of the political, social, intellectual, and cultural issues of antebellum America. This collection of Douglass’s early correspondence illuminates not only his growth as an activist and writer, but the larger world of the times and the abolition movement as well.
Author, abolitionist, political speaker, and philosopher,Frederick Douglass was a pivotal figure in the decades ofstruggle leading up to the Civil War and the EmancipationProclamation. This inexpensive compilation of his speeches— including “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” (1852)and “Self-Made Men” (1859) — adds vital detail to the portraitof this great historical figure.Dover Original
The pre-eminent American slave narrative. Published in 1845, this autobiography powerfully details the life of the internationally famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass from his birth into slavery in 1818 to his escape to the North in 1838 - how he endured the daily physical and spiritual brutalities of his owners and drivers, how he learned to read and write, and how he grew into a man who could only live free or die. In his introduction, Houston A. Baker, Jr., discusses the slave narrative as a distinct American literary genre and points out its social, political, historical, and literary significance, past and present. Enriched eBook Features Editors Houston Baker and Derrick R. Spires provides the following specially commissioned features for this Enriched eBook Classic: • Chronology • Nineteenth-Century Reviews and Responses • Further Reading • Day in a Slave’s Life • Sorrow Songs and Sheet Music • “The Church and Prejudice” (1841) • Introduction to “Oration,” or “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro” • “The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro” (1852) • Introduction to “The Heroic Slave” • “The Heroic Slave” (1853) • “My Escape from Slavery” (1881) • Douglass Sites to Visit in the United States • Portraits and Illustrations • Enriched eBook Notes The enriched eBook format invites readers to go beyond the pages of these beloved works and gain more insight into the life and times of an author and the period in which the book was originally written for a rich reading experience.
Frederick Douglass was an ex-slave and a great orator in early 19th-century USA. His autobiography details his experiences as a slave and is considered the most famous such work, though many similar were written by his contemporaries. This work also influenced and fueled the abolitionist movement, in which Douglass was an important figure.
Selections of speeches and writings from the great abolitionist and statesman, focusing on the slave trade, the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, suffrage for African-Americans, Southern reconstruction, and other vital issues.
The illustrated version of America's most famous autobiography. Famous orator and former slave Frederick Douglass wrote the Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, an 1845 memoir and treatise on the abolition of slavery. In describing the facts of his life in clear and concise prose, he fueled the abolitionist movement of the early nineteenth century in the United States. In this seminal work, Douglass details the cruelty of slave holders, how slaves were supposed to behave in the presence of their masters, the fear that kept many slaves where they were, and the punishments received by any slave who dared to tell the truth about their treatment. He learned to read and write while still a slave but also suffered at the hands of whites. He was starved, worked the fields until he collapsed, was beaten for collapsing, was jailed for two years after planning an escape attempt, and nearly lost his left eye in an attack while he was an apprentice in a shipyard. Douglass succeeded in escaping to the North and finding his own freedom but kept many details of his journey a secret to protect those who helped him and, hopefully, allow others to escape. Augmented by large sidebars written by soldiers, statesmen, and abolitionists from the antebellum period, as well as pieces by well-known historians and prominent African-Americans, and some new pieces by current historians and writers, this richly illustrated edition of this classic American autobiography sheds new light on Douglass's famous text for a new generation of readers.
Overview Here in one omnibus edition are all three of Frederick Douglass' landmark autobiographies. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is one of the most influential autobiographies ever written. This classic did as much as or more than any other book to motivate the abolitionist to continue to fight for freedom in American. Frederick Douglass was born a slave, he escaped a brutal system and through sheer force of will educated himself and became an abolitionist, editor, orator, author, statesman, and reformer. This is one of the most unlikely and powerful success stories ever written. In Frederick Douglass' autobiography My Bondage and My Freedom we can see the power of literacy and belief. Douglass transforms himself from slave to an abolitionist, journalist, orator, and one of the most powerful voices to emerge from the American civil rights movement with little more than force of will. His breadth of his accomplishments gave hope to generations of people who came after him in their fight for civil rights.
To Tell a Free Story: Excerpt (1986) -- From Behind the Veil: Excerpt (1979) -- Afterword -- Chronology -- Four Maryland Families -- Historical Annotation to the Narrative -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y
My Bondage and My Freedom" was one of several works written by Frederick Douglass in his lifetime and was published in 1855. This work is a powerful and revealing autobiography in which Douglass narrates his journey from slavery to freedom, offering an intimate and profound view of his life and the conditions faced by the enslaved in the United States. Over time, various biographies have been written and continue to be written about this iconic abolitionist, with increasing quality and scope. However, to understand the thoughts and character of a real person, there is nothing better than hearing the story with all its circumstances, mistakes, and successes told by the one who lived it firsthand. This is the purpose of Frederick Douglass's autobiography. To bring to the public the courageous and visionary man who was born enslaved and, through his determination and intelligence, became one of the most influential and respected voices in the fight for the abolition of slavery and civil rights in the United States. This work is part of the "Voices of America Autobiographies" collection, which aims to highlight the life stories of important figures in American history, told by themselves.
One of the greatest works of American autobiography, in a definitive Library of America text: Published seven years after his escape from slavery, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845) is a powerful account of the cruelty and oppression of the Maryland plantation culture into which Frederick Douglass was born. It brought him to the forefront of the antislavery movement and drew thousands, black and white, to the cause. Written in part as a response to skeptics who refused to believe that so articulate an orator could ever have been a slave, the Narrative reveals the eloquence and fierce intelligence that made Douglass a brilliantly effective spokesman for abolition and equal rights, as he shapes an inspiring vision of self-realization in the face of unimaginable odds.
First published in 1845, the "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" is the memoir of former slave turned abolitionist, Frederick Douglass. Considered as one of the most famous of all the slave narratives...
Library of America presents the biggest, most comprehensive trade edition of Frederick Douglass's writings ever published Edited by Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer David W. Blight, this Library of America edition is the largest single-volume selection of Frederick Douglass’s writings ever published, presenting the full texts of thirty-four speeches and sixty-seven pieces of journalism. (A companion Library of America volume, Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies, gathers his three memoirs.) With startling immediacy, these writings chart the evolution of Douglass’s thinking about slavery and the U.S. Constitution; his eventual break with William Lloyd Garrison and many other abolitionists on the crucial issue of disunion; the course of his complicated relationship with Abraham Lincoln; and his deep engagement with the cause of women’s suffrage. Here are such powerful works as “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?,” Douglass’s incandescent jeremiad skewering the hypocrisy of the slaveholding republic; “The Claims of the Negro Ethnologically Considered,” a full-throated refutation of nineteenthcentury racial pseudoscience; “Is it Right and Wise to Kill a Kidnapper?,” an urgent call for forceful opposition to the Fugitive Slave Act; “How to End the War,” in which Douglass advocates, just days after the fall of Fort Sumter, for the raising of Black troops and the military destruction of slavery; “There Was a Right Side in the Late War,” Douglass’s no-holds-barred attack on the “Lost Cause” mythology of the Confederacy; and “Lessons of the Hour,” an impassioned denunciation of lynching and disenfranchisement in the emerging Jim Crow South. As a special feature the volume also presents Douglass’s only foray into fiction, the 1853 novella “The Heroic Slave,” about Madison Washington, leader of the real-life insurrection on board the domestic slave-trading ship Creole in 1841 that resulted in the liberation of more than a hundred enslaved people. Editorial features include detailed notes identifying Douglass’s many scriptural and cultural references, a newly revised chronology of his life and career, and an index.
Collected here are both of Frederick Douglass' magazine articles: "My Escape from Slavery" and "Reconstruction," as well as his address "The Hypocrisy of American Slavery." These pieces show Douglass at his rhetorical best. Important reading for anyone wanting more after reading his Autobiographies.
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