Overview

"Frederick Douglass's ""Narrative"" is one of the most lucid, absorbing slave autobiographies written; that it has much to say about American history, specifically the institution of slavery, only adds to its luster. It is remarkable that someone born into slavery could learn to write as well as virtually any ""man of letters"" in his era. Despite Douglass' unhappy lot (or maybe because of it), he managed to acquire a great deal of insight into the people, white and black, around him. Douglass convincingly depicts how the institution of slavery damages both oppressed and oppressor--it dehumanizes the former and brings out the cruelest qualities of the latter. (A hundred years later, Martin Luther King would say much the same about the practice of segregration.) There is much anger in the Narrative--but also a wise and noble spirit. Compulsively readable, this book is still very much ""relevant"" today: it is hard to imagine a time in which people will no longer wish to read it."

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9781481942164

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. ..this book...will fascinate readers with an interest in the complexities of migration of British emigrants who dared to cross the Atlantic and write home about their experience in the New World in order to invite others to follow their example. Marianne S. Wokeck, Michigan Historical Review

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"Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman. After escaping from slavery, he became a leader of the abolitionist movement, gaining renown for his dazzling oratory and incisive antislavery writing. He stood as a living counter-example to slaveholders' arguments that slaves did not have the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. He became a major speaker for the cause of abolition. In addition to his oratory, Douglass wrote several autobiographies, eloquently describing his life as a slave, and his struggles to be free. His classic autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, is one of the best known accounts of American slavery. After the Civil War, Douglass remained very active in America's struggle to reach its potential as a ""land of the free."" Douglass actively supported women's suffrage. Following the war, he worked on behalf of equal rights for freedmen, and held multiple public offices. Douglass was a firm believer in the equality of all people, whether black, female, Native American, or recent immigrant. He was fond of saying, ""I would unite with anybody to do right and with nobody to do wrong."""

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