Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Book Description
This volume contains the first and most famous of Frederick Douglass`s three autobiographies, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. First published in Boston in 1845, only seven years after Douglass`s escape from bondage, the Narrative provided the foundation for its author`s antebellum reputation as a writer. Douglass went on to write two more autobiographies, becoming one of a very small number of nineteenth-century Americans to publish more than one account of their lives. His books provide an unparalleled record not only of the events of his life but also of his shifting perceptions of the complex worlds of slavery and freedom that he inhabited. The autobiographies reflect the differences in his age (the first was written when he was twenty-seven, the last when he was in his seventies), his memory, and his objectives at the various times of his writing. ... Read more

Book Description
The Oxford Frederick Douglass Reader collects in one volume the most outstanding and representative work from Frederick Douglass's fifty-year writing career, including all the major genres in which he worked: autobiography, journalism, oratory, and fiction. The Reader contains the following classic texts in their entirety: the landmark fugitive slave narrative Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845); the consummate anti-slavery oration "What To the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" (1852); the pioneering novella The Heroic Slave (1853); and the magisterial analysis of lynching Lessons of the Hour (1894). Generous selections from Douglass's second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), illustrate his boldly revisionist personal and political agenda, while major chapters from both the 1881 and the 1892 editions of the final autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, reveal the author's perspective on his own successes and his estimate of the nation's progress on the racial front in the post-war era. Also included are notable examples of Douglass's journalism, in which he advocated women's rights and black enlistment in the Civil War. In addition, the private as well as the public Douglass finds a voice in the Reader, as he responds to criticism of his decision to choose a white woman as his second wife and also discloses his carefully guarded views of religion through a little-known 1886 letter. Editor William L. Andrews has provided an introduction and headnotes that give basic, accessible information regarding Douglass's life, writing purposes, and the reception of his texts, offering a thoughtful review of the crucial developments in Douglass's multiple careers as autobiographer, journalist, lecturer, and racial spokesman. The Oxford Frederick Douglass Reader provides students and readers with the most complete, diverse, and personally revealing record available of nineteenth-century black America's most celebrated writer. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Beautiful Writing
This was a wonderfully edited version of some of the best writing Douglass ever wrote. The introduction is excellent and the intros to the excerpts of some of his letters and editorials are very informative. One of the bestFrederick Douglass books I have ever read. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

We need a better edition!
Douglass is great--a true American hero--and it's very nice to have a good, affordable single-volume collection of his writings. But be warned that this edition has MANY typographical errors--on nearly every other page--and does not contain the original typographical style, which I think detracts from the experience. Still, it's a very handy reference to have around.

A superb collection of speeches, writings, and reflections.
Frederick Douglas was one of the most important African American leaders of the 19th Century. He was a man who spoke and wrote with an unsurpassed eloquent on the issues confronting the American people during his life. Hiscommentaries ranged from the abolition of slavery to women's rights, Fromthe Civil War to racial lynchings, from American patriotism to blacknationalism. Frederick Douglas: Selected Speeches and Writings wasoriginally edited by Philip S. Foner and has been abridged and adapted inthis superb "The Library of Black America" edition by YuvalTaylor. Frederick Douglas: Selected Speeches And Writings will form a coretitle in any personal, academic, or public library Black Studiescollection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

My kids loved it!
My 7 year old daughter couldn't put this book down, as well as my twin 9 year old boys.I've never had so much interest in a book from my kids.They were fascinated and learned so much about such an amazing man by reading this well worded and meaningful book!

... Read more

Amazon.com
Frederick Douglass symbolizes the abolitionist movement of the 19th century as only a handful of other black Americans do. His autobiography is required reading, and he is acknowledged as a central figure in American history. At the same time, Martin Delany is often remembered only as Douglass's opposite, and his work is largely absent from the canon. With Martin Delany, Frederick Douglass, and the Politics of Representative Identity, Robert S. Levine, an associate professor of English at the University of Maryland, attempts to explore the complex relationship between these two men. He finds differences between the two, but significant correspondences as well--each believed in the importance of Africa, in the perniciousness of slavery, and in the need for abolition. A great value of the book is Levine's exploration of such often overlooked sources as articles in contemporary black newspapers, as well as letters and lectures. ... Read more

Product Description
This book takes a simple yet novel approach to the "Narrative of the Life of a Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845)".The authors of the essays collected here believe that students need to experience the Narrative as an aesthetic achievement as well as a socio-historical document. ... Read more

Book Description
Frederick Douglass (1817?-1895) was born into slavery by a slave mother and an unknown father. At the age of 8, he started to educate himself with the help of his master's wife. In 1838, he fled Baltimore for the North. There he soon became a noted author and speaker on slavery.

Douglass wrote three autobiographies, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass" (1845), "My Bondage and My Freedom" (1855) and "Life and Times of Frederick Douglass" (1881). Quiet Vision publishes all three plus the "Selected Works of Frederick Douglass", a collection of short works and speeches.

A man ahead of his time, in the 1840's he had to be dragged from the railroad cars reserved for whites. He also protested the dual standard of certain churches in having separate worship. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (73)

More than one reason to read this book.
Douglass' narrative is typically assigned to high school and college classes to provide a more personal, emotional account of slavery that is not typically found in history books.While this is important, I believe reading this Narrative can provide more than an account of the brutalities of slavery (though it certainly does show the brutality).One quote I think encompasses the book:"You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man."I look at this book as more of a character study for Douglass, how he remembers his life and chronicles the changes he goes through.It was also interesting to see how literacy changes not only his mind but his personality.Reading brings knowledge but also pain.If you've read Walter Ong's "Orality and Literacy" this becomes even more apparent and interesting.That aside, Douglass writes a poetic and interesting narrative of his life that I think people should WANT to read rather than feel forced to read.

Forgotten American Political Classic, Best Slave Narrative Reading
I read this book some years ago and thought it the best Americanpersonnal slave narrative ever written.A forerunner of the 20th century's ,'Autobiography of Malcolm X'.This book is sadly forgotten by many,both among black and white educators.Frederick Douglass was more than an "American Moses",he could have been called ,an 'American Frederick Engels'.Douglass had the power of literacy,which the European-American christians always wanted surpressed and restricted for everybody,especially slaves and the church laity.Douglass had the power of knowledge,and the ablity to reason,which in turn leads to a better society.The more freedom of knowledge is restricted by authorities,the more explosive the base of society becomes.The free exchange of ideas has always allowed a democracy to flourish,and inturn a more stable and progressive society,a 'Great Society'.Frederick Douglass' Washingtonian beacon house still stands proudly on the hill overlooking the scenic and political landscape.This book is a short classic narrative,yet still worthy of investing one's time reading today.

fantastic reading
I love reading about history,part of history that everyone should read about. I would recommend to everyone...

Simply the best narrative I have read...
As society moves about, the slavery of the past remains alive and well."Sweep it under the rug and do not bring it up" is the mindset of many.This type of suppression is often brought about because of the known guilt of an unfair past.American slavery has deep roots, reading the life of Fredrick Douglass, will help unveil some of the true history of America.

At one point in the book Douglass realized he had past the time of being an indentured servant and knew that being a slave for life was his fate.He was treated with little if no respect.Douglass described Mr. Severe, one of his "masters", as a man who would whip a slave for almost no reason at all (22).Dougless illustrated that Mr. Severe had no respect for his slaves, but treated them as if they were not human.

Many people may think that Douglass story was the exception, but that's not the case.Many times through out the book Douglass spoke of other slave's punishment as far worse than his own.He even recorded the murder of two slaves in Talbot, Maryland and stated that the slave owner never paid for the crime (31-33).This type of abuse almost seems unfathomable, but it's reality.

Studying the origins of slavery can allow us to see the disgusting progression of the enslavement of human life and stripping of human character.Douglass' narrative provides the reader with a glimpse into the life of a slave.The emotional state of Douglass was strong, considering the abuse that he underwent during his life.The narrative of Fredrick Douglass is a superb read for anyone wanting to get a first hand understanding of the life of an American slave.

must read, best on the psychology of slavery, particularly on owners
This is an absolutely amazing narrative, of the growth of an individual from the most brutish of slave lives to a free man who took pride in his work and his mind, which he then bent to political action. While told as a story, this book is actually an essay on personal struggle and development: to respect himself, to change his circumstances, to be re-born. At that, it is extremely powerful and moving. The reader empathizes completely with his rage, his awakening, and his striving to grow. He came to the point where he would rather fight back than die slowly, never to be dominated in his spirit.

But it also points to the effect of slavery on their owners. While there are the standard cruel and selfish ones, who are attempting to "break" his spirit in order to domesticate him, the story of how it twists the souls of essentially good people that is the most interesting and shocking. It is like a sickness, their total and unresponsible power, that extingusihes their empathy and replaces it with the most horrible selfishness, as they debase themselves with cruelty. You get the whippings and routine humilations, but also what that does to the perpetrators.This means that the book never descends into stereotypes, but reads as an extremely fresh story by a thoughtful, indeed brilliant, man.

THere are also many interesting asides, which are often philosophical. He points out the hypocrisy of southern christians, who make the worst and most cruel and self-righteous slavers, all while justifying their behavior by the bible. He also recounts how he expected that the "refinement" of the southern gentleman and their leisure would be impsooble in the North, which he pictured as poor as the non-slave holding population in the South - but he discovers an entirely different kind of economic life, in which men worked and prospered and deveoped themselves even more than what he had observed on plantations. But the most important thing is his recounting of his inner journey, which was encouraged by his learning to read as a way to overcome the ignorence that made for "contented slaves."

There is so much food for thought on the human spirit as well as wonder at how the US has evolved. Highest recommendation.If you like this, you should also read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, by Harriat A. Jacobs. ... Read more