Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – Unabridged Author: Frederick Douglass | Language: English | ISBN:
0486284999 | Format: EPUB
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – Unabridged Description
About the Author
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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- Age Range: 11 and up
- Grade Level: 6 and up
- Lexile Measure: 1080L (What's this?)
- Series: Dover Thrift Editions
- Paperback: 96 pages
- Publisher: Dover Publications; Unabridged edition (April 13, 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0486284999
- ISBN-13: 978-0486284996
- Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I believe that this autobiography can best be summed up by a quote in the middle of the book: "You have seen how a man becomes a slave. You will now see how a slave becomes a man."
As a small child, Douglass overhears his master berating his mistress because she was trying to teach the boy to read. Douglass realizes that his master wants to keep him ignorant. From that point on he vows to become the best man he can possibly become, and to become his own Master. His challenges as a child are simpler; tricking other children into playing Alphabet games so that he may slowly learn to read. As he becomes older, his challenges become more complex and dangerous; dealing with the Slave Breaker, a man that uses brutality to condition slaves into complete submission. When it suits his needs, Douglass allows his oppressors to believe his is defeated, but he never allows anyone to take his humanity or dignity. The reader travels with Douglass on his quest from the moment he is separated from his mother as an infant, to his days beginning in the abolitionists movement.
It is unfortunate that Douglass was unable to write of the details of his final escape from slavery because he was still worried about exposing those who assisted him in his flight.
Douglas also does an excellent job of demonstrating how slavery is also destructive to the spirit of those who practice slavery. We meet not only the Master and the Slave Breaker, but we also meet kind and loving women who eventually become hardened and cruel after being forced to accept their fellow man as only chattel.
Everyone should read this short book at least once in their lives. It is important to experience a first hand account of the past evils of our society.
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