This anti-slavery narrative, written with the honesty and eloquence of someone who spent the first part of his life living as a slave, should be must reading for anyone interested in this troubling period in American History. Frederick Douglass was not only one of the first civil rights leaders in the country's history, he was also active in women's rights, and the rights of all Americans to live as free people as put forth in the US Constitution.
In this book, Frederick Douglass chronicles the life of a young black man in 19th Century America. Douglass began his life as a slave, but later gained his freedom, and this narrative contains many affecting incidents, many passages of great eloquence and power.
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was originally published in 1845, and it's a slave narrative that provides graphic details of Douglass' childhood and early adulthood, and the often harrowing experiences of a young slave in the Deep South. Douglass had to teach himself how to read and write, often in secret, and suffered many hardships in his quest for an education. To many's surprise, the book received positive reviews, and went on to became a bestseller. In less than three years from its publication, the book had sold over 11,000 and had been reprinted nine times.
Fortunately for Douglass, most of his adult life was spent as a free man. After 19 years experiencing the horrors of slavery, he finally escaped to the North and freedom, married, and settled in New Bedford, Massachusetts. An ardent abolitionist and champion for emancipation and equal rights, he traveled around the country recounting in graphic detail the horrors he experienced as a slave. At a time when racism in America was open and accepted by much of the country -- especially in the South -- the idea of a black man openly campaigning for civil rights was almost unheard of, and Douglass was physically attacked on several occasions as he traveled around the country lecturing to small but enthusiastic crowds.
Many whites in this period of American history didn't think blacks had the intelligence to read or write, but Frederick Douglass proved them wrong. He turned out to be an eloquent writer and orator. It's a little known fact that Douglass was also an activist for women's suffrage. He believed that if blacks had the right to vote, women should have the same rights as well.
Douglass also published an influential black newspaper that won him worldwide attention and fame. The paper's incisive antislavery writing exposed what had been largely a secret to the world outside the tobacco farms and cotton plantations of the American South. After the Civil War, Douglass remained active in the United States' struggle to reach its potential as a "land of the free".
There is no doubt that Frederick Douglass in an important figure in black history, as well as women's rights, and this narrative gives a firsthand glimpse into his life and this critical time in US history.