Reviews with content warning for Hate crime - Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The moving eloquence and lasting impact of Frederick Douglass's autobiographical narrative leaves me thinking no study of early American history could possibly be complete without it.

Told in alternating matter-of-fact prose and passionately emotional poetry, it's no wonder Douglass played such an instrumental role in the abolition of American slavery.

As I read, I imagined reading this as a 19th century white American previously unacquainted with specifics of the manifold evils of southern slavery.... Phew.

A must-read indeed. You'll weep, but be the better for it.
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Content warnings: As expected of any work on American slavery, many heavy topics are covered, though none graphically, including rape, cruelty and physical abuse, violence, death of and separation from parents and grandparents, etc.

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lizzye33's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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ifweweresorrows's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

An Important and essential read.

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lifeoflauren's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad fast-paced

4.5

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battybookworm's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Read for African American Lit (Fall 2021) - wrote close reading paper on chapter 11 section. Found it to be an interesting narrative and have enjoyed the complications my teacher puts forth about it. Excited to read and discuss more works to cross reference and learn.

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sheryl_macca's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

I had little knowledge of Frederick Douglass or his Narrative before I began reading it. The book was one given to me by a friend who hadn't read it herself. My motivation to read of Frederick Douglass was one of diversity having set myself a goal this year to diversify my reads in all senses.

I found a mix of personal memoir and social history within its pages. Frederick Douglass narrates his own life eloquently, vividly but unemotionally. He divides his life by the locations he found himself in rather than by age or stage of life which in itself is telling. Because of this his narrative does jump from place to place without fully exploring the details and experiences of each.

Frederick also speaks on behalf of all the enslaved people he has known in Maryland. He could be telling the tale of any or all enslaved people in many places. He is efficient and effective in describing the social, political and economic landscape of the time.

I enjoyed the book, I learned from it but I wanted a greater emotional connection. Given it was written in 1845 by a man who had been through countless unthinkable things I think I'm probably asking too much.

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