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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: A Library of America Paperback Classic

Frederick Douglass

4.14 AVERAGE

yonirodriguez's review against another edition

4.0

informative inspiring medium-paced

lindyloureads's review against another edition

4.0

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

aschwab805's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark informative inspiring fast-paced

elmogirl922's review against another edition

4.25

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swamanda's review against another edition

5.0

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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Important reading. Emotional and truthful portrayal of slavery. I loved Mr. Douglass’s treatise on religion in the appendix of the memoir. Quoted from this appendix, “What I have said respecting and against religion, I mean strictly to apply to theslaveholding religion of this land, and with no possible reference to Christianity proper; for, between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference--so wide, that to receive the one as good, pure, and holy, is of necessity to reject the other as bad, corrupt, and wicked. To be the friend of the one, is of necessity to be the enemy of the other. I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.”

raquelstars's review against another edition

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for school

seeceeread's review against another edition

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💭 "Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. [...] They were tones loud, long, and deep; they breathed the prayer and complaint of souls boiling over with the bitterest anguish." 

Born to an enslaved woman he saw fleetingly and an unknown white man, Douglass was hungry for his early years. Selected as caretaker for a younger boy around the tender age of eight, Douglass briefly learned to read three- and four- letter words by a kind mistress (until she was schooled by her husband to harden herself against him). For the next few years in Baltimore, our intrepid narrator ate decently, feared he would be sold off to Georgia when the family fortunes changed and tricked poor white boys to help him practice writing. Upon return to Talbot County, Douglass is more acutely aware of his status of chattel, old enough to take careful note of sorrows and trickery and indignities. Hired out to a wide variety of scoundrels, he clandestinely teaches others to read and eventually endeavors to steal away. The first time, he is nearly caught. The next, successful. In the last pages, he recounts the joy of reading the Liberator and learning the formal rhetoric of abolitionists. 

This slim volume picks up many of the core arguments popular at the time and that should be crystallized by now in the national consciousness. Since some of y'all are out here thinking the Underground Railroad was actually subterranean and Harriet Tubman is some sort of comic book fabrication ... lemme go ahead and repeat some basics: 

•  There was (is) no form of enslavement better than its absence. There were no 'good' owners, masters, overseers, traders or fugitive trackers.
• Enslaved people were treated as criminal for existing: As Douglass explains, "To be accused was to be convicted and to be convicted was to be punished." Maybe you can see a lil modern parallel, hmmm?!
• In addition to violence, the slave economy was grounded in profound disparity. A few men (sometimes in their wife's name) controlled vast tracts of land and related resources. Since suffrage depended on capital (valuable stuff that can make you more money ... if someone *else labors), they parlayed economic power into political power.
• The dominance of men—husbands, fathers, brothers—was enshrined in law.  And Christianity was distorted for their aims; they could twist any scripture to serve their quest to hold power. Thus, white supremacist capitalist patriarchy (as bell hooks so often named) was cultural, too. 

Little of this is new to me. And yet my mind was racing! Today, I'm still stuck on two facts:

1. Newly freed people were cautious in revealing exactly how they achieved liberation, to protect those who aided and to make sure that secreted pathways stayed open for someone others.  
2. Abolitionists found co-conspirators in part by loudly proclaiming they wouldn't return fugitives to slavery—and stomping out anybody who betrayed that commitment. Again, the parallels to our contemporary are extremely clear to me.

bl_on_the_dl's review against another edition

5.0

emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

noraisasillybilly's review against another edition

4.75

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I actually really enjoyed this book even though it was required reading.

theaubreyplazaofohio's review against another edition

5.0

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The toughest thing I've ever read when it comes to how horrific it is. I was surprised how clear and easy to read it was in terms of the way it was actually written, and not the subject matter. This is something every American should read. Very interesting book and I learned a lot.  I'll be reading his other books as well.