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matthewgrant's review against another edition
5.0
You grow up hearing about slavery in school, and watching facsimiles of it on TV and in the movies. Nothing quite compares with reading about it first hand.
This book needs to be required reading in all American schools.
One of the most pernicious effects of the ramifications of slavery comes toward the end of the book. I was very much caught up in Douglass' story, which reads almost like a thriller. Time and time again the brutality of slavery threatens to beat him down, but time and time again he rises against it. Until one day, he decides to run away. The desire ebbs and flows, and there are several attempts. Then the moment comes, the one which the entire book builds up to. He makes a final desperate bid for freedom and then...nothing. It picks up again when he's free, in the North.
Why? I quote at length:
He is free, but not entirely. He is not free to tell his entire story. Slavery still has its hold on him.
Douglass also includes one of the most searing indictments of southern "Christians" and the ways they hypocritically and blasphemously extolled the name of Jesus in church and then whipped their slaves on their plantations. I knew that Christianity had been used to justify slavery, but the extent of this evil my blood boil to hear it firsthand. The church has a dark history and such a long way to go to reconcile. Ugh.
I'm hanging on to this one, and my kids will be reading it long before To Kill a Mockingbird.
This book needs to be required reading in all American schools.
One of the most pernicious effects of the ramifications of slavery comes toward the end of the book. I was very much caught up in Douglass' story, which reads almost like a thriller. Time and time again the brutality of slavery threatens to beat him down, but time and time again he rises against it. Until one day, he decides to run away. The desire ebbs and flows, and there are several attempts. Then the moment comes, the one which the entire book builds up to. He makes a final desperate bid for freedom and then...nothing. It picks up again when he's free, in the North.
Why? I quote at length:
Were I to give a minute statement of all the facts, it is not only possible, but quite probable, that others would thereby be involved in the most embarrassing difficulties. Secondly, such a statement would most undoubtedly induce greater vigilance on the part of slaveholders than has existed heretofore among them; which would, of course, be the means of guarding a door whereby some dear brother bondman might escape his galling chains. I deeply regret the necessity that impels me to suppress any thing of importance connected with my experience in slavery. It would afford me great pleasure indeed, as well as materially add to the interest of my narrative, were I at liberty to gratify a curiosity, which I know exists in the minds of many, by an accurate statement of all the facts pertaining to my most fortunate escape. But I must deprive myself of this pleasure, and the curious of the gratification which such a statement would afford. I would allow myself to suffer under the greatest imputations which evil-minded men might suggest, rather than exculpate myself, and thereby run the hazard of closing the slightest avenue by which a brother slave might clear himself of the chains and fetters of slavery.
He is free, but not entirely. He is not free to tell his entire story. Slavery still has its hold on him.
Douglass also includes one of the most searing indictments of southern "Christians" and the ways they hypocritically and blasphemously extolled the name of Jesus in church and then whipped their slaves on their plantations. I knew that Christianity had been used to justify slavery, but the extent of this evil my blood boil to hear it firsthand. The church has a dark history and such a long way to go to reconcile. Ugh.
I'm hanging on to this one, and my kids will be reading it long before To Kill a Mockingbird.
hamwhig's review against another edition
5.0
An inspiring account of growing up as a slave. The difficulties he went through to learn how to read were really interesting and also the events that led up to his eventual escape.
smesnake's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
lindarlissima's review
4.0
Had to read this in middle school or high school and the passages about learning to read stuck in my head at the time, as it was the first narrative I had read by an escaped slave. Such a passion for learning, risking a beating and potentially death to do it, and there I was in school complaining about homework! Rereading this now I found particularly eloquent his condemnation of the southern version of Christianity, the outrageous hypocrisy of whipping people during the week and praying in church on Sundays. Will read his later books as this one was short and he was still young when he wrote it.
fjord_fm's review
challenging
dark
informative
tense
medium-paced
4.0
"Revivals of religion and revivals in the slave- trade go hand in hand together."
Historical and insightful, Douglass educates us on why we should stay in school, detest religious extremism, and what the Roman "bread and circuses" was really about.
Historical and insightful, Douglass educates us on why we should stay in school, detest religious extremism, and what the Roman "bread and circuses" was really about.
jshackelford's review against another edition
3.0
Less a narrative of his life, more of clear first hand picture of slavery and slaveholders from a slave's point of view.