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sacredblues 's review for:
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
by Frederick Douglass
You’ve heard it before: reality is stranger than fiction. And what sounds more horrifyingly fictional than a nation wherein an entire race of people were subjugated and treated like tools for the purposes of economic gain? Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is as infuriating and haunting as it is gripping and powerful. It’s infuriating due to the sadly very real setting. In this book, you will see just how horribly slaves are treated, and even if you think, “I’ve heard it all before,” I’m sure it will still make you sick reading it, but that’s part of the reason why this book is so important. It reminds us that these things really did happen. If it was just an account of all the horrors faced by slaves, I would not have enjoyed this book nearly as much as I did. We’re also treated by the gripping, well-written tale of how Frederick Douglass resisted his masters, how he grew into his own and broke his chains. Interspersed in the narrative are Douglass’ well-written arguments against slavery. While “slavery is bad” (hopefully) isn’t a novel notion to you, it’s still interesting to see his arguments and find out how they’re formed. Douglass is an excellent story-teller and debator. It may be disappointing to some that Douglass doesn’t actually describe how he physically escaped slavery, though it’s understandable why he didn’t detail this (namely, he didn’t wish to out his allies/close that route of freedom for subsequent runaways). Still, I think it’s as powerful seeing how he mentally escaped slavery, how he got to the point where he’d die fighting rather than live laying down. This remains an important piece of nonfiction, not just in terms of history, but in terms of uplift. Frederick Douglass’ narrative is quite motivational and to me, it’s as hopeful as it is harrowing.