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A review by ameliatmoss
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass
5.0
I remember learning about this and other slave narratives in school but never actually reading them and now I'm absolutely perplexed as to why we didn't have to read them. So many of the thoughts, feelings, and problems are relevant to today. Some of the most poignant parts of his experience had to do with his view of the ultra-religious being the cruelest of the slave owners, and how they justified themselves through religion.
The version of this book that I own has a bunch of his speeches as well and the most interesting were for sure the speech about Abraham Lincoln and his speech on how he thinks reconstruction should be handled. In his Lincoln speech he says, "It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected in his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thoughts, and in his prejudices, he was a white man." I feel like again, public school, never dug into Lincoln in any meaningful way. Like how former slaves perceived him or why it took him so long to stand up against slavery. I also learned he fully revoked the Emancipation Proclamation at once point???
Honestly great though. Will absolutely be forcing my children to read it when they are learning about all of this in school.
The version of this book that I own has a bunch of his speeches as well and the most interesting were for sure the speech about Abraham Lincoln and his speech on how he thinks reconstruction should be handled. In his Lincoln speech he says, "It must be admitted, truth compels me to admit, even here in the presence of the monument we have erected in his memory, Abraham Lincoln was not, in the fullest sense of the word, either our man or our model. In his interests, in his associations, in his habits of thoughts, and in his prejudices, he was a white man." I feel like again, public school, never dug into Lincoln in any meaningful way. Like how former slaves perceived him or why it took him so long to stand up against slavery. I also learned he fully revoked the Emancipation Proclamation at once point???
Honestly great though. Will absolutely be forcing my children to read it when they are learning about all of this in school.