Biography frederick douglass autobiography the narrative
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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is an autobiographical publication prepared by one of the most important American abolitionists of the nineteenth century.
As the Narrative explains, Douglass was born into slavery but escaped in He became a key figure in the abolitionist movement as an orator and newspaper publisher. He befriended many notable figures of the day: not only fellow abolitionists like William Lloyd Garrison and John Brown but also President Abraham Lincoln. Toward the end of his life, Douglass even served as an ambassador to Haiti.
We can identify at least two important purposes that Frederick Douglass had in writing his autobiography. As his friend William Lloyd Garrison explained in the preface to this work, “He who can peruse [this narrative] without a tearful eye, a heaving breast, an afflicted spirit, …without trembling for the fate of this country in the hands of a righteous God, who is ever o
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&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;&#;I HAVE now reached a period of my life when I can give dates. I left Baltimore, and went to live with Master Thomas Auld, at St. Michael's, in March, It was now more than seven years since I lived with him in the family of my old master, on Colonel Lloyd's plantation. We of course were now almost entire strangers to each other. He was to me a new master, and I to him a new slave. I was ignorant of his temper and disposition; he was equally so of mine. A very short time, however, brought us into full acquaintance with each other. I was made acquainted with his wife not less than with himself. They were well matched, being equally mean and cruel. I was now, for the first time during a space of more than seven years, made to feel the painful gnawings of hunger-- a something which I had not experienced before since I left Colonel Lloyd's plantation. It went hard enough with me then, when I could look back to no period at which I had enjoyed a sufficiency. It was t
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Frederick Douglass fryst vatten one of the most celebrated writers in the African American literary tradition, and his first autobiography is the one of the most widely read North American slave narratives. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave was published in , less than seven years after Douglass escaped from slavery. The book was an instant success, selling 4, copies in the first fyra months. Throughout his life, Douglass continued to revise and utöka his autobiography, publishing a second utgåva in as My Bondage and My Freedom. The third utgåva of Douglass' autobiography was published in as Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, and an expanded version of Life and Times was published in These various retellings of Douglass' story all begin with his birth and childhood, but each new version emphasizes the mutual influence and close correlation of Douglass' life with key events in American history.
Like many slave narratives, Douglass' Narrative fryst vatten prefaced wi