Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Dover Thrift Editions: Black History)

A gift

It is huge and took me quite a while to read but was an education in one book!

It is never easy reading about the type of fear, brutality, and oppression most slaves experienced as Frederick Douglass describes with his personal accounts. No matter what type of book I read about the history of enslaved people everywhere, the brutal accounts are the same and I wonder how the absence of compassion and humanity can let a person sleep in peace and without guilt when they cast such cruelty on another human being with hearts of stone. Yet, so many of these slaveowners resoundingly proclaim that they are Christians.Frederick Douglass had no accurate knowledge of his age because it was the wish of most masters, within his knowledge, to keep their slaves ignorant. He never recalls meeting a slave who could tell of their birthday. Douglass was separated as an infant from his mother, but this was not an uncommon occurrence to part children from their mothers at a very early age. The name given to him by his mother was Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey. He bore many surnames like Stanley and Johnson before he chose to use Douglass as his name after he became a free man.”Slaves, when inquired of their condition and character of their masters, almost universally say they are contented, and that their masters are kind. The masters had been known to send in spies among their slaves to ascertain their views and feelings in regard to their condition,” according to Douglass. A still tongue makes a wise head. Such practices were part of the dehumanizing character of slavery, just like the belief that education and slavery were incompatible with each other. The determination to read and learn was blasphemous in the eyes of the slavemaster and his household.Douglass sought freedom and while his attempts seemed futile, he eventually was successful at escape. He married Anna Murray and they began their lives in New Bedford. Due to the sensitivity of disclosing how he escaped to freedom, Douglass does not lay out how he did it because he knew slavemasters would read this narrative and foil any attempt of their slaves running away to seek freedom.He attended anti-slavery meetings but while attending an anti-slavery convention at Nantucket in 1841, he felt strongly to speak, when all before he was reluctant to do so. From this point, he became engaged in pleading the cause of his brethren in bonds, and to shed light on the American slave system as he faithfully relied upon the power of truth, love, and justice for success in his humble efforts.Yes, this is a short read and another good, personal, and emotional history-empowered book I highly recommend.

Interesting reading. I’ll be honest, the only reason why I purchased this was due to school. I needed this for my research essay. Got an A.

“He’s done an amazing job.” Please, be smarter than your president and read this book. And the Dover thrift edition is under two bucks. No excuses!

I purchased this book for my son’s History Class. The product was delivered on time and was as advertised. I have nothing negative to say, my purchase experience has been an enjoyable one.

A great piece of American Literature everyone should read. My perspective on life and literature has been changed by this book. Introduced to me in college in an African American studies class, I have since bought three more and gave them to friends. Every lover of social justice, human rights and literature must read this. Written by a great man, Frederick Douglass.

The violent horrors of slavery explode out of these pages describing Douglass’ experience of being a slave. The book is often cited by works on ancient history as the source for slavery from the slave’s perspective as opposed to the common view of the slave holder who called them lazy and thieves.

My daughter needed this for school and I’m all about a bargain. Sure enough Amazon had it the cheapest and shipping was only two days.

The Narrative of Frederick Douglas is a must read for all Americans to embrace OUR flawed but extraordinary history of the United States of America.Douglas is a pillar of the unwavering spirit to withstand atrocities, hardships and pain of life to overcome and succeed as one of the greatest Americans who has ever lived. Written in his own words (when teaching slaves to read and write was subject to sadistic punishment), this autobiography itself is a testament to Douglas’ courage.As a Black parent who read this book years ago, I made it required summer reading for my kids to read once they enter middle school. The graphic brutality is apparent where anger could easily overcome your emotions, but the short read allows you to experience the triumph of Douglas towards the conclusion of the book, making contemporary racial strife child’s play in comparison to his plight and yet Douglas overcame.This is not a black story but an American story that all people on the planet could benefit for it displays how human will and a enduring spirit can change things.I recommend “Giants: The Parallel Lives of Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln” by John Stauffer as a good companion to learning about Douglas friendship and influence of Lincoln. Enjoy!

perfect price as needed for AP lang & comp class. I bought these for my daughter and 3 more for friends. great price, & fast.

Love all the information.

I had a Booker Washington coin collection as a kid, but never learned much about him. I read a lot of great books in high school, but sadly this was not one of them. This should be mandatory in at least grade school. It’s an easy read.

What an important peice of history this is. It’s a short read. Definitely worth a look if you’re interested in history.

Must read for anyone trying to catch up on why we are where we are in America at this moment in time. Beautifully written!

He laid the foundation for human rights, civil rights, and political power for African Americans. His book can be easily traced to beliefs from many civil rights leaders be they radical or moderate in nature.

The iBook was read in our daughters school and she liked it a lot. She loves history and this book portrays one of the relevant figures in the fight for civil rights and anti-slavery movement in the USA.

I used this to teach my kids some history. Its a great short reference tool.

Quality was good for a paperback

The best slavery book ever. This was an assigned book for my history class and I had to write an essay for it. When I started reading the book I got hooked on to it instantly. It does not sugar coat slavery and describes it perfectly. Definately would recommend to anyone who wants to read a narrative on slavery and learn how a slaves life would be like.

I had to read this for an American History class. This narrative was entirely different than I had expected. Frederick Douglass proved throughout the book that he was brave, intelligent and determined. Excellent history read.

This is an amazing account of slavery in the early part of the 19th century. It is a tale of a human spirit that could not be extinguished even though Frederick Douglass witnessed and experienced unspeakable cruelty and hardship. It made me think of how soft we, as Americans, are today. What Douglass and his peers had to endure is truly beyond belief.It is a story that needs to be read, although the reading of it is not pleasant. And, knowing ‘the rest of the story’, I am amazed at how Douglass was able to overcome so much adversity and to rise to a position of such leadership. At the time that he died in 1895, he had amassed a fortune of $300K. That would have put him in the elite 1% of wealth in this great and exceptional nation.If only our youth of today could read of such hardship and be encouraged to persevere through their own troubles. It could become a story of inspiration and hope for them..It is also tragic to think that our own great nation was the home of a culture that was so despicable….a culture that treated some of our most talented and gifted people as if they were mere chattel. Thank God that we have grown past that.

Enjoyed very much. Interesting read.

This book is a good read to learn about the slave trade in America. Frederick Douglass turned out to be a excellent writer that was previously a slave. This book inspired me to work towards my goals no matter what I came from.

Having read other slave testimonials, I was not surprised by the stories Douglass recounts in his narrative. The tales of a master using cowhide rods to beat a slave until she bleeds, waiting for it to heal for a few hours while she is hog-tied, and then beating her again in the same place are horrifying and never easy to read, but we must not forget this wretched era of our country’s history. It is important to keep these stories alive.What sets this narrative apart, though, is Douglass’s ability to analyze the psychology behind slaves, slave owners, and taskmasters. As one example, Douglass explains that part of the secret to keeping slaves from rebelling or running away is to convince them that they would be worse off if they were free. One way to do this is to let the slave overindulge in something in order to lose faith in his ability to control himself. One time a slave got into the plantation house and ate some molasses. The owner went to town and got a huge bucket of molasses and made the slave eat so much that he never wanted to see molasses again. The owner used this as a way to teach the slave that he would destroy himself if it were not for the watchful, protective eye of the slave owner.Further, Douglass elaborates on the role of Christianity in slavery. Though most modern Christians deny that the Bible endorses slavery, from the perspective of Douglass, there was no crueler master than the zealously religious master, for it was the religious master that could use religion as a barrier to his own conscience and therefore commit more heinous acts than an ordinary conscience would allow. Douglass recounts the time one of his masters went to a religious revival. Hoping the master would return as a less violent, kinder person, Douglass was dismayed to see his master’s poor attitude had morphed into righteous fury, making him a far more contemptible slave owner than he had previously been.This is a taste of what Douglass brings you in this slim volume. It’s a one-sitting read that is more than worth the few hours you will invest. Recommended for everyone.

Douglass has a way of entrapping a reader- i finished this in one sitting, fully transported back to the 1840s. what i truly appreciated was that when it came to him successfully escaping, he didn’t describe how he did it. at first i was like, “the people want to know!!” but then i remembered that not everyone reading his story at the time was an abolitionist (remember the year is 1845- slavery is still very real); him spilling out the details could potentially put those who are trying to escape at risk.what absolutely terrified me was the unchanging factor that nobody cared for Black bodies (surprise surprise). LET ME TELL YA’LL ABOUT THESE SADISTIC OVERSEERS:- “The louder she screamed, the harder he whipped; & where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped longest.” pg. 4- “Mr. Severe was rightly named: he was a cruel man. I have seen him whip a woman, causing the blood to run half an hour at a time… He seemed to take pleasure in manifesting his fiendish barbarity.” pg. 7however, what we aren’t going to do is continue with the narrative that white men were the only ones brutal with enslaved Blacks:- “Mrs. Hicks, finding the girl slow to move, jumped from her bed, seized an oak stick of wood by the fireplace, & with it broke the girl’s nose & breastbone, & thus ended her life.” pg. 15that’s all i can write. i’m not even going to go in on how they treated children or bet on drunk Black men DURING CHRISTMAS. this is a must read & please, don’t wait until Black History Month to give it a go.

Great book. I could go on and on about the book. What stands out mostly is the part about when he learned how to read. His Masters’s wife was instructing him but when the master found out he demanded her to stop. The master went on a rant about how conscious reading would make Fredrick and once he became concsious then he would become rebellious beyond control. This sparked in Fredrick a great desire to read and when he did, he became the nightmare his master feared he would become. This is only one piece of the work that stands out.Through reading this book I see how slavery still exist today. There are no longer physical chains but they have become psychological. It is the conditioning of society, the mindsets we are molded to have and that few question. Also how materialism keeps us in the bodage of debt. This book fuels the awakening eye to become conscious so that people will no longer sleep awake.

Gr8

This is a quick read; it is also a book that I feel is is a must read for everyone, especially students. To see up close the brutalization and dehumanization of slavery is beyond words; Douglass cuts straight to the chase. In addition, to see his determination to save his humanity, while it was unacknowledged by others, is amazing. It shows how little many of us think of education and how he fought for it and what it did for him and those whom he affected. By sixteen, he had seen horrors no one should live to see much less to endure. It shows us as a people not much different than the Nazis, I am afraid to say. God bless this poor man’s soul – and yes, this is coming from a white person.

this book will make you cry and want to scream and make you nauseous. my grandchildren are bi-racial and through a pretty solid genealogy found their 4th and 5th generation grandparents were slaves in nauxabee, ms, owned by a man who had 70 human beings in slavery. i wonder what might have happened to those poor people. i hope it wasn’t as bad as mr. douglass but i suspect it probably was.

love this book.

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was about Douglass’s experience of slavery in his lifetime. Frederick Douglass grew up without ever knowing his father and was separated from his mother when he was an infant. During his time as a slave, he went through hardships, prejudice, and was also forbidden his natural rights as a human being. He talked his first time trying to escape with other slaves but they got caught. He included how they were whipped endlessly until blood would be rushing down their body by their masters/overseers. When Douglass finally escaped from slavery and reached New York he was greeted with kindness. People there were willing to assist him in his wonderful journey to freedom. This narrative focused on the hardships of slavery and the daily life of a slave. How a slave was not treated as equals amongst people but were treated as equals amongst animals and filth. How a slave had to succumb to whippings and beatings from their master/overseer at all times. That a slave would be whipped to such an extent that blood would be rushing down their body. I really liked The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass because it showed the real truth of slavery and how all people should be considered equal. How Frederick Douglass never gave up on the hope of freedom and continued to fight to abolish slavery.I would definitely recommend this book to someone because it showed courage, honesty, and truth.

It was very interesting, I really didn’t think it would be as interesting as it was. It was very informative on how black people were treated. If your interested in learning about history I would highly recommend it.

I really like this book. Very factual.

From the writings of a man born into slavery, traded and sold like cattle, whipped and beaten, this first hand narrative is crisp and impactful. Skip the glossy history books and hear it from an escaped slave himself, Fredrick Douglass.

A fantastic and heartbreaking novel that puts you into the worst period of U.S. history. Douglass masterfully tells the story of his terrible experience in slavery. I just taught this to my students. This should be required reading for every U.S. citizen.

The material may be dated but the content an application timeless. Written to the Abolitionist and sympathizers Douglas depiction of life as a slave is upsetting but offers hope to the reader. There are many ways to apply Douglas’s words to life in America today. A worth while read filled with hope.

Honesty throughout

It broke my heart. Many times over.Mr. Douglass’s story is very necessary for all American’s to know. It IS very hard to read about how families were separated, human beings sold, beaten, raped, degraded, not be allowed to marry, have children or even keep your children if you DID have them, etc..and that slavery went on for as long as it did. But it’s also necessary to know how people suffered at the hands of other human beings. Knowledge is power, and there are still many other forms of slavery going on today that must be stopped.The strength, determination and tenacity of this man, who against all odds, learned to read, to better himself, to better others, risk his life and escape to freedom is so interesting I did not want to put it down until I was finished with it. I only wish it had been longer. I wanted to read more about his life after escaping to the northeast and freedom.This book will also put your life in perspective for you. Do you think you have it hard now or suffer? Read what millions of people went through during the years when slavery was allowed and your problems will pale in comparison!This is a short book that can be read in one day. I strongly recommend it!

There is no way to do this book justice in a short review, other than to say that this a book that should be read more than once, as a young person and again when one has more lived experience to fully appreciate Douglass’s impact and also the continuing relevance of his words to contemporary American culture. The institution of slavery has ended, but its lingering impact and the entrenched racism in this country are still very much with us. The current “culture wars” and vehement reaction in some parts of our country to teaching about racism in schools speak volumes. My guess is that many opponents of CRT and of DEI curricula have not opened this book or studied history in any meaningful way. It is only by acknowledging the hypocrisy of some of the ideals upon which this country was founded that we can move forward . In any event, this is a beautifully written, horrific account of the institution of slavery and also a story of survivorship and activism. One would have to be made of stone not to be moved by Douglass’s story. Please don’t stop here- read his speeches as well.