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Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (LOA #68): Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times

Hardback

Main Details

Title Frederick Douglass: Autobiographies (LOA #68): Narrative of the Life / My Bondage and My Freedom / Life and Times
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Frederick Douglass
Edited by Henry Louis Gates
Physical Properties
Format:Hardback
Pages:1126
Dimensions(mm): Height 207,Width 131
Category/GenreSlavery and abolition of slavery
ISBN/Barcode 9780940450790
ClassificationsDewey:B
Audience
Undergraduate
Professional & Vocational
General

Publishing Details

Publisher The Library of America
Imprint The Library of America
Publication Date 1 February 1994
Publication Country United States

Description

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. presents the only authoritative edition of all three autobiographies by the escaped slave who becamea great American leader. Here in this Library of America volume are collected Frederick Douglass's three autobiographical narratives, now recognized as classics of both American history and American literature. Writing with the eloquence and fierce intelligence that made him a brilliantly effective spokesman for the abolition of slavery and equal rights, Douglass shapes an inspiring vision of self-realization in the face of monumental odds. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave(1845), published seven years after his escape, was written in part as a response to skeptics who refused to believe that so articulate an orator could ever have been a slave. A powerfully compressed account of the cruelty and oppression of the Maryland plantation culture into which Douglass was born, it brought him to the forefront of the anti-slavery movement and drew thousands, black and white, to the cause. InMy Bondage and My Freedom(1855), Douglass expands the account of his slave years. With astonishing psychological penetration, he probes the painful ambiguities and subtly corrosive effects of black-white relations under slavery, and recounts his determined resistance to segregation in the North. The book also incorporates extracts from Douglass's speeches, including the searing "What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?" Life and Times, first published in 1881, records Douglass's efforts to keep alive the struggle for racial equality udirng Reconstruction. John Brown, Abraham Lincoln, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Beecher Stowe all feature prominently in this chronicle of a crucial epoch in American history. The revised edition of 1893, presented here, includes an account of his controversial diplomatic mission to Haiti. This volume contains a detailed chronology of Douglass's life, notes providing further background on the events and people mentioned, and an account of the textual history of each of the autobiographies. LIBRARY OF AMERICAis an independent nonprofit cultural organization founded in 1979 to preserve our nation's literary heritage by publishing, and keeping permanently in print, America's best and most significant writing. The Library of America series includes more than 300 volumes to date, authoritative editions that average 1,000 pages in length, feature cloth covers, sewn bindings, and ribbon markers, and are printed on premium acid-free paper that will last for centuries.

Author Biography

Born a slave, Frederick Douglass (c. 1818-1895) educated himself, escaped, and made himself one of the greatest leaders in American history. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., editor,is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University. Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, literary scholar, journalist, cultural critic, and institution builder, Gates has authored or coauthored twenty-one books and created fifteen documentary films.