Angela S. (echo123) reviewed Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave on + 77 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Absolutely everyone should read this book at least once in their life. Race aside, this is the inspiring story of one man's efforts to make changes in the world beyond anything he could ever have believed as he started out.
If you have ever had the chance to walk some of the land on Maryland's eastern shore, where Douglass was born and raised, you'll appreciate even more where this man came from and where he finally ended up in his heroic life.
If you have ever had the chance to walk some of the land on Maryland's eastern shore, where Douglass was born and raised, you'll appreciate even more where this man came from and where he finally ended up in his heroic life.
Teri E. (teekle) reviewed Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave on + 27 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Wonderful story of the ture life of a slave.
Lisa F. (x0xbookwormx0x) reviewed Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave on + 100 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
Following a stirring preface by William Lloyd Garrison (who, nearly 20 years after he first met Douglass, would himself lead the black troops fighting from the North in the Civil War), the not-yet-30-year-old author recounts his life's story, showing effective and evocative use of language as well as unflinchingly examining many aspects of the Peculiar Institution of American Slavery. Douglass attributes his road to freedom as beginning with his being sent from the Maryland plantation of his birth to live in Baltimore as a young boy. There, he learned to read and, more importantly, learned the power of literacy. In early adolescence, he was returned to farm work, suffered abuse at the hands of cruel overseers, and witnessed abuse visited on fellow slaves. He shared his knowledge of reading with a secret "Sunday school" of 40 fellow slaves during his last years of bondage. In his early 20's, he ran away to the North and found refuge among New England abolitionists. Douglass, a reputed orator, combines concrete description of his circumstances with his own emerging analysis of slavery as a condition.
