description: Born a slave in 1818 on a plantation in Maryland, Douglass taught himself to read and write. In 1845, seven years after escaping to the North, he published Narrative, the first of three autobiographies. This book calmly but dramatically recounts the horrors and the accomplishments of his early years—the daily, casual brutality of the white masters; his painful efforts to educate himself; his decision to find freedom or die; and his harrowing but successful escape.An astonishing orator and a skillful writer, Douglass became a newspaper editor, a political activist, and an eloquent spokesperson for the civil rights of African Americans. He lived through the Civil War, the end of slavery, and the beginning of segregation. He was celebrated internationally as the leading black intellectual of his day, and his story still resonates in ours.
language: English
title: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
titlecomplete: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
characters: Frederick Douglass
genres: Classics, Autobiography, History, Race, American History, African American, Biography, School, Memoir, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 119301
places: Maryland, The United States of America
series: The Autobiographies, Voices of the African Diaspora
publisher: Pearson Prentice Hall