My Bondage and My Freedom

Douglass Frederick, Blight David W.

Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass escaped to freedom and became a passionate advocate for abolition and social change and the foremost spokesperson for the nation's enslaved African American population in the years preceding the Civil War. "My Bondage and My Freedom" is Douglass' masterful recounting of his remarkable life and a fiery condemnation of a political and social system that would reduce people to property and keep an entire race in chains. This classic is revisited with a new introduction and annotations by celebrated Douglass scholar David W. Blight. Blight situates the book within the politics of the 1850s and illuminates how "My Bondage" represents Douglass as a mature, confident, powerful writer who crafted some of the most unforgettable metaphors of slavery and freedom – indeed of basic human universal aspirations for freedom – anywhere in the English language.

About the Author

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) was an American social reformer, orator, author and statesman.

David W. Blight is professor of American history at Yale University and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.

Reviews

"With scorching rhetoric, my heroic ancestor rails against the inhumanity of slavery while upholding the tenets of liberty with poetic elegance. His prophetic words, as relevant today as they were over a century ago, will inspire readers to become leaders in the mold of Frederick Douglass. In this new edition, David Blight presents a thorough examination of my great-great-great grandfather's life from his enslavement on the eastern shore of Maryland to his emergence as a revolutionary leader at the center of a national crisis over the future of slavery" – Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives

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