The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

by Frederick Douglass

Overview

I have neither been miserable because of the ill-feeling of those about me, nor indifferent to popular approval, and I think, upon the whole, I have passed a tolerably cheerful and even joyful life. I have never felt myself isolated since I entered the field to plead the cause of the slave, and demand equal rights for all. In every town and city where it has been my lot to speak, there have been raised up for me friends of both colors to cheer and strengthen me in my work. I have always felt, too, that I had on my side all the invisible forces of the moral government of the universe. -from Chapter 17: "Incidents and Events" American icon FREDERICK DOUGLASS (1818-1895)-editor, orator, author, statesman, and reformer-told his life story three times. First, in 1845's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, he felt it necessary to explain how a man born in chains could rise to national prominence and respect. In 1855, with My Bondage and My Freedom, he expanded upon his story with a more in-depth and even more thoughtful exploration of his life as a slave and his journey to escape it. (Both astonishing-and essential-books are also available from Cosimo.) His third autobiography, The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass-first published in 1881 and presented here in the thoroughly revised 1892 edition-is his most reflective, offering the perspective of a man at the end of long life well lived. Douglass retells the story of his childhood and escape from slavery, offering details that he could not previously reveal, with friends, family, and other innocents still in the thrall of slavemasters. Now, though, with the Civil War and Emancipation well behind the nation, Douglass can also offer more provocative analyses of his own battle for personal freedom and his fight for the very soul of the nation. This classic of African-American literature and of 19th-century American history is a must-read for anyone wishing to consider himself well-read.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605203997
Publisher:	Cosimo Classics
Publication date:	09/24/2009
Pages:	470
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.05(d)
Lexile:	1400L (what's this?)

About the Author

Frederick Douglass, an outspoken abolitionist, was born into slavery in 1818 and, after his escape in 1838, repeatedly risked his own freedom as an antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher.

Hometown:

Tuckahoe, Maryland

Date of Birth:

1818

Date of Death:

February 20, 1895

Place of Death:

Washington, D.C.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER III. TROUBLES OF CHILDHOOD. Col. Lloyd's plantation—Aunt Katy—Her cruelty and ill-nature—Capt. Anthony's partiality to Aunt Katy—Allowance of food—Hunger—Unexpected rescue by his mother—The reproof of Aunt Katy—Sleep—A slave - mother's love—His inheritance—His mother's acquirements—Her death. ONCE established on the home plantation of Col. Lloyd—I was with the children there, left to the tender mercies of Aunt Katy, a slave woman who was to my master, what he was to Col. Lloyd. Disposing of us in classes or sizes, he left to Aunt Katy all the minor details concerning our management. She was a woman who never allowed herself to act greatly within the limits of delegated power, no matter how broad that authority might be. Ambitious of old master's favour, ill-tempered and cruel by nature, she found in her present position an ample field for the exercise of her ill-omened qualities. She had a strong hold upon old master, for she was a first-rate cook, and very industrious. She was therefore greatly favoured by him—and as one mark of his favour she was the only mother who was permitted to retain her children around her, and even to these, her own children, she was often fiendish in her brutality. Cruel, however, as she sometimes was to her own children, she was not destitute of maternal feeling, and in her instinct to satisfy their demands for food, she was often guilty of starving me and the other children. Want of food was my chief trouble during my first summer here. Captain Anthony, instead of allowing a given quantity of food to each slave, committed the allowance for all to Aunt Katy, to be divided byher, after cooking, amongst us. The allowance consisted of coarse corn meal, not very abundant, and which by passing through Aunt Katy's hands, became more slender s...

Table of Contents

	Introduction [to the 1892 Edition]	3
Part 1
1	Author's Birth	11
2	Removal from Grandmother's	13
3	Troubles of Childhood	16
4	A General Survey of the Slave Plantation	18
5	A Slaveholder's Character	25
6	A Child's Reasoning	28
7	Luxuries at the Great House	34
8	Characteristics of Overseers	39
9	Change of Location	43
10	Learning to Read	47
11	Growing in Knowledge	50
12	Religious Nature Awakened	56
13	The Vicissitudes of Slave Life	60
14	Experience in St. Michaels	66
15	Covey, the Negro Breaker	75
16	Another Pressure of the Tyrant's Vise	84
17	The Last Flogging	90
18	New Relations and Duties	98
19	The Runaway Plot	105
20	Apprenticeship Life	122
21	Escape from Slavery	130
Part 2
1	Escape from Slavery	137
2	Life as a Freeman	141
3	Introduced to the Abolitionists	151
4	Recollections of Old Friends	154
5	One Hundred Conventions	159
6	Impressions Abroad	164
7	Triumphs and Trials	184
8	John Brown and Mrs. Stowe	193
9	Increasing Demands of the Slave Power	209
10	The Beginning of the End	225
11	Secession and War	240
12	Hope for the Nation	253
13	Vast Changes	270
14	Living and Learning	290
15	Weighed in the Balance	296
16	"Time Makes All Things Even"	320
17	Incidents and Events	330
18	"Honor to Whom Honor"	340
19	Retrospection	346
	Appendix	351
Part 3
1	Later Life	375
2	A Grand Occasion	379
3	Doubts as to Garfield's Course	383
4	Recorder of Deeds	386
5	President Cleveland's Administration	390
6	The Supreme Court Decision	395
7	Defeat of James G. Blaine	405
8	European Tour	407
9	Continuation of European Tour	411
10	The Campaign of 1888	434
11	Administration of President Harrison	437
12	Minister to Haiti	439
13	Continued Negotiations for the Mole St. Nicolas	446
	Annotated Bibliography	455
	Index	458