Thus, part of his motivation for writing the book was to dispel this suspicion and to provide a fuller history than was possible in his lectures. The eloquence of Douglassâs speeches caused some skeptics to doubt his credibility, believing that a former slave with no education could never speak so well. The brutalities he witnessed and his slowly growing desire for freedom are presented in the vivid language he was already known for in his antislavery oration.

It covers his life as a slave, enduring the whips of the overseers and the hopelessness of his circumstances, until his escape to the north and arrival at New Bedford, Massachusetts. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was written in 1845, seven years after Douglass escaped slavery, and is the first of three autobiographies. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick DouglassĤ0,587 words (2 hours 28 minutes) with a reading ease of 68.3 (average difficulty) Toni Morrison and Angela Davis talking about the book at the New York Public Library on Octoin a 2-hour film.Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass - Free ebook download - Standard Ebooks: Free and liberated ebooks, carefully produced for the true book lover. ISBN: 9780872865273 | City Lights Related Resource An important new edition of an American classic. And in an extended introductory essay written for this edition, Davis comments on previous editions of the “Narrative” and re-examines Douglass through a contemporary feminist perspective. With detailed attention to Douglass’s text, she interrogates the legacy of slavery and shares timeless lessons about oppression, resistance, and freedom.

In two philosophical lectures originally delivered at UCLA in autumn 1969, Davis focuses on Douglass’s intellectual and spiritual awakening, and the importance of self-knowledge in achieving freedom from all forms of oppression. In this new critical edition, legendary activist and feminist scholar Angela Davis sheds new light on the legacy of Frederick Douglass. After escaping slavery, Douglass became a leader in the anti-slavery and women’s rights movements, a bestselling author, and U.S.

Achieving literacy emboldens Douglass to resist, escape, and ultimately achieve his freedom. A masterpiece of African American literature, Frederick Douglass’s “Narrative” is the powerful story of an enslaved youth coming into social and moral consciousness by disobeying his white slavemasters and secretly teaching himself to read.

Frederick douglass narrative