The British abolitionist Julia Griffiths still resided in Rochester, New York, and served as Douglass’s coeditor of his abolitionist newspaper Frederick Douglass’ Paper right up until her departure back to England in midsummer 1855. The 1855 book of 464 pages (four times longer than the Narrative) came from, as Douglass reminded readers in the first three chapter titles, an “Author” already free and ready to use literacy to engage in an epic argument with his country. Bondage and Freedom is not a mere updating of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass of 1845 rather, it is an extensive revision of that one great tale Douglass believed he must tell–the story of himself.Ī quite different person–a much more mature, politicized writer–crafted Bondage and Freedom, as opposed to the twenty-seven-year-old orator of 1845 who needed to establish his identity through literacy.
In long form, it was the masterpiece of his writing life, a work that modern scholars have given a prominent place in the literary American renaissance.
And he recognized that African Americans must play a conspicuous role in that struggle" (ANB).Late in 1854, and especially during the first half of 1855, Frederick Douglass spent many weeks at his desk writing his ultimate declaration of independence, My Bondage and My Freedom, his second, more thorough and revealing autobiography. Throughout his life, "Douglass understood that the struggle for emancipation and equality demanded forceful, persistent, and unyielding agitation. As his narrative unfolds, Frederick Douglass-abolitionist, journalist, orator, and one of the most powerful voices to emerge from the American civil rights movement-transforms himself from slave to fugitive to reformer, leaving behind a legacy of social, intellectual, and political thought." "The most influential African American of the 19th century" (ANB), Douglass was "the most powerful abolitionist speaker in the country" (Negro History). In his foreword to the 2003 Modern Library paperback edition, John Stauffer writes: "My Bondage and My Freedom," a deep meditation on the meaning of slavery, race, and freedom, and on the power of faith and literacy, as well as a portrait of an individual and a nation a few years before the Civil War.
A very nice example, uncommon in this condition. In near fine condition with light rubbing. Octavo, original publisher’s brown cloth, with three engraved plates, including the engraved frontispiece from the classic daguerreotype of Douglass. New York & Auburn: Miller, Orton, & Mulligan, 1855.įirst edition of Douglass’ second autobiography.
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