Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave & Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl

by Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, Kwame Anthony Appiah (Introduction)

Overview

Introduction by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Commentary by Jean Fagan Yellin and Margaret Fuller
 
This Modern Library edition combines two of the most important African American slave narratives—crucial works that each illuminate and inform the other.
 
Frederick Douglass’s Narrative, first published in 1845, is an enlightening and incendiary text. Born into slavery, Douglass became the preeminent spokesman for his people during his life; his narrative is an unparalleled account of the dehumanizing effects of slavery and Douglass’s own triumph over it.
 
Like Douglass, Harriet Jacobs was born into slavery, and in 1861 she published Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, now recognized as the most comprehensive antebellum slave narrative written by a woman. Jacobs’s account broke the silence on the exploitation of African American female slaves, and it remains essential reading.
 
Includes a Modern Library Reading Group Guide

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679783282
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/10/2000
Series:	Modern Library Classics
Edition description:	2000 MODER
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	523,470
Product dimensions:	5.18(w) x 7.95(h) x 0.94(d)
Lexile:	1080L (what's this?)

About the Author

Kwame Anthony Appiah teaches at Princeton University. His works include In My Father’s House and Cosmopolitanism.

Hometown:

Tuckahoe, Maryland

Date of Birth:

1818

Date of Death:

February 20, 1895

Place of Death:

Washington, D.C.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	xi
	Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave	1
	Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl	115
	Notes	355
	Commentary	391
	Reading Group Guide	403

Reading Group Guide

1. In what ways do you think the abolitionist movement speaks to or even defines the social climate described by both Douglass and Jacobs?

2. Literacy plays a key role in Frederick Douglass's journey to freedom. Discuss other factors in his emancipation. What role does violence play, for example?

3. Were the slaveholders justified in their assessment of the lives of Northern factory workers? Discuss.

4. How is Douglass's narrative affected by the omission of his actual escape? Why do you think he does this?

5. Discuss the narratives of both Douglass and Jacobs in view of conventional literary biographies. How do the recordings of their experiences differ, if at all?

6. Discuss the role of religion as described by Douglass and Jacobs. What belief systems does each embrace?

7. Is the kind of escape discussed by Douglass even possible for Jacobs? How does her gender shape her experience of slavery?

8. What is the significance of Jacobs's status as a mulatto? How does this inform her experience?

9. Do Douglass and Jacobs depict the black family as disrupted by the institution of slavery? How do families cope? Discuss.

Foreword

1. In what ways do you think the abolitionist movement speaks to or even defines the social climate described by both Douglass and Jacobs?

2. Literacy plays a key role in Frederick Douglass's journey to freedom. Discuss other factors in his emancipation. What role does violence play, for example?

3. Were the slaveholders justified in their assessment of the lives of Northern factory workers? Discuss.

4. How is Douglass's narrative affected by the omission of his actual escape? Why do you think he does this?

5. Discuss the narratives of both Douglass and Jacobs in view of conventional literary biographies. How do the recordings of their experiences differ, if at all?

6. Discuss the role of religion as described by Douglass and Jacobs. What belief systems does each embrace?

7. Is the kind of escape discussed by Douglass even possible for Jacobs? How does her gender shape her experience of slavery?

8. What is the significance of Jacobs's status as a mulatto? How does this inform her experience?

9. Do Douglass and Jacobs depict the black family as disrupted by the institution of slavery? How do families cope? Discuss.