The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass

by Frederick Douglass

Overview

Raised as a plantation slave, Douglass went on to become a writer, orator, and major participant in the struggle for African-American freedom and equality. In this engrossing narrative he recounts early years of abuse; his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486431703
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	12/19/2003
Series:	African American
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	694,340
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

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