Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

I picked this up as required reading for school. I was expecting an old, dry, politically driven book, but I was pleasantly surprised. While much of the book was about a heavy topic, it was well-written and a fairly easy read. It gave the reader time to think about what was going on at the time it took place and didn't distract the reader by having to go look up old-fashioned words.

I can't find my way around his books. He has 3 autobiographies and only 1 is popular. And he repeats stories? Either way this is a good book by itself as I can't compare it to anything else. It's short and free on YouTube.

It can be a tad harder to get into old books. The text is less fluent and there is a clear focus on oration and big points vs. down to earth explanations. Yet once I started to focus a bit more the book became so much better as finally I understood what happened in his life.

Frankly the dry old nature does not take over as we move from story to story. The pace is brisk and while it feels unemotional we can imagine emotions. Basically, when he experiences sadness he writers "I felt sad in that moment in time". Sure, we get it. Yet as a reader you have to constantly imagine and perceive to understand his mindset. A modern book would try to put you in his shoes and make it read emotionally too not just be pure information.

We get a short intro to slavery and his experience. His multiple masters and his escape to freedom. He learned to read and hence was sent to Baltimore as reading meant he was too focused on freedom and it inspired other slaves too. He then becomes part of free society yet here we don't really hear much about his new role as a political activist. Maybe because this book made him more famous?

I'd love to read more. But where to start? The new biography? It's quite long, but maybe good?

I don't know that this book needs any praise from me to bolster its reputation or anything, but I'll just say that it's beautifully written and even more beautifully direct in its assessments and depictions of life under slavery--and of the hypocrisy which buttressed the institution. It should also go without saying that this is a timeless piece, as relevant today as it ever was, but I'll say it anyway.

A new favorite. An amazingly well-written memoir that brings the history of America to life. This should be required reading for every American high school student (preferably September of their freshman year) for how it elucidates the importance of education, human rights, and history. In this work, Douglass is also a powerful and moving religious leader that abides no hypocrisy.