In the Words of Frederick Douglass: his Autobiography
To understand Frederick Douglass, his struggles, and the times he lived in, one must read about his life in his own words. He published three versions of his autobiography during his lifetime (and revised the third of these), each time expanding on the previous one. He also wrote a novella entitled The Heroic Slave, an abolitionist work of fiction published in 1852 inAutographs for Freedom. The Autographs for Freedom was sold as a fundraiser for anti-slavery activities. Source: african-americanflag.com
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Published: 1845 By: Frederick Douglass
This was Douglass's first of three autobiographies, also his best work. Within four months of its publication, 5000 copies were sold. Within three years of its publication, the autobiography had been reprinted nine times with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States; it was also translated into French, German and Dutch and published in Europe. Douglass used real dates, names, and places in this work. As a fugitive slave and fear that he would be captured, he fled to England where he stayed for two years. The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is the 1849 edition of Douglass's first autobiography.
This is Douglass's expanded autobiography first published in 1855. The 1857 edition appears as part of The Nineteenth Century in Print, an American Memory collection in collaboration with the University of Michigan's Making of America project. Source: memory.loc.gov
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The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass Published: 1881 By: Frederick Douglass
This is Douglass's final autobiography. This electronic edition is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries' Documenting the American South digitization project, created with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Source: memory.loc.gov
The five pages below represents a chapter from Frederick Douglass's draft manuscript of his autobiography, Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, ca. 1880. Here Douglass recounts how he used the papers of a free African-American sailor to escape from slavery. Source: Adrienne Cannon, Manuscript Division: Library of Congress
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