Product Description

'I was born in Tuckahoe I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it. By far the larger part of the slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.' Thus begins the autobiography of Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) who was born into slavery in Maryland and after his escape to Massachusetts in 1838 became an ardent abolitionist and campaigner for women's rights. His Narrative, which became an instant bestseller on publication in 1845, describes his life as a slave, the cruelty he suffered at the hands of his masters, his struggle to educate himself and his fight for freedom. Passionately written, often using striking biblical imagery, the Narrative came to assume epic proportions as a founding anti-slavery text in which Douglass carefully crafted both his life story and his persona. This new edition examines Douglass, theman and the myth, his complex relationship with women and the enduring power of his book. It includes extracts from Douglass's primary sources and examples of his writing on women's rights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #370902 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-07
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .18 pounds
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 160 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-This classic text in both American literature and American history is read by Pete Papageorge with deliberation and simplicity, allowing the author's words to bridge more than 160 years to today's listeners. Following a stirring preface by William Lloyd Garrison (who, nearly 20 years after he first met Douglass, would himself lead the black troops fighting from the North in the Civil War), the not-yet-30-year-old author recounts his life's story, showing effective and evocative use of language as well as unflinchingly examining many aspects of the Peculiar Institution of American Slavery. Douglass attributes his road to freedom as beginning with his being sent from the Maryland plantation of his birth to live in Baltimore as a young boy. There, he learned to read and, more importantly, learned the power of literacy. In early adolescence, he was returned to farm work, suffered abuse at the hands of cruel overseers, and witnessed abuse visited on fellow slaves. He shared his knowledge of reading with a secret "Sunday school" of 40 fellow slaves during his last years of bondage. In his early 20's, he ran away to the North and found refuge among New England abolitionists. Douglass, a reputed orator, combines concrete description of his circumstances with his own emerging analysis of slavery as a condition. This recording makes his rich work available to those who might feel encumbered by the printed page and belongs as an alternative in all school and public library collections.
Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Frederick Douglass died over one hundred years ago, but his spirit endures in this short account he wrote of his life. Brief yet detailed, it resonates with the same subdued anger and passion against injustice that marked his later work. That spirit of controlled fury has been caught in the reading by Pete Papageorge. Though slow and deliberate, it carries with it an undertone of strong feeling. His deep voice more than suggests Douglass's authority and his position as the grandfather and living symbol of the abolitionist movement. When the ex-slave bristles at the horrors in the slave-holding system and methodically details the damage done by that system to the economy and psyche of the South, it may be Papageorge's voice we hear, but it is Douglass's scathing condemnation ringing through the ages. P.E.F. © AudioFile 2003, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Ingram
Frederick Douglass was born into bondage and sold repeatedly in the slave markets of the South. Because he secretly taught himself to read and write, we possess one of the most eloquent indictments of slavery ever recorded. 2 cassettes.