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My Bondage and My Freedom Kindle Edition

by Frederick Douglass (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 1,018 ratings

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The abolitionist author presents profound insight on the meaning of race and freedom in America in this memoir of slavery, escape, and reinvention.

One of the most important figures in the American civil rights movement, Frederick Douglass was a major influence on social and political thought in the nineteenth century. His autobiographical writings were a powerful vehicle for his philosophy of human equality.

Written ten years after his legal emancipation in 1846, My Bondage and My Freedom recounts Douglass’s journey—intellectual, spiritual, and geographical—from life as a slave under various masters, and his many plots and attempts at escape, to his liberation, time as a fugitive, and new life as a prominent abolitionist. Expanding on his earlier work Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, this later memoir illuminates Douglass’s maturation as a writer and thinker.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08863FL9M
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (May 12, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 12, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2688 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 267 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #402,121 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #117 in Abolition History of the U.S.
- #573 in Cultural & Regional Biographies (Kindle Store)
- #586 in American Civil War Biographies (Books)

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4.7 1,018 ratings

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Frederick Douglass
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John Stauffer
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John Stauffer is the Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and African and African American Studies at Harvard University
He is the author or editor of 19 books and over 100 articles focusing on antislavery and/or photography.
Two of his books ("GIANTS" and "State of Jones") were national bestsellers. "The Black Hearts of Men" was the co-winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Lincoln Prize runner-up. "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and "Picturing Frederick Douglass" were Lincoln Prize finalists.
His writings on photography have appeared in "21st Editions"; "Young America: The Daguerreotypes of Southworth and Hawes," "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY," "Aperture," "Beyond Blackface," and "Listening to Cement."
The paperback edition of his most recent book, "Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century's Most Photographed American," will be available in early 2018, in time for Douglass's 200th birthday.
His interest in visual culture extends to exhibitions and film. He consulted on the traveling exhibition "WAR/PHOTOGRAPHY" (2012-14). He advised and appeared in three award-winning documentaries ("God in America"; "The Abolitionists"; and "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross"); and he has been a consultant for feature films including "Django" and the forthcoming "Free State of Jones", directed by Gary Ross and starring Matthew McConaughey, which is based on his book.
His essays and reviews have appeared in "Time", "Wall Street Journal", "New York Times", "Washington Post", "Huffington Post", and in scholarly journals and books.
He has appeared on national radio and television shows, including "The Diane Rehm Show," "C-SPAN," and "Book TV with Susan Swain," and he has lectured throughout the United States and Europe.
In 2009 the U.S. State Department's International Information Programs hired him as one of its speakers.
That same year Harvard named Professor Stauffer the Walter Channing Cabot Fellow for "achievements and scholarly eminence in the fields of literature, history or art." He has also received two teaching awards from Harvard: the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award; and the Jan Thaddeus Teaching Prize.
He lives in Cambridge with his wife, Deborah Cunningham, and their two sons, Erik and Nicholas.
(August 2017)
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moira

One of the best books I've ever read

Reviewed in the United States on January 23, 2019

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An unbelievable piece of literature and of history, so brutal in its honesty, so breathtaking in its literary beauty. I was deeply moved by it. I'm someone who did not know a lot about the history of slavery, and this book depicted the horror of it in meticulous detail. Frederick Douglass was one of the greatest figures in American history, an example of courage and eloquence for young people today. I'm so glad that my daughter was assigned this in middle school. Particularly during the current resurgence in racism, this book is a must-read, to remind people that the abysmal, inhuman practice of slavery in our history provides context to the current Black Lives Matter movement. After reading this, it will become patently clear why the confederate flag is such an offensive symbol to anyone who recalls that it originally defended the vile institution slavery.

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Rich Halecki

Awesome

Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2021

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I like reading personal histories. I find that they shed light on Big History.
Frederick Douglass, by all accounts, is a giant of the Abolition Movement.
I am in awe that -by his own admit- an uneducated person can speak and write so eloquently.
The book is highly readable. I felt like we were sitting by a fire with an old friend who was telling a story. It was compelling and riveting.
It laid open the horrors of slavery that I knew intellectually but never truly understood.

The excerpts of speeches at the end were lingering I didn't find them as genres the story. It lost that sitting by the fire feel. They were information I could imagine sitting in an audience hearing the speech. I'm glad they were added; they have context to the story. But as I said, not as enjoyable as the story itself

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B Daniel Blatt

An Indispensable Autobiography

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2016

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All too many Americans, alas, have only a limited knowledge of our history. While our fellows may recognize a few names, how many can identify James Madison as the principal author of the Constitution—or the reasons which compelled him (and many others, including George Washington) to meet in Philadelphia to draft it, six years after the British surrender at Yorktown? (And how many can identify that battle as the last significant conflict of the Revolutionary War?)

And just as we don’t know the high points of our history, many do not know the low points. How many today know about the life of Frederick Douglass, a man whom today we might today call the “conscience of the nation” at perhaps its most turbulent time? How many know that this leader was born in slavery, escaped to build a new life and become a spokesman for freedom, for justice, a man who met with President Lincoln in the middle of the Civil War?

Just as George Washington was the “indispensable man,” this narrative is an indispensable autobiography, a life-story, which exposes the evil of slavery and what it did not just to those who suffered under the lash, but also to those who wielded the lash. Every American should read this book. Every American should study the life of Frederick Douglass, and learn how he came to love a country, which, in his early days, deprived him of so much, not just the freedom that our founding charters promise, but also the very human bonds which should nourish and sustain all human beings.

As a boy he barely saw his own mother:

<<Her visits to me … were few in number, brief in duration, and mostly made in the night. The pain she took, and the toil she endured, to see me, tells me that a true mother’s heart was hers, and that slavery had difficulty in paralyzing it with unmotherly indifference.>>

Neither had control over his own life. Their owner put him to work in one place, hiring his mother out to a neighbor who lived twelve miles from him. To see her son, “she always had to walk one way or the other.” Twelve miles just to hold her little boy—and then after she had worked all for someone else without receiving compensation for her labors.

And if she showed up late to work the next day, she could not make the excuse that she went to see her child. The slave system did not acknowledge these most human of bonds, even for a boy still in single digits. “The heartless and ghastly form of slavery rises between mother and child, even at the bed of death.” She died before he was ten. He did not attend her funeral—or even know where she was buried.

Slavery destroyed family relations:

<<There is not, beneath the sky, an enemy to filial affection so destructive as slavery. It had made my brothers and sisters strangers to me; it converted the mother that bore me, into a myth; it shrouded my father in mystery, and left me without an intelligible beginning in the world.>>

And as a young boy, Douglass witnessed the volatility of slaveholders, shooting a man who stood in stream for refusing an order or whipping a woman for the “crime” of

<<impudence… the commonest and most indefinite in the whole catalogue of offenses usually laid to the charge of slaves…. This may mean almost anything , or nothing at all, just according to the caprice of the master or overseer, at the moment.>>

And it wasn’t just the maternal bond that was severed. His “old master took it upon him to break up the growing intimacy between Esther and Edward,” two young slaves. The master told her to avoid the company of this man whose company she most sought. But, a “woman’s love is not to be annihilated by the peremptory command of any one.” Esther would meet with Edward, and when her meetings were discovered, her owner would flog her.

Think about that for a moment, “her owner;” one man owned another human being. The law allowed him to prevent her from seeing the man she loved. She was merely a piece of property to him and marriage which might imposed an obligation, imposed none on her: it had “no existence” for the slave, except in such hearts as are purer and higher than the standard morality around them.”

But, Douglass was able to find a life better than that endured by most of his fellows. He was sent to Baltimore where his new mistress, Sophia Auld treated him, like any other boy, even teaching him to read. But, her husband found out and forbade her from continuing. “If you learn him now to read,” Hugh Auld told his wife, “he’ll want to know how to write; and, this accomplished he’ll be running away with himself.”

This “discourse,” Douglass writes, “was the first decidedly anti-slavery lecture to which it has been my lot to listen.” In many states in our country in the Nineteenth Century, “the white man’s power to perpetuate the enslavement of the black man” depended on keeping the black man—and woman—in ignorance.

Auld’s lecture helped Douglass understand the very nature of slavery, and it made him see what it did to the slave owner. It could “change a saint into a sinner, and an angel into a demon.” Give one man such power over another and there is almost no limit what he will do.

And he suffered—and observed—much cruelty. He was beaten, forced to work when he could barely stand on his feet, deprived of food, comfortable clothing, saw children separated from their parents, wives from their husbands, witnessed his grandmother when, no longer useful to her owners, exiled to a cottage in the woods.

Through it all, he kept the hope that he would one day be free. He finally managed his escape, and with the help of the Underground Railroad, moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts where he found work and built a family until abolitionists heard him speak—and made him one of their spokesmen.

He traveled to Europe, speaking out against slavery, and returned to his native land to continue his lectures and speak out for abolition. And through it all, he developed a philosophy of slavery and of freedom—and of what it means to be human.

And that is why I highly recommend that you read this book. When you hear this man’s story, you better understand the system of slavery which oppressed millions Americans of African origin for well over two hundred years of our history. This narrative of a life (fortunately for Douglass only a portion of his life) allows us to see the truly inhuman nature of this institution. These are experiences, not statistics.

We fell compassion because he is a man like we are. We wonder how anyone could have treated their fellows as his owners treated him—and the other human beings who were no more than property to them. And then we think how many other Frederick Douglasses there were, how many Esthers, how many Edwards, how many mothers forced to walk twelve miles just to see their little boys.

They lacked the ability to tell their story. But, Douglass told us his. We should read it, not just to know what he suffered, but to know what other men and women suffered as well. And because of the role slavery played in our history, this book becomes indispensable to understanding the worst evil that history.

And it gives us hope that since we overcame that evil, we can overcome others.

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Amazon Customer

Inspiring and inciting!

Reviewed in the United States on March 12, 2013

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Well-written, well-formatted, although using the more formal language of the nineteenth century. Douglass inspires us with his intelligence and emotive oratory. A story of mans' optimism, thoughtfulness, and courage to gain, and more importantly, wisely use his freedom.. Easy to skim through if you simply want to review his ideas, However, I suggest a deeper dive, for the same reasons used to enslave some men in centuries past are brewing in modern society, seeking to minimize, marginalize, and utilize for profit those outside a privileged few. This book, of all others, reminds us to understand history lest we be doomed to repeat it.

I must admit, Frederick Douglass became one of my heroes after reading this book.

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2024

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Most important book I have ever read.
I wish that all men and women, regardless of race, read this book .

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Michael-Bruce

Remarkable words left behind by a remarkable human being. A must read.

Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2012

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What a remarkable human being. I did not know that Frederick Douglass lived for a time on Boston's Beacon Hill. But he did. I recently read "Seven At The Sevens" (2012) a cool read, which led me to this truly wonderful book. You can start with Douglass' "Narrative" (1845) but then I urge you to follow that up with "My Bondage and My Freedom (1955). I've always knew of Frederick Douglass, but I didn't know much. I am so glad that I was reintroduced after so many years. He is a poet for sure. A brilliant writer and entrepreneur, well before anyone new what the term meant. After reading this book, I feel as if I am a better person. A better man. I think this to be the case because I think somehow I am. And, it was Frederick Douglass and his words. If you love Whitman or Emerson, I believe that you'll also fall in love with Frederick Douglass. A remarkable writer. An impressive man.

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Ismael Muñoz López

Mala calidad y formato malo

Reviewed in Spain on March 22, 2022

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Edición de muy mala calidad: tamñano de la letra y calidad del papel muy inferior a lo esperado

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Paul Bartley

A Man Of Honor And Strength

Reviewed in Canada on March 21, 2017

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A true leader in black history. This book is a great study of a black man who came from slavery and stood his ground for what he believed, freedom!!. Blacks should be proud of the black heroes who have fought for freedom and started the wheels in motion for a better life. They wear a badge that is not seen but it is a badge of honor and well deserved. From back then to even now some whites believe most things are theirs from birth where blacks have worked hard and struggled for some of the simplest things in life. I am sorry for what they had to go through but am proud of what they have accomplished. No matter what colour we all are, we are all humans and yes, I am white.

Amazon Customer

A top read

Reviewed in Japan on October 2, 2021

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Eve though the written language is dated, the author’s experience opened an understanding what being a slave is, and still has a long way to go to achieve equality and freedom among African populations around the world.

L. Powell

Must read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 15, 2014

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Born in to slavery this is about the authors early life and his eventual escape to the 'free' north and his life for a while after.

This book isn't too depressing which is surprising considering the subject. It's amazing well written considering the author was a slave and wasn't formally taught to read or write (and had very little help). His intellect shines through his words and you can feel his passion and strength leap from the pages.

One of the best books I've read although the last few chapters really do ramble and add nothing to the book in my opinion. Despite the disappointing last few chapters and a lack of tied ends I've been raving about this book to everyone I've met over the last few months!

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DI Lechner

Worst transcript

Reviewed in Germany on February 14, 2021

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You only have to read a few sentences to understand that this edition is not a good one. I spent the money in the hope of purchasing a well edited Kindle version but the contrary is the fact.
One example from the 3rd chapter:
Original: "I learned, after my mother's death, that she could read, and that she was the only one of all the slaves and colored people in Tuckahoe who enjoyed that advantage."
This Kindle version: "I learned, after my mother's loss of life, that she may want to examine, and that she changed into the best one in every of all the slaves and coloured people in Tuckahoe who loved that benefit."
I could go on and on, but to make it short: this Kindle version is an impertinence.

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