My Bondage and My Freedom is Frederick Douglass's 1855 autobiography, a history and memoir of his life under slavery and his path to freedom. It reflects on bondage, identity, and the abolitionist struggle, offering a firsthand account of American slavery. Douglass's clear, powerful prose makes it valuable for listeners interested in history and justice.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
MY BONDAGE and MY
FREEDOM
By Frederick Douglass
By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally differenced from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, necessarily excludes the idea of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING. —
COLERIDGE
Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick Douglass in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Northern District of
New York
TO
HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH,
AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF
ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER,
ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE,
AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND
GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP,
AND AS
A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of
HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND
LIBERTIES
OF AN
AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE,
BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER,
AND BY
DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE,
This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated, BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND, FREDERICK DOUGLAS. ROCHESTER, N.Y.
CONTENTS MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM EDITOR’S PREFACE INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. Childhood CHAPTER II. Removed from My First Home CHAPTER III. Parentage CHAPTER IV. A General Survey of the Slave Plantation CHAPTER V. Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery CHAPTER VI. Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation CHAPTER VII. Life in the Great House CHAPTER VIII. A Chapter of Horrors CHAPTER IX. Personal Treatment CHAPTER X. Life in Baltimore CHAPTER XI. “A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream” CHAPTER XII. Religious Nature Awakened CHAPTER XIII. The Vicissitudes of Slave Life CHAPTER XIV. Experience in St. Michael’s CHAPTER XV. Covey, the Negro Breaker CHAPTER XVI. Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice CHAPTER XVII. The Last Flogging CHAPTER XVIII. New Relations and Duties CHAPTER XIX. The Run-Away Plot
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