Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Maryland in 1818.  He had no birth certificate and thus never knew his precise age. However, he chose February 14 as his official birthday because his mother regarded him as her “little Valentine.” While he was still a boy, a kindly woman taught him to read, which was illegal at the time. In this book, Douglass talks about his childhood and his determination to become a free man, and his eventual escape from slavery. When the book was published in 1845, his friends urged him to go overseas, to avoid the risk of his recapture and return to his former owner. Thus, Douglass toured Ireland in 1845 and was eyewitness to the beginning of the Great Famine. In Ireland, he was stunned by the absence of the racism that plagued the United States, North and South.

In his youth, Douglass got his hands on a copy of Hiram Bingham’s The Columbian Orator, which was published by Hiram Bingham in 1797. This book was widely used in the 19th century to teach American students to reason and to speak.  Douglass studied this book intensely and became a great orator, and thus a major public figure in the movement to abolish slavery. He was also active in other movements for social reform. In particular, he attended the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848, the meeting that launched the first wave of the women’s rights movement in the United States.

In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson established “Negro History Week” during the second week of February because it encompassed the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. This was the origin of what is now Black History Month.

Electronic version: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass | Project Gutenberg

Audiobook version: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass | LibriVox