Autobiographies by Frederick Douglass:



Autobiographies by Frederick Douglass:

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)

My Bondage and My Freedom (1855)

Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881)

Douglass' Evolving Voice:

As a writer, style and voice change as a direct response to the events going on in life. For Frederick Douglass, his voice evolved as he matured and became more involved in the abolitionist movement. Douglass never lacked passion. As an adolescent, he burned with hatred towards his masters. He endured both physical and emotional pain. His physical contact was not a loving stroke, but a brutal lashing. As a young man, he finally escaped that life and gained the freedom he sought. The experiences of his life and the oppressions of his people contributed to his voice as a writer. His formal training in debate gave him the strength to embrace and communicate his ideas, and the journey of his life gave him the experiences with which to empathize with his audience. Douglass' commitment to anti-slavery and the abolitionist movement was fueled by his personal experiences, and his commitment to see no man treated in the same cruel, terrible manner.

In the Narrative, Douglass’s style is matter-of-fact, but a distinct tone underlies his apparent objectivity. In essence, he is scornful, moralistic, and passionately critical of the facts of his life as a slave, beginning with his earliest experiences in the world of slavery. This tone, which continues through the narrative, creates a mood in the reader of being appalled and indignant toward slavery and its perpetrators and compassionate toward its victims.

Rhetorical triangle and The Narrative:

Reader/audience: A notice in The Liberator for May 9, 1845, reads: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. It will give our friends as much pleasure to hear as it does us to announce, that a 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass,' written by himself, is in press, and will be published in a few days." Over the next few weeks The Liberator carried a number of extracts from the book, as well as extracts from reviews. In a preface added to the second Dublin printing of the Narrative, Douglass reports that it had sold 4,500 copies in America by September. Two variant printings of the Narrative were published in Ireland in 1845 and 1846 by the abolitionist printer Richard D. Webb, and a third printing from the same typesetting was published in Wortley, England, under Joseph Barker's imprint late in 1846. Douglass (who had left the United States following the publication of the Narrative because of fears that he might be captured) was directly involved with the Irish editions and probably with the English. The revisions made in these three printings include variant punctuation, variant spellings (to conform to British usage), and omissions (including the last three and a half pages of the book, containing Douglass' parody of a popular Southern hymn). More significant are the changes in wording, some of which are designed to accommodate the text to a British readership (for example, the phrase "our western friends" is replaced by "the western abolitionists"), and at least one instance of bowdlerization. (from The Library of America)

Subject/topic: The Liberator for May 23 carried the following notice: "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. This Narrative is now presented to the public, in a neat volume occupying 125 pages. It was written entirely by Mr. Douglass, and reveals all the facts in regard to his birthplace—the names of his mother, master, overseer, etc., etc. It cannot fail to produce a great sensation wherever it may happen to circulate, especially in the slaveocracy. The edition is going off rapidly. It is for sale at 25 Cornhill. Price 50 cents. Accompanying it is a finely executed and admirable likeness of the author." (from The Library of America)

Author/writer: On February 24, 1845, Wendell Phillips wrote to Elizabeth Pease: "Frederick Douglass who is now writing out his story thinks of relaxing by arranging a voyage . . . " The reference is to Douglass' Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Little is known about the composition of the Narrative beyond Douglass' statement in the book that, having been accused by some of being an impostor, "I was induced to write out the leading facts connected with my experience in slavery, giving names of persons, places, and dates—thus putting it in the power of any who doubted, to ascertain the truth or falsehood of my story of being a fugitive slave." In an address before the 12th Annual Convention of the American Anti-Slavery Society in New York on May 6, 1845, Douglass for the first time publicly identified by name his master, overseer, and a number of other men and women who figure in the Narrative; the book was published within a few days. (from The Library of America)

My Bondage and My Freedom (1855) had only one American edition during Douglass' lifetime, and there is no evidence that he had anything to do with the foreign editions of the book in English. In July 1855 Douglass wrote to Gerrit Smith: ". . . I am busy at work on my book. It is more of a job than at first I supposed it would be and I am beginning to be weary of it."

On August 1 a front-page advertisement was placed in Norton's Literary Gazette by Douglass' publisher, Miller, Orton, and Mulligan: "Liberty and Slavery Contrasted! Ready August 15. MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM By Frederick Douglass. One vol. I2mo, 464 pp. illustrated. Price $1.25." Another notice on page two elaborated: "Be ready for this! 21 years as a slave—17 years a Freeman. To be issued early in August: MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM. By Frederick Douglass. 450 pp. 12mo. Steel portrait and two authentic illustrations, exhibiting Freedom and Slavery in contrast. Price $1.25." The sales were strong. On September 15, Miller, Orton, and Mulligan announced in the Publisher's Circular: "We can again Answer Orders. Twelfth thousand ready! MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM by Frederick Douglass is going rapidly. Two large editions have already been sold, and the third is largely drawn upon." The firm stated in later advertisements that My Bondage and My Freedom was its best-selling book of the year. Apparently 15,000 copies were sold in the first two months alone, and the publisher was still advertising the book prominently in June of the following year. An 1857 printing indicates that at least 18,000 copies were in print within about a year and a half. The text printed here is that of the first printing of 1855.

On April 7, 1881, Frederick Douglass signed a contract with the Hartford firm of Park Publishing Company (a subscription house) to write Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, Written by Himself. By mid-October Douglass was finishing up the manuscript and reading the proofs of earlier sections of the book. On October 8, Sylvester Betts of Park Publishing wrote to Douglass to request some linking material to overcome some "apparent abruptness" along with other additions to bring the book up to the length of 518 pages. Apparently Douglass supplied Betts with the corrected proofs and the new copy to complete the text by early November.

In 1882 a new edition was published, possibly in order to improve the physical quality of the book (Douglass had complained to the publisher about its shortcomings with regard to "quality and finish"). This second edition registers many variants in the course of its 618 pages, including the addition of chapter summaries and changes in punctuation; Douglass was probably responsible for a number of the more than a hundred substantive changes in wording, including both correction and amplification of earlier statements and numerous stylistic revisions.

Sometime in 1889 the Boston firm of De Wolfe, Fiske and Company purchased the plates of the 1882 edition, together with the remaining copies of the book, from Park Publishing Company. The 1882 edition sold out in the fall of 1891, by which time Douglass had reached an agreement with De Wolfe, Fiske to prepare a new version, to be printed from the 1882 plates with additional matter added to bring the narrative up to date. Along with the new material, Douglass also made many changes in wording in earlier parts of the book. The publisher objected to the cost of these alterations in the plates, but an agreement was reached by which Douglass contributed half the cost.

The revised and expanded 1893 edition of Life and Times (which actually appeared in December 1892) contains over a hundred substantive changes; many involve the transposition of clauses or phrases within a sentence, or the omission or insertion of a single word (often to reinforce a parallel construction), reflecting Douglass' characteristic practice as a reviser of his own work. His willingness to bear half the expense of inserting the verbal changes he proposed indicates his strong desire to see those changes made.

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