My Bondage and My Freedom (with an Introduction by James McCune Smith)

First published in 1855, “My Bondage and My Freedom” is the second of three autobiographies written by the former slave and famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass. In this work, Douglass focuses his narrative on his transition from slavery to freedom, as well as examining the state of race relations and the politics of slavery leading up to the American Civil War. Written nearly ten years after his emancipation in 1846, Douglass reflects on his journey from a newly freed slave from Maryland, where he toiled away in harsh and violent conditions, to a free man in Massachusetts, where he encountered a new form of oppression and bondage. Douglass examines the social implications of the various forms of slavery that the black man was subjected to in 19th century America and how he himself broke those bonds to become a prominent speaker and influential figure in the fight for freedom and civil rights, a success he credited to his faith and literacy. In the pages of this deeply personal and inspiring work we find the voice that made Frederick Douglass one of the nation’s most prominent figures in the American anti-slavery movement as well as an intimate portrait of his life. This edition includes an introduction by James McCune Smith and a biographical afterword.