Frederick Douglass

My Bondage and My Freedom Frederick Douglass

My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass

My Bondage and My Freedom, published in 1855, is an example of a genre of literature known as the slave narrative. This genus flourished around 1760 and during the first decades after the abolition of slavery. One of the most famous examples is the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, but the most famous writer of a slave narrative is almost certainly Frederick Douglas. Iconoclast Douglass had so much to share about the reality of slavery that My Bondage and My Freedom is actually his second publication. The first, and most famous, is his groundbreaking Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Written by Himself.

Technically, My Bondage and My Freedom is considered a revised and expanded version of that original post, as it serves to update readers on what has transpired in the decade since the previous narrative was published. These additions focus primarily on his encounter with racism in the northern states, his activism in the name of abolition, and most significantly, his decision to break with William Lloyd Garrison and white abolitionist leaders to establish the primacy of the voice. black in the country. call to end slavery.

Central to this slave narrative is Douglass's fervent expression of his claim that the institutions of slavery corrupt and dehumanize not just the slave, but the owner and non-slave owner who approves of the practice.