What do you think?
Rate this book
The Education of Frederick Douglass
One of 60 low-priced classic texts published to celebrate Penguin's 60th anniversary. All the titles are extracts from "Penguin Classics" titles.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1845
3 people are currently reading
89 people want to read
About the author
Frederick Douglass
1,046 books1,705 followersFrederick Douglass (né Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey) was born a slave in the state of Maryland in 1818. After his escape from slavery, Douglass became a renowned abolitionist, editor and feminist. Having escaped from slavery at age 20, he took the name Frederick Douglass for himself and became an advocate of abolition. Douglass traveled widely, and often perilously, to lecture against slavery.
His first of three autobiographies, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, was published in 1845. In 1847 he moved to Rochester, New York, and started working with fellow abolitionist Martin R. Delany to publish a weekly anti-slavery newspaper, North Star. Douglass was the only man to speak in favor of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's controversial plank of woman suffrage at the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. As a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments, Douglass also promoted woman suffrage in his North Star. Douglass and Stanton remained lifelong friends.
In 1870 Douglass launched The New National Era out of Washington, D.C. He was nominated for vice-president by the Equal Rights Party to run with Victoria Woodhull as presidential candidate in 1872. He became U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia in 1877, and was later appointed minister resident and consul-general to Haiti. His District of Columbia home is a national historic site. D. 1895.
More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1...
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhi...
http://www.loc.gov/collection/frederi...
http://www.nps.gov/frdo/index.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits...
His first of three autobiographies, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, was published in 1845. In 1847 he moved to Rochester, New York, and started working with fellow abolitionist Martin R. Delany to publish a weekly anti-slavery newspaper, North Star. Douglass was the only man to speak in favor of Elizabeth Cady Stanton's controversial plank of woman suffrage at the first women's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. As a signer of the Declaration of Sentiments, Douglass also promoted woman suffrage in his North Star. Douglass and Stanton remained lifelong friends.
In 1870 Douglass launched The New National Era out of Washington, D.C. He was nominated for vice-president by the Equal Rights Party to run with Victoria Woodhull as presidential candidate in 1872. He became U.S. marshal of the District of Columbia in 1877, and was later appointed minister resident and consul-general to Haiti. His District of Columbia home is a national historic site. D. 1895.
More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic...
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1...
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/exhi...
http://www.loc.gov/collection/frederi...
http://www.nps.gov/frdo/index.htm
http://www.cr.nps.gov/museum/exhibits...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 3, 2012
History! We all hear it, but do we all know and understand it? This compilation of excerpts from The "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave" is a beautiful mural that illustrates the quest to become educated of the “America’s most eloquent and internationally famous abolitionist”.
The book describes Douglass’ life as an enslave child in Maryland, from life on the plantation to the grand estate in Baltimore. He gives a very detailed description of all of the overseers and each of his masters and their personalities. The beatings of family members and unjust murders of innocent slaves for trivial acts and evils of American law and slavery are addressed via intricate accounts from the historic athlete. Douglass also mentions how he began learning the facets of literacy from his mistress.
It's a great book and i recommend it to everybody, especially anyone who appreciates history or anyone who prefers books that can be read in a matter of hours.
The book describes Douglass’ life as an enslave child in Maryland, from life on the plantation to the grand estate in Baltimore. He gives a very detailed description of all of the overseers and each of his masters and their personalities. The beatings of family members and unjust murders of innocent slaves for trivial acts and evils of American law and slavery are addressed via intricate accounts from the historic athlete. Douglass also mentions how he began learning the facets of literacy from his mistress.
It's a great book and i recommend it to everybody, especially anyone who appreciates history or anyone who prefers books that can be read in a matter of hours.
March 17, 2022
Horrifyingly dystopian: humans treating other humans this way would seem implausible in a novel. Interesting how Douglass was inspired to educate himself by a slave-owner who said he must not be allowed to do so: an illustration of the adage that evil always contains the seeds of its own destruction.
April 26, 2016
This is such a tiny little book, it almost fits in the palm of my hand, but it certainly ‘packs a punch’. It’s one of the Penguin 60s (Black) Classics series, published in 1995 to celebrate Penguin’s 60th anniversary. These little books are extracts from the Penguin Classics series, and this one comes from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, first published in 1845.
Reading about American slavery is, for me, a bit like reading about the Holocaust. I just don’t understand how such evil could have been accepted as it obviously was. I can understand individual acts of cruelty and wickedness as a result of some malfunction in an individual’s development, but how whole societies could have endorsed the institutionalisation of man’s inhumanity to man is a horrible mystery to me.
The Education of Frederick Douglass describes two kinds of education. The first is when the boy Frederick is socialised into the world of slavery and learns the rules of the plantation, and the second is when it dawns on him that literacy is the key to freedom and he sets about learning to read and write, even though he is forbidden to do so by law and by custom.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/04/26/t...
Reading about American slavery is, for me, a bit like reading about the Holocaust. I just don’t understand how such evil could have been accepted as it obviously was. I can understand individual acts of cruelty and wickedness as a result of some malfunction in an individual’s development, but how whole societies could have endorsed the institutionalisation of man’s inhumanity to man is a horrible mystery to me.
The Education of Frederick Douglass describes two kinds of education. The first is when the boy Frederick is socialised into the world of slavery and learns the rules of the plantation, and the second is when it dawns on him that literacy is the key to freedom and he sets about learning to read and write, even though he is forbidden to do so by law and by custom.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2016/04/26/t...
January 13, 2015
Finished reading this and immediately wanted the full version.
It's always illuminating to hear first-hand accounts of what slavery was like: the inhumanity; the incidental compassion of passersby; the learned racism that nobody is born with; and the constant, all-consuming fear of the slaves.
It's always illuminating to hear first-hand accounts of what slavery was like: the inhumanity; the incidental compassion of passersby; the learned racism that nobody is born with; and the constant, all-consuming fear of the slaves.
July 12, 2014
Uplifting and eye-opening account of slavery and, in particular, the story of how the author somehow managed to educate himself. Well worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews