My Bondage and My Freedom

Ex-slave Frederick Douglass's second autobiography-written after ten years of reflection following his legal emancipation in 1846 and his break with his mentor William Lloyd Garrison-catapulted Douglass into the international spotlight as the foremost spokesman for American blacks, both freed and slave. Written during his celebrated career as a speaker and newspaper editor, My Bondage and My Freedom reveals the author of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) grown more mature, forceful, analytical, and complex with a deepened commitment to the fight for equal rights and liberties.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by John David Smith"“My Bondage and My Freedom, besides giving a fresh impulse to antislavery literature, [shows] upon its pages the untiring industry of the ripe scholar.”—William Wells BrownFrederick Douglass, an outspoken abolitionist, was born into slavery in 1818 and, after his escape in 1838, repeatedly risked his own freedom as an antislavery lecturer, writer, and publisher.

John David Smith is Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the Masters in Public History Program at North Carolina State University.

John David Smith is Distinguished Professor of History and Director of the Masters in Public History Program at North Carolina State University.