Bring history back to life through Jim Hodges’ historically accurate, exciting and edifying audio recordings.

Enter the world of a slave, with all the pathos, brutal honesty, and striving of the heart to breathe free. Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in Talbot County, Maryland. During service to masters cruel and kind, he nevertheless learned to read and write. After suffering whippings, hunger, heat, cold, and grueling labor, he escaped from slavery in 1838. In 1841 he addressed an Anti-Slavery Society convention and spoke so eloquently that they immediately employed him as an agent. He was such an impressive orator; numerous persons doubted if he had ever been a slave. In response, he wrote this, his first autobiography.

Go back through time with the The Classic Literature Collection featuring some of your all-time favorite classics novels.

Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, gaining note for his oratory and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counter-example to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Likewise, Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave.This is his story.
Edited by Macc Kay
Production executive Avalon Giuliano
ICON Intern Eden Giuliano
Music By AudioNautix With Their Kind Permission
©2020 Eden Garret Giuliano (P) Eden Garret Giuliano
Geoffrey Giuliano is the author of over thirty internationally bestselling biographies, including the London Sunday Times bestseller Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney and Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison. He can be heard on the Westwood One Radio Network and has wri
tten and produced over seven hundred original spoken-word albums and video documentaries on various aspects of popular culture. He is also a well known movie actor.

This is Ex-slave Frederick Douglass’s second autobiography. it was 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 newspaper editor and speaker, My Bondage and My Freedom reveals the author of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written in 1845, has grown more mature, forceful, analytical, and complex with a deepened commitment to the fight for equal rights and liberties.

This memoir written by writer, orator, and former slave Frederick Douglass describes, in gripping detail, the circumstances of his upbringing, his brutal treatment at the hands of slave-owners, and his narrow escape from Maryland to freedom. Written in 1845, this narrative is one of the most famous works of American literature and provided fuel for the abolitionist movement that began in the early nineteenth century.

‘The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass’ was published in 1845; it is a memoir and treatise on abolition written by the famous author and former slave Frederick Douglass. The book includes two introductions by well-known abolitionists: a preface by William Lloyd Garrison, and a letter by Wendell Phillips, both confirming the veracity of the account and the literacy of its author. It is generally considered to be the most famous of a number of abolition narratives written by former slaves in the same era. The narrative describes the events of Douglass’s life over eleven chapters, from his childhood to emancipation. The book was an immediate success and received critical acclaim, also in Europe.

Uncertain of his date of birth or the identity of his father, Frederick Douglass came into the world with one surety: he was born a slave, and would die a slave. But as he grew up, Douglass determined that he would teach himself to read and write, and that one day he would be free from slavery. In 1832, Douglass was sent to a plantation in St. Michael’s, where he would live and work as a field hand for more than seven years. According to Douglass, this life was so dispiriting and exhausting, that at times thoughts of freedom all but disappeared from his mind. His journey out of bondage was mental, as well as physical. Douglass would go on to be one of the abolition movement’s most persuasive speakers, and would eventually become a strong proponent for women’s rights. His famous autobiography, the Narrative, reads like the impassioned plea of an abolitionist tract, compelling in its honest and forceful eloquence. Later Douglass would serve as minister to Haiti and would fight against the southern practice of lynching without benefit of trial by jury. After his first wife’s death, he would startle his associates and friends by marrying a white woman, one of the most publicized interracial marriages in America. Douglass died in 1895. He was buried in Rochester, New York.

Born into a life of bondage, Frederick Douglass secretly taught himself to read and write. For a slave, it was a crime punishable by death, but it resulted in one of the most eloquent indictments of slavery ever recorded. Douglass’s autobiography traces his birth into slavery, his escape to the North, and the beginnings of the career that was to make him the preeminent spokesman for his people. His gripping narrative takes us into the fields, cabins, and manors of prendash;Civil War plantations in the South and reveals the daily terrors he suffered as a slave.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is one of the most influential autobiographies ever written. This classic text did as much as or more than any other book to motivate the abolitionists to continue to fight for freedom in America. Written more than a century and a half ago, this timeless classic still speaks directly to our age. It is a record of savagery and inhumanity that goes far to explain why America still suffers from the great injustices of the past.

Do you want to listen to Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave? If so then keep reading…
Former slave, impassioned abolitionist, brilliant writer, newspaper editor and eloquent orator whose speeches fired the abolitionist cause, Frederick Douglass (1818–1895) led an astounding life. Physical abuse, deprivation and tragedy plagued his early years, yet through sheer force of character he was able to overcome these obstacles to become a leading spokesman for his people. In this, the first and most frequently read of his three autobiographies, Douglass provides graphic descriptions of his childhood and horrifying experiences as a slave as well as a harrowing record of his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom. Published in 1845 to quell doubts about his origins — since few slaves of that period could write — the Narrative is admired today for its extraordinary passion, sensitive and vivid descriptions and storytelling power. It belongs in the library of anyone interested in African-American history and the life of one of the country’s most courageous and influential champions of civil rights. A selection of the Common Core State Standards Initiative.
What are you waiting for Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave is one click away, select the “Download” button in the top right corner NOW!

The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass was Douglass’ third autobiography. In it he was able to go into greater detail about his life as a slave and his escape from slavery, as he and his family were no longer in any danger from the reception of his work. In this engrossing narrative he recounts early years of abuse; his dramatic escape to the North and eventual freedom, abolitionist campaigns, and his crusade for full civil rights for former slaves. It is also the only of Douglass’ autobiographies to discuss his life during and after the Civil War, including his encounters with American Presidents such as Lincoln, Grant, and Garfield.

In 1852, Frederick Douglass, former slave and, by then, a leading figure in the abolitionist movement was asked by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Association to address the group for their July 4th celebration at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, New York.
Delivered, in fact, on the 5th of July, the speech caused an immediate sensation and swiftly became a seminal rallying cry of the abolitionist movement in America. The audience in Rochester included none other than President Millard Fillmore (along with a group of politicians from Washington) as well as some of the most important leaders of the abolitionist movement at the time.
Through the years, Douglass’ powerful words have only grown in stature, resonance and importance. His timeless message and elegant prose have made this speech – here presented in its unabridged, original format – one of the greatest orations in history.