My Bondage and Freedom.
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“A man who will enslave his own blood, may not be safely relied on for magnanimity": First Edition of Frederick Douglass' My Bondage and Freedom
My Bondage and Freedom.
DOUGLASS, Frederick .
$12,000.00
Item Number: 133267
New York & Auburn: Miller, Orton, & Mulligan, 1855.
Rare first edition of Douglass’ second autobiography. Octavo, original publisher’s brown cloth, with three engraved plates, including the engraved frontispiece from the classic daguerreotype of Douglass. In very good condition. A very nice example, uncommon in this condition.
In his foreword to the 2003 Modern Library paperback edition, John Stauffer writes: "My Bondage and My Freedom," [is] a deep meditation on the meaning of slavery, race, and freedom, and on the power of faith and literacy, as well as a portrait of an individual and a nation a few years before the Civil War. As his narrative unfolds, Frederick Douglass—abolitionist, journalist, orator, and one of the most powerful voices to emerge from the American civil rights movement—transforms himself from slave to fugitive to reformer, leaving behind a legacy of social, intellectual, and political thought." "The most influential African American of the 19th century" (ANB), Douglass was "the most powerful abolitionist speaker in the country" (Negro History). Throughout his life, "Douglass understood that the struggle for emancipation and equality demanded forceful, persistent, and unyielding agitation. And he recognized that African Americans must play a conspicuous role in that struggle" (ANB).
