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My Bondage and My Freedom

Chapter 1: MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM
By Frederick Douglass
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About This Book

The narrative recounts the author's journey from childhood in bondage through repeated removals, harsh plantation and household servitude, and gradual awareness of the injustices of slavery. It details formative experiences — religious awakening, self-education, brutal punishments and confrontations with slaveholders and overseers — that shape a drive toward resistance and eventual escape. The latter half follows life as a free man: integration into abolitionist circles, speaking tours at home and abroad, reflections on the moral and legal nature of slavery, and varied public addresses, letters, and lectures that critique slavery and argue for human rights and emancipation.

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Title: My Bondage and My Freedom

Author: Frederick Douglass

Release date: July 2, 2008 [eBook #202]
Most recently updated: June 12, 2022

Language: English

Credits: Mike Lough and David Widger

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY BONDAGE AND MY FREEDOM ***

MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM

By Frederick Douglass

By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally differenced from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, necessarily excludes the idea of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING. —COLERIDGE

Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick Douglass in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York

TO
HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH,
AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF
ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER,
ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE,
AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND
GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP,
AND AS
A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of
HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES
OF AN
AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE,
BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER,
AND BY
DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE,
This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated,
BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND,

FREDERICK DOUGLAS.
ROCHESTER, N.Y.