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.
MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM
EDITOR’S PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER I. _Childhood_
CHAPTER II. _Removed from My First Home_
CHAPTER III. _Parentage_
CHAPTER IV. _A General Survey of the Slave Plantation_
CHAPTER V. _Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery_
CHAPTER VI. _Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation_
CHAPTER VII. _Life in the Great House_
CHAPTER VIII. _A Chapter of Horrors_
CHAPTER IX. _Personal Treatment_
CHAPTER X. _Life in Baltimore_
CHAPTER XI. _“A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream”_
CHAPTER XII. _Religious Nature Awakened_
CHAPTER XIII. _The Vicissitudes of Slave Life_
CHAPTER XIV. _Experience in St. Michael’s_
CHAPTER XV. _Covey, the Negro Breaker_
CHAPTER XVI. _Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice_
CHAPTER XVII. _The Last Flogging_
CHAPTER XVIII. _New Relations and Duties_
CHAPTER XIX. _The Run-Away Plot_
CHAPTER XX. _Apprenticeship Life_
CHAPTER XXI. _My Escape from Slavery_
LIFE as a FREEMAN
CHAPTER XXII. _Liberty Attained_
CHAPTER XXIII. _Introduced to the Abolitionists_
CHAPTER XXIV. _Twenty-One Months in Great Britain_
CHAPTER XXV. _Various Incidents_
RECEPTION SPEECH [10]. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12,
Dr. Campbell’s Reply
LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. [11]. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld
THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,
INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,
WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at
THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July
THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S.
THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various
If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of ART, the
history of its misfortune might be written in two very simple words—TOO
LATE. The nature and character of slavery have been subjects of an
almost endless variety of artistic representation; and after the
brilliant achievements in that field, and while those achievements are
yet fresh in the memory of the million, he who would add another to the
legion, must possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize
for something worse than rashness. The reader is, therefore, assured,
with all due promptitude, that his attention is not invited to a work
of ART, but to a work of FACTS—Facts, terrible and almost incredible,
it may be yet FACTS, nevertheless.