Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

The first of Douglass's three autobiographies, published in Boston in 1845, seven years after his escape from slavery, with a preface by William Lloyd Garrison and a letter by Wendell Phillips. Douglass describes his birth in Maryland, his separation from his mother, and the cruelty he witnessed as a child, including the whipping of his Aunt Hester. Sent to Baltimore, he is taught the alphabet by his mistress until her husband forbids it, warning that learning would unfit a slave for slavery; Douglass concludes that reading is the pathway from slavery to freedom and teaches himself in secret. Later he is hired out to Edward Covey, a 'slave-breaker', and his decision to fight back marks the turning point of the book. He tells of a failed escape plan and of work in the Baltimore shipyards, but withholds the details of his escape to protect others. An appendix contrasts slaveholding religion with the Christianity of Christ.

It is one of the most important American books of the nineteenth century, and a sharp argument about freedom, literacy, dignity and the hypocrisy of a slaveholding society that called itself Christian.