Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (1845)

The autobiography of a man who escaped slavery, taught himself to read, and became the most powerful voice for abolition in American history. One of the most important documents in American literature and civil rights history.

Historical Significance:
Frederick Douglass published his Narrative in 1845, just seven years after escaping slavery in Maryland. It was an immediate bestseller, selling 5,000 copies in four months and 30,000 copies within five years. The book was so eloquent that skeptics accused Douglass of being unable to have written it himself — precisely the kind of racist assumption the book was written to demolish.

Douglass' account of learning to read — his mistress began teaching him until her husband forbade it, saying literacy would make a slave unfit for slavery — is one of American literature's most powerful passages. The Narrative made Douglass internationally famous but also put him at risk of recapture under the Fugitive Slave Act, forcing him to flee to Britain for two years.

This public domain classic was originally published in 1845. Free to read and share.