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Summary
Summary
Illus. in black-and-white. Opening note by Coretta Scott King. For the first time, the most important account ever written of a childhood in slavery is accessible to young readers. From his days as a young boy on a plantation to his first months as a freeman in Massachusetts, here are Douglass's own firsthand experiences vividly recounted--expertly excerpted and powerfully illustrated.
Author Notes
Born a slave in Maryland in about 1817, Frederick Douglass never became accommodated to being held in bondage. He secretly learned to read, although slaves were prohibited from doing so. He fought back against a cruel slave-breaker and finally escaped to New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1838 at about the age of 21. Despite the danger of being sent back to his owner if discovered, Douglass became an agent and eloquent orator for the Massachusetts Antislavery Society. He lectured extensively in both England and the United States. As an ex-slave, his words had tremendous impact on his listeners.
In 1845 Douglass wrote his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, which increased his fame. Concerned that he might be sent back to slavery, he went to Europe. He spent two years in England and Ireland speaking to antislavery groups.
Douglass returned to the United States a free man and settled in Rochester, New York, where he founded a weekly newspaper, The North Star, in 1847. In the newspaper he wrote articles supporting the antislavery cause and the cause of human rights. He once wrote, "The lesson which [the American people] must learn, or neglect to do so at their own peril, is that Equal Manhood means Equal Rights, and further, that the American people must stand for each and all for each without respect to color or race."
During the Civil War, Douglass worked for the Underground Railroad, the secret route of escape for slaves. He also helped recruit African-Americans soldiers for the Union army. After the war, he continued to write and to speak out against injustice. In addition to advocating education for freed slaves, he served in several government posts, including United States representative to Haiti.
In 1855, a longer version of his autobiography appeared, and in 1895, the year of Douglass's death, a completed version was published. A best-seller in its own time, it has since become available in numerous editions and languages.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 5-8-In 1845, Douglass wrote an autobiographical account of his years as a slave. In an attempt to make the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass more accessible to children, McCurdy has edited and illustrated it, rearranging only a few paragraphs for ``clarity.'' Unfortunately, this results in a choppy text that lacks the smooth-flowing ease of the eloquent original. In eliminating details of the young man's masters and family, as well as many references to dates and ages, much of the story's impact is lost, not to mention Douglass's effortless blending of history and social commentary. Most notably absent are his repeated comments about how ``religious'' slaveowners were often among the cruelest and most heartless. McCurdy prefaces each chapter with brief commentary, some of which switches confusingly from past to present tense. His stylized woodcuts attractively foreshadow events in that chapter, and an epilogue explains Douglass's escape. This abridgement may lead children to read the complete Narrative; however, Patricia and Frederick McKissack's biography (Childrens, 1987) will be a more likely enticement.-Sandy Kirkpatrick, Benicia Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
In her brief foreword to this significant book, an abridgment of the first of three autobiographies penned by the one-time slave and abolitionist, Coretta Scott King notes that her late husband was ``inspired and deeply moved'' by Douglass's account of his early years. It is easy to see why, for the reader becomes utterly involved in Douglass's eloquent, quietly passionate account of his life as a young slave. Born in Maryland around 1817, Douglass lived on a plantation with his grandparents until the age of six, when he was sent to Baltimore. He served a variety of masters, working intermittently in the city and on farms, and vacillated between feeling ``wearied in body and broken in spirit'' and being fiercely determined to flee to freedom. Douglass's dream was realized in 1838, when he escaped to the North and found work as a caulker in New Bedford, Mass. The preservation of Douglass's original vocabulary, spelling and punctuation lends this trenchant account a formality unfamiliar to today's youngsters, yet the passage of 150 years has not rendered it any less immediate or piercing. McCurdy's distinctive woodcuts emphasize his subjects' vulnerability and their dignity. Ages 9-up. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Foreword by Coretta Scott King. The spirit of Frederick Douglass's narrative remains unbroken in this choice selection of words written by the famed former slave and abolitionist about his boyhood in Maryland. McCurdy's clear, brief summaries substitute for missing sections, and ten stunning black-and-white scratchboard illustrations show the indignation and suffering of Douglass. From HORN BOOK 1994, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Skillfully selecting from the first volume of the great African-American abolitionist's monumental autobiography (1845), McCurdy presents Douglass's early life--including his escape from Baltimore to New Bedford, via New York, at age 20--scrupulously explaining that he has edited ``to emphasize action'' but has ``kept Douglass's own words, spelling, and distinctive punctuation,'' and has occasionally ``rearranged for the sake of clarity.'' The result is eloquent and compelling. Douglass's vividly described experiences and thoughtful observations of slavery's effects--on master as well as slave--still resonate: one mistress teaching him to read before she had learned to be cruel (as she did soon thereafter); his fighting back against a brutal master and, incredibly, surviving; his despair (``My natural elasticity was crushed, my intellect languished, the disposition to read departed...the dark night of slavery closed in upon me, and behold a man transformed into a brute!''); his ``thrill of joy,'' once free, at being able to ``plead the cause of my brethren.'' All readers should encounter these scenes in Douglass's own words. McCurdy has set them handsomely; his elegantly composed wood engravings are distinguished by unusual power and dignity. Explanatory chapter introductions smoothly link events. A book that belongs in every library. Brief bibliography of sources. (Autobiography. 9+)
Booklist Review
/*STARRED REVIEW*/ Gr. 5-10. With the power of his words and the truth of his own experience, Frederick Douglass dramatized the abomination of slavery and the struggle of a young man to break free. In this shortened version of Douglass' 1845 autobiography, McCurdy has done a splendid job of bringing the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass to middle-grade readers. There are brief introductory notes about what's been left out in each chapter; otherwise, the voice is Douglass' own, in all its simplicity, lyricism, and fury. He is scathing about the "happy" slave stereotype. He's unequivocal about the whippings, hunger, and back-breaking labor. But worst of all, running throughout the book, is his sorrow at his forced separation from those he loves. Even when he finally escapes North, it's the wrenching loneliness that nearly overwhelms him. McCurdy has done one full-page black-and-white scratchboard drawing for each chapter. Like those he did for Appelbaum's Giants in the Land (Booklist's nonfiction 1993 Top of the List), they show the elemental power struggle and the individual character. The young boy's courage is made manifest as he resists both the physical violence and the psychological blows to his spirit. Douglass later became a famous abolitionist. He also spoke out for women's rights, and even in this early book, McCurdy's selections show that Douglass' sensitivity to the suffering of women is heartfelt. He makes us imagine how his mother, hired out to work at a plantation 12 miles away, secretly walked to be with her baby in the night ("She would lie down with me, and get me to sleep, but long before I waked she was gone"). And his greatest rage against the "infernal character" of slavery is on behalf of his grandmother, forced to see her children and grandchildren valued and divided and sold away from her. It was a woman, the wife of one of his owners, who started to teach him to read; later Douglass would teach his fellow slaves. What a writer. What a person. Read this aloud; discuss it in the classroom. Many kids will go from here to more of Douglass' writing and to other slave narratives. (Reviewed Feb. 15, 1994)0679846522Hazel Rochman