Track | Section | Duration |
01 | 00 - Preface | 20:33 |
02 | 01 - Letter from Wendell Phillips, Esq. | 6:57 |
03 | 02 - Chapter I | 11:56 |
04 | 03 - Chapter II | 12:39 |
05 | 04 - Chapter III | 9:03 |
06 | 05 - Chapter IV | 9:47 |
07 | 06 - Chapter V | 9:49 |
08 | 07 - Chapter VI | 7:47 |
09 | 08 - Chapter VII | 13:38 |
10 | 09 - Chapter VIII | 11:17 |
11 | 10 - Chapter IX | 12:24 |
12 | 11 - Chapter X: Part I | 33:58 |
13 | 12 - Chapter X: Part II | 39:30 |
14 | 13 - Chapter XI | 30:09 |
15 | 14 - Appendix | 13:11 |
Notes
Running Time: 4 hours and 3 minutes
Read by: Jesse Zuba
Book Coordinator: MaryAnn
Meta Coordinators: DaveC
Artwork
Cover: Frederick Douglass c. 1879, author unknown. National Archives and Records Administration.
Inset: Title page from the 1845 edition of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.
Insert: Portrait of Frederick Douglass as a younger man, 1855, Frontispiece: Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom: Part I- Life as a Slave, Part II- Life as a Freeman, with an introduction by James M'Cune Smith. New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton & Mulli.
Recordings
These recordings were made using the author’s original published work, which is in the public domain. The readings were recorded by members and volunteers of Librivox.org, which has generously made the recordings available to the public domain. The audio files have been lightly edited and have been engineered using professional audio tools for maximum sonic quality. While Librivox condones the sale and distribution of these recordings, it is not associated with the management or operations of MP3 Audiobook Classics.
- Download and read the eBook at Gutenberg.org
- Download our PDF datasheet
- Read Harvard professor Jill Lepore on the legacy of Frederick Douglass in American Exposure in the July 12, 2016 issue of The New Yorker
- Read How the Right Co-Opts Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight, New York Times, Feb. 13, 2018
- Read Agnes Collard "What Do the Humanities Do in a Crisis?" in the New York April 11, 2020 issue.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the first and most popular of three memoirs Frederick Douglass wrote during his life. Published in 1845, it was among the first accounts written by slaves about their experience and was an influential work in stimulating the abolitionist movement prior to the civil war. The eleven chapters break into four sections. The first (1-4) deals with his earliest years and tells of his separation from his mother and the cruel treatment of slaves. The second (5-7) recounts his childhood struggles to learn to read and write and his growing awareness of the possibility of freedom. The third (8-9) chronicles his movements as a piece of property through numerous masters during his youth. In the last chapters (10-11) he beats a cruel master in a brawl, serves 2 years in prison for attempted escape, becomes an apprenticed tradesman, becomes engaged to a free black woman, and finally escapes to the north. The book was a quick success, selling 5,000 copies in the first few months and 30,000 by 1860. Ironically, the awareness it generated forced him to flee to England and Ireland to avoid being recaptured in the U.S., as prevailing laws required. It was a revelation to much of the public that a former slave could be so literate and educated. Margaret Fuller, a noted critic and reviewer, wrote "we have never read [a narrative] more simple, true, coherent, and warm with genuine feeling." That assessment stands to this day.
Play sample:
Download our PDF datasheet
Item Info | |
EAN - DVD case | 0683422134692 |
EAN - CD jacket | 0682550992846 |
Media | MP3 CD |
Package | DVD Box |
Author | Frederick Douglass (1818 - 1895) |
Year | 1845 |
Recording | |
Read by | Jesse Zuba |
Length | 4 hours and 3 minutes |
Type of Reading | Solo |
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Author: Frederick Douglass
- Product Code: DB-1154
- Availability: In Stock
-
$9.99
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