Frederick Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches

Frederick Douglass

• Publisher: Broadview Press
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN: 9781460408346
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Literature

Universally recognized today as one of the most important and influential Americans of the nineteenth century, Frederick Douglass rose to prominence in the national abolitionist movement before and during the Civil War by virtue of the vividness and power with which, drawing on his personal experiences of enslavement and freedom, he spoke and wrote against American slavery—and he continued to propound his vision of an America that would afford freedom, equality, and opportunity to all long after slavery was formally abolished. This edition offers a selection of Douglass's most significant writing and oratory from throughout his long career, including the complete texts of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, which has become a classic example of the slave narrative genre, and The Heroic Slave, Douglass's only published work of fiction, together with excerpts from Douglass's other autobiographical writings and key speeches he gave both before and after the Civil War. The edition also provides clear and thorough annotations for the assistance of the student reader and a range of contextual materials, including responses to Douglass's Narrative and photographs of Douglass. As an introduction to Douglass's life and work that balances breadth and concision, this edition is well suited for a variety of undergraduate courses in American history and literary studies.

This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of American Literature. The series is designed to make selections from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts; each edition features an introduction and exaplanatory footnotes, and is designed to meet the needs of today's students.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Written by Himself
• In Context: Responses to Frederick Douglass’s Narrative
• from “To My Old Master”
• “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”
• The Heroic Slave
• In Context: Photographs of Frederick Douglass
• from My Bondage and My Freedom
• from “The Dred Scott Decision”
• from “Self-Made Men”
• “Men of Color, to Arms!”
• from “Composite Nation”
• from “Oration in Memory of Abraham Lincoln, Delivered at the Unveiling of the Freedmen’s Monument”
• In Context: The Emancipation Memorial (“Freedmen’s Monument”)
• from Life and Times of Frederick Douglass
• In Context: The Black Man at the White House
• Back Cover