Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

Making and release

Within four months, five thousand copies were sold.^[3] Upon hearing this, Douglass realizes the importance of reading.^[4] May 1, 1845, marked the publication date of Douglass's Narrative.^[3] Sales of the book reached nearly 30,000 copies by 1860.^[3]

Fearing recapture by his owner, Douglass departed Lynn, Massachusetts, and spent two years traveling in England and Ireland after the book came out.^[3] In the opening of his narrative, Douglass states his birth date is unknown to him and that his mother passed away when he was seven years old.^[4] His recollections of his mother are scant, limited to infrequent visits she made at night.^[4] Witnessing the whipping of his Aunt Hester when he was very young revealed to Douglass the brutal reality of slavery.^[4]

After relocating to Baltimore, Maryland, Douglass describes Sophia Auld, the wife of his new master.^[4]

What the cited sources add

Slave owner Hugh Auld described his fear that a literate slave should know nothing but the will of his master and learn to obey it.^[5] For Douglass, Auld's reaction was a "North Star" moment that led to education as a pathway to freedom.^[5] Douglass found creative ways to learn to read, making friends with white children who taught him in exchange for food.^[5] A letter from A. C. C. Thompson, a neighbor of Douglass's former master, questioned the veracity of the account, claiming Douglass was "an unlearned, and rather an ordinary negro" not capable of writing the Narrative.^[6]

Angela Y. Davis analyzed Douglass's Narrative in two lectures delivered at UCLA in 1969, later published as a pamphlet.^[7] Between 1740 and 1834, Southern states passed laws making it illegal to teach enslaved individuals—as well as free people of color—to read or write.^[5]