Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di La mia schiavitù e la mia libertà
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love American history, memoir and moral argument, and anyone who wants a firsthand witness to slavery in plain, powerful prose.
Che cos’è questo libro
My Bondage and My Freedom is the second of three autobiographies by Frederick Douglass. It appeared in 1855, ten years after his first book, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. By then Douglass was a free man, a famous speaker and the editor of his own newspaper in Rochester, New York. He wrote the book to give a fuller account of his life and to say where he now stood on slavery and the American Union.
The book follows him from birth on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, through childhood on a plantation and in Baltimore, to hard years as a field hand and a ship caulker, and then to his escape in 1838. It adds names, places and details that the first book kept back for safety. It also adds a shorter closing section about his life as a free man, his break with William Lloyd Garrison, and his growing faith in political action. An introduction by James McCune Smith, a Black physician and writer, and a preface by Douglass frame the story.
You will hear how a boy who was never told his birthday learned to read against the law, and how that skill became a weapon. You will also hear what slavery did to enslaved people and to slaveholders alike. Let us begin with the world of Douglass's earliest years.
In questo riassunto
- 1A childhood shaped by separationFree
- 2Slavery's cruelty and its small mercies
- 3Learning to read as an act of freedom
- 4Breaking the spirit and fighting back
- 5Plans of escape and the trade in Baltimore
- 6Freedom in the North and a new calling
- 7Abroad, and the break with Garrison
- 8What the book argues about slavery and freedom
- 9How the book has been read and why it lasts
Punto chiave 1 di 9
A childhood shaped by separation
Douglass begins at Tuckahoe, in Talbot County, Maryland. He was born into slavery around 1818 and never knew his exact birth date. Slaveholders often kept such facts from the people they held, and Douglass presents this as part of a system that tried to keep enslaved people from knowing who they were.
He was raised first by his grandmother, Betsey Bailey, in a small cabin. She was a respected woman who fished and raised sweet potatoes. For some years the boy did not understand that he was a slave, since his grandmother's home felt like a family home.
That peace ends when he is taken to the plantation of Colonel Edward Lloyd, where his owner, Aaron Anthony, worked as overseer. There he meets the harsh rules of plantation life. He is separated from his grandmother, and he sees his brothers and sisters as near strangers.
His mother, Harriet Bailey, was hired out to a farm twelve miles away. She sometimes walked that distance at night to see him, and had to be back in the fields by morning. Douglass remembers these visits with great feeling, and her early death leaves him with few memories of her face. The first part of the book thus shows how slavery broke the closest family ties.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
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Who’s who
- Frederick Douglass
- Douglass recounts his own life, beginning as an enslaved child separated from his family in Maryland.
- Sophia Auld
- Sophia is Hugh Auld's wife, who begins teaching young Douglass his letters in Baltimore.
- Hugh Auld
- Hugh is Sophia Auld's husband, who forbids her lessons because literacy threatens his control over Douglass.
- Thomas Auld
- Thomas is Douglass's enslaver, who hires him out to the harsh farmer Edward Covey.
- Edward Covey
- Covey is a farmer notorious for breaking enslaved people's spirits through relentless work and physical violence.
- Anna Murray
- Anna is a free Black woman from Baltimore who helps Douglass in his flight from slavery.
- William Lloyd Garrison
- Garrison is an abolitionist leader whose relationship with Douglass becomes central to the memoir's political discussions.
- David Ruggles
- Ruggles is a Black abolitionist in New York who helps Douglass after his escape.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 137,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 9 h 10 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 13 other languages
Questions about La mia schiavitù e la mia libertà
What is My Bondage and My Freedom about?
It is the second autobiography of Frederick Douglass. It covers his life as an enslaved person in Maryland, his escape in 1838, and his work as an abolitionist, editor and thinker up to the mid 1850s.
How is My Bondage and My Freedom different from the Narrative of 1845?
It is longer and more detailed. Douglass names people and places he had hidden before, adds scenes, and gives fuller attention to his free life, his politics and his break with Garrison.
Is My Bondage and My Freedom a true story?
Yes. It is a memoir by Frederick Douglass, published in 1855. Historians treat it as a reliable account, though like any memoir it reflects the author's choices about what to tell and how.
Why did Douglass break with William Lloyd Garrison?
Garrison saw the Constitution as pro-slavery and urged abolitionists not to vote. Douglass came to see it as an antislavery document and favored political action. He also wanted to run his own newspaper.
Is My Bondage and My Freedom hard to read?
The prose is clear and strong. The account of his enslaved life reads like a story, and the closing chapters have more political argument.