Frederick Douglass by William S. McFeely

For instance, Douglass left out nearly everything about his personal relationships from his autobiographies, only briefly mentioning that he married a woman named Anna at one point.

Anyone can write an autobiography any way they want, but the way they portray their own life can vary greatly depending on the context they choose to incorporate.

At this point I started to ask myself what the point of reading or writing a biography of someone who had written their autobiography was in the first place, but the answer was soon obvious: context. The story of Douglass’ experiences as a young slave and eventual success at running away sounded extremely familiar because it was– Douglass himself had written about it in all three of his autobiographies: A N arrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845), My Bondage and My Freedom (1855), and Life and Times of Frederick Douglass (1881). Perhaps I should have expected reading a biography about someone who wrote several autobiographies to feel a bit strange, but the feeling didn’t really hit me until about fifty pages in. McFeely’s biography Frederick Douglassand decided to give it a try. One day while browsing the shelves of a local independent bookshop I saw William S. After writing a research paper about the critical reception of his biographies in a literary theory class, I decided it was time for me to finally read a full biography about this extraordinary figure. I’ve written more essays about him than any other subject so far in college, all from different perspectives and angles. Like countless people throughout history, I am captivated by how eloquently and effectively Douglass was able to portray himself through language. Born into slavery, Douglass eventually escaped to the North, became a free man, and rose to be a prolific orator and writer in the abolitionist movement of the nineteenth century. I’ve been fascinated by the life and writing of Frederick Douglass ever since reading his autobiography Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845) in my Introduction to Literature class during my very first semester of college.

Frederick Douglass by William S. McFeely