My Bondage and My Freedom

By a principle essential to Christianity, a PERSON is eternally differenced from a THING; so that the idea of a HUMAN BEING, necessarily excludes the idea of PROPERTY IN THAT BEING. —COLERIDGE
Entered according to Act of Congress in 1855 by Frederick Douglass in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the Northern District of New York
TO HONORABLE GERRIT SMITH, AS A SLIGHT TOKEN OF ESTEEM FOR HIS CHARACTER, ADMIRATION FOR HIS GENIUS AND BENEVOLENCE, AFFECTION FOR HIS PERSON, AND GRATITUDE FOR HIS FRIENDSHIP, AND AS A Small but most Sincere Acknowledgement of HIS PRE-EMINENT SERVICES IN BEHALF OF THE RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES OF AN AFFLICTED, DESPISED AND DEEPLY OUTRAGED PEOPLE, BY RANKING SLAVERY WITH PIRACY AND MURDER, AND BY DENYING IT EITHER A LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXISTENCE, This Volume is Respectfully Dedicated, BY HIS FAITHFUL AND FIRMLY ATTACHED FRIEND, FREDERICK DOUGLAS. ROCHESTER, N.Y.
If the volume now presented to the public were a mere work of ART, the history of its misfortune might be written in two very simple words—TOO LATE. The nature and character of slavery have been subjects of an almost endless variety of artistic representation; and after the brilliant achievements in that field, and while those achievements are yet fresh in the memory of the million, he who would add another to the legion, must possess the charm of transcendent excellence, or apologize for something worse than rashness. The reader is, therefore, assured, with all due promptitude, that his attention is not invited to a work of ART, but to a work of FACTS—Facts, terrible and almost incredible, it may be yet FACTS, nevertheless.
I am authorized to say that there is not a fictitious name nor place in the whole volume; but that names and places are literally given, and that every transaction therein described actually transpired.
Perhaps the best Preface to this volume is furnished in the following letter of Mr. Douglass, written in answer to my urgent solicitation for such a work: