MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM

By Frederick Douglass

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.

CONTENTS

[MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM]
[EDITOR’S PREFACE]
[INTRODUCTION]
[CHAPTER I. Childhood]
[CHAPTER II. Removed from My First Home]
[CHAPTER III. Parentage]
[CHAPTER IV. A General Survey of the Slave Plantation]
[CHAPTER V. Gradual Initiation to the Mysteries of Slavery]
[CHAPTER VI. Treatment of Slaves on Lloyd’s Plantation]
[CHAPTER VII. Life in the Great House]
[CHAPTER VIII. A Chapter of Horrors]
[CHAPTER IX. Personal Treatment]
[CHAPTER X. Life in Baltimore]
[CHAPTER XI. “A Change Came O’er the Spirit of My Dream”]
[CHAPTER XII. Religious Nature Awakened]
[CHAPTER XIII. The Vicissitudes of Slave Life]
[CHAPTER XIV. Experience in St. Michael’s]
[CHAPTER XV. Covey, the Negro Breaker]
[CHAPTER XVI. Another Pressure of the Tyrant’s Vice]
[CHAPTER XVII. The Last Flogging]
[CHAPTER XVIII. New Relations and Duties]
[CHAPTER XIX. The Run-Away Plot]
[CHAPTER XX. Apprenticeship Life]
[CHAPTER XXI. My Escape from Slavery]
[LIFE as a FREEMAN]
[CHAPTER XXII. Liberty Attained]
[CHAPTER XXIII. Introduced to the Abolitionists]
[CHAPTER XXIV. Twenty-One Months in Great Britain]
[CHAPTER XXV. Various Incidents]
[RECEPTION SPEECH [10]. At Finsbury Chapel, Moorfields, England, May 12,]
[Dr. Campbell’s Reply]
[LETTER TO HIS OLD MASTER. [11]. To My Old Master, Thomas Auld]
[THE NATURE OF SLAVERY. Extract from a Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,]
[INHUMANITY OF SLAVERY. Extract from A Lecture on Slavery, at Rochester,]
[WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE FOURTH OF JULY?. Extract from an Oration, at]
[THE INTERNAL SLAVE TRADE. Extract from an Oration, at Rochester, July]
[THE SLAVERY PARTY. Extract from a Speech Delivered before the A. A. S.]
[THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT. Extracts from a Lecture before Various]
[FOOTNOTES]

MY BONDAGE and MY FREEDOM